LAS VEGAS, Nev.: Not even a damaged truck could stop Daytona winner Zane Smith from contending for his second straight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in Friday night’s Victoria’s Voice 200 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
Smith suffered heavy right-front damage on his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 on a Lap 28 restart and utilized much of the race’s remaining 106 laps to maneuver his race truck back inside the top-five.
When leaders Christian Eckes and Kyle Busch tangled on Lap 126 it opened the opportunity for a restart with three laps to go with Smith nestled in the bottom lane with fellow Ford teammate Ryan Preece tucked behind.
A shove from Preece entering Turn 1 saw Smith lead the bottom lane with the two Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra Pros of Busch and Chandler Smith battling on the outside two lanes.
Smith eventually cleared for the lead at the exit of Turn 2 and immediately went into defense mode trying to block the closing trucks of Busch, Smith and Friesen behind.
Smith remained in control of the race with two laps to go but a good run by Smith on the backstretch saw the two young guns of the series battling neck and neck for the race lead.
At the line with one lap to go, Smith edged ahead by inches with Smith taking the lead back into Turn 1. By the end of Turn 2 and onto the backstretch, Smith attempted to throw a block but the momentum from Smith was too much who took the lead at the bottom of the race track screaming towards Turn 3.
With the win out of reach, Smith immediately found himself holding off Busch for second and edged the 61-time Truck Series winner at the start-finish line to start the season with an average finish of 1.5.
“I had a lot of fun right there,” said Smith after the race. “I can’t believe I am up here with all of that damage. Just wait until this thing’s clean. Man, just such a fast truck. Thank you Front Row Motorsports, obviously MRC Construction, so many people are putting a hand on this truck and it’s so cool to see it pay off.”
Heading into the series’ next race at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway on March 19, Smith isn’t all that flustered that he didn’t score his second consecutive win in Sin City.
He knows 21 more races await him from now until the season-finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in November.
“So close to back-to-back, but we got a lot more to go get this year.”
Editor’s Note: Following post-race NASCAR Camping World Truck Series inspection, Zane Smith and his Front Row Motorsports team were disqualified from the event after their lug nuts did not conform to the NASCAR Rule Book.
The disqualification drops Smith from a second-place finish to 38th in the race results.
Smith also fell to 12th in the Truck Series championship standings, 40 points behind leader Chandler Smith.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
