Zane Smith climbed from his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang with smiles fitting of a top-10 finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The 10th-place finish was a career-best run for Smith. Monday’s postponed race was his sixth career start in the NASCAR Cup Series and fifth with Front Row.
“I am so, so happy, as happy as could be,” Smith said. “I was worried when we didn’t take tires there, and we were running really good and had a really good day. It just worked out, so just a great job by this whole 38 Boot Barn FRM team.
“We got our Mustang better and better every single stop and that’s so cool. We run on half the budget, if that, then a lot of these guys, so to finish top 10 in our sixth start at the Coke 600 is really cool.”
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Smith’s previous best finish in the series was 13th in the Daytona 500. A year ago, Smith finished 17th in St. Louis in his series debut when he filled in for Chris Buescher, sidelined by COVID-19.
In his first Coca-Cola 600, Smith also led the first laps of his career when crew chief Ryan Bergenty kept him on track when the caution flew with 43 laps to go. Smith, who had a solid top-20 car throughout the race, inherited the lead but quickly fell backward when the race restarted.
Smith pitted for the last time to take tires when the final caution flew with 26 laps to go. It didn’t take him long to use those to his advantage to drive to 10th place.
One of the first things Smith said to the team as they greeted him at the car was the run was bad (expletive).
“It’s been a rough three weeks for me and the Cup Series is a different level,” Smith said. “Obviously, I’m trying to prove I belong here, and it’s just an outstanding run. Ryan does an outstanding job, and it’s so cool, to one, finish this race, but better yet, with a top 10.”
Monday was the longest race Smith had ever run. Having enjoyed the experience and finished well, Smith was ready for more afterward.
“I got to about halfway, and I had heard that story coming into this of how long this race feels, and I did a lot of preparation for the past month of just trying to prepare myself for this one,” Smith said. “I feel like I could go another 100 (miles) more, so did a good job there.
“But I’m just so proud of everyone at FRM and on this 38 car. It’s an outstanding job, I thought.”
