FANTASY NASCAR Racin

born in Huntington Beach, CA, he first started racing BMX. Smith moved to go-kart racing in 2004 and won championships in five consecutive years before moving up to legends car racing. He raced Super Late Models in 2015, recording victories in the World Series of Asphalt, Pro All Stars Series and the CARS Tour, as well as garnering a runner-up finish in the Snowball Derby behind winner Chase Elliott. On the heels of his successes racing late models, Smith tested an ARCA Racing Series car with Mason Mitchell Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway in January 2016. A wake skating injury limited Smith's racing slate in early 2016, but he later returned for two ARCA races with Venturini Motorsports. In late summer 2016, Smith left his SLM team in hopes of finding more ARCA experience in 2017. In late 2016, Smith signed with Venturini to drive all but two races of the 2017 ARCA Racing Series schedule in the organization's #55 entry. Noah Gragson was slated to fill the other two races, which Smith couldn't race due to age restrictions. That season he ran 14 races and posted seven Top 5 finishes including three runner-up results. He ran a hand full of races in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, debuting in the series for Calabrese Motorsports at the beginning of 2017. On November 6, 2017, Smith re-signed with MDM for the 2018 season to run full-time in their #41 Toyota. 2018 saw him score his first win in the second race of the season, outlasting teammate Sheldon Creed. Two races later, Smith beat Joe Graf Jr. at Talladega Superspeedway in ARCA's closest-ever finish, where the sanctioning body had to use photos to determine who won the race because timing systems scored the margin of victory at .00

seconds. In the next race, Smith went three-wide with Chandler Smith (no relation) and lapped car Mike Basham to take the lead after the midway point of the race and later passed MDM teammate Chase Purdy for the win with less than ten laps to go. For the season he got four wins; and 12 Top 5 finishes and finished second in the points. For 2019, Smith moved up to race part-time in the Xfinity Series; driving the #8 for JR Motorsports in ten events. He had a great season with two Top 5 and seven Top 10s. Maury Gallagher who owns GMS signed Zane to race full time for their team in 2020 in the NASCAR Truck series. On August 7, he won his first career Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway, when he passed leader Christian Eckes on the final lap in overtime. He scored his second win two weeks later at Dover International

Speedway after holding off Matt Crafton and Brett Moffitt on the final restart. Outside of two crashes he got caught up in; he had a season worst finish of 19th. In 20 races he posted two wins; and added eight Top 5's and 14 Top 10's. He finished second in the final race at Phoenix just missing winning the Truck Series Championship. In 2020 he was also a member of the NASCAR Next and Drivers Edge Development programs. He was back wheeling the #21 for GMS in 2021. He had another good season, but didn't quite post as good of results as he had the previous year. He won at Martinsville to propel himself into the final race for the Championship at Phoenix. In that race

Chandler Smith would get the win; while Ben Rhodes would finish third to claim the Championship. Zane ran well, finished in the top ten in both stages, and finished fifth in the race. He wound up second in the series standings; behind Ben Rhodes. For the season he had the one win; posted three Top 5 and 14 Top 10 finishes wheeling the Maury Gallagher owned Chevy. He did run one race in the Xfinity Series in 2021 driving for Kaulig Racing. Rumors had Smith moving to Xfinity series competition for 2022, but instead he drove the #38 truck for Front Row Motorsports and owner Bob Jenkins. In the 2022 season, Smith scored his fourth career NASCAR Truck Series win in the season opener at

Daytona after holding off Ben Rhodes in overtime, after nearly winning in regulation. Smith finished in second place at Las Vegas, but was disqualified after a post-race inspection found a lug nut violation. Smith finished fifth the next race at Atlanta, and the following race he would win at COTA. Three more top tens preceded his third win of the season coming at Kansas. An incident at Texas relegated him to a 32nd place finish; but he got right back on a roll again after that. He finished 13th at Pocono; and other than that, all of his finishes over the next 11 races would be no worse than ninth; and during that span he finished second four times. Because he was consistently finishing in the top ten; he moved easily through eac round of the play-offs. In the round of eight he finished second at both Bristol and Talladega and advanced to the Championship four. At Phoenix he had to battle with

fellow championship contenders Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith all night. Zane led 77 laps, and when it was said and done; he took the win and the Championship. In June, RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher tested positive for COVID-19 and missed the Cup Series race at Gateway. Smith was announced as the driver to replace Buescher. It was his first race in the Cup Series. He would finish on the lead lap in 17th after starting 32nd. In 2023, Smith ran full time again in the Truck series, and had another competitive season. He remained with the same team, and they kicked off the year in a big way; winning the season opening race at Daytona. He almost won the next week at Las Vegas, finishing second to Cup regular Kyle Busch. At Atlanta he was 20th; but recovered to win again when the series

raced on the road course at COTA. A couple runs just barely inside the top 20, where followed by a pair of third place finishes. Then he had a streak of four races where his best finish was 20th. But once again, they recovered and posted a pair of second place finishes. He was second at Nashville behind Carson Hocevar, and second at Mid-Ohio behind Corey Heim. His win early in the season locked him into the Chase for the Championship, and when it kicked off at IRP he ran well and had a fifth place finish. A 12th and another fifth easily advanced him into the Round of 8. But in that round they had nothing but issues. It looked good early at Bristol as Smith was leading

at half way. But in the end he was a lap down finishing 24th. The next race at Talladega he only completed 55 laps and finished 32nd. At Homestead he was in a must win situation to be able make it to the Championship race. He qualified seventh and led 34 laps. At the end Smith was fighting Carson Hocevar for the win as Hocevar took the checkers. Smith was disqualified in post race inspection and relegated to a last-place finish. At Phoenix, Smith had a stout vehicle and led 35 laps. With 30 laps to go leaders and championship contenders Hocevar and Corey Heim tangled. On the restart Smith grabbed the lead and was

driving away to an easy win. With two laps to go Heim got his pay-back on Hocevar intentionally wrecking him and ending both their days. This stole the win from Smith. The race was scheduled for 150 laps; but with total chaos from this point on it took 179 laps to finally see the checkers fly. Before the end Smith was caught up in one of the wrecks and finished 25th. Smith also made one Xfinity series start. It came when he drove the #28 for owner Rod Sieg at Nashville. He started an impressive sixth, ran a good

race and finished seventh. That seemed to open some eyes. He also made eight Cup series starts, most all for Bob Jenkins. The first Cup start came in the Daytona 500. He started 17th and finished an impressive 13th. He had a couple 30-something place finishes, but in the Coke 600 Smith started 29th and posted his first career Cup top ten, ending up tenth. He made three more starts with a best finish of 24th at Texas. Track House Racing was impressed with what they saw in Smith’s efforts, and hired him to drive full time in the Cup series in 2024. He will compete in a Spire Motorsports car with assistance from Track House. Some info from Wikipedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

ZANE MICHAEL SMITH - 06/09/1999