LEXINGTON, Ohio: Zane Smith appeared to have his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season in the bank in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but a late race pass on a restart in the final three laps of the race put on a neck-neck battle between Smith and Parker Kligerman.
Smith had taken the lead from Kligerman on Lap 60 and held the top spot until the caution came out on Lap 62 for the stalled truck of polesitter Corey Heim.
To his best effort Smith tried to defend his lead on the restart with three laps to go, but Kligerman retook the lead which set up a battle for the final push to the finish.
As the two drivers put on a show for the fans at the track and the viewers at home, Smith had every opportunity over the course of the final two laps to use his bumper or completely wipe out the Henderson Motorsports team, but Smith battled him clean and finished second, 0.119 seconds behind.
“Hats off to this whole Front Row team,” Smith said after the race. “An amazing Boot Barn Ford and an incredible points day. We got one more in this regular season, hopefully we go get that regular season championship and start those Playoffs.”
Smith had the opportunity to leave Mid-Ohio with the regular season championship and had he used the bumper of his Ford F-150 to bounce Kligerman out of the way, Smith would be heading to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in two weeks with the regular season crown – but while in the intensity of the final laps of the race, Smith thought back to February when Kligerman shoved Smith to the victory in the season-opening race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Smith said it would have been difficult to intentionally dump Kligerman knowing the deed Kligerman did allowing Smith to earn the biggest win of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career so far.
“It was so hard to pass and those final last set of corners are so awkward to try and do something,” Smith explained. “It was going to be hard for me to wreck the guy who pushed me to my Daytona win, so I just tried to move him out of the way and cross him over but like I said it just an awkward set of corners to do that.”
Smith’s ninth top-five finish of 2022 leaves him just two points shy of capturing the regular season title and adding fifteen additional points to his Playoff tally that will hopefully propel him to the Championship 4 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in November.
The final race of the regular Truck Series commences at the 2.5-mile triangle on July 23rd as part of a doubleheader with the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Last year, the Huntington Beach, Calif. native finished eighth after starting second.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
