Zane Smith's rough rookie year continues in Bristol

Zane Smith Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Zane Smith's rough rookie season continues with last-place finish in Bristol

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated 3/18/24

To say it's been a disappointing rookie year for Zane Smith thus far would be a massive understatement.

The 24-year-old native of Huntington Beach, Calif., has had horrendous luck to start the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, being involved in three incidents. It's been quite a shock for the 2022 Craftsman Truck Series champion, who was used to being a weekly contender for the win.

His early crash at Bristol, in which it appeared he had adequate time to slow down before hitting Tyler Reddick, is just the latest misfortune in a series of unfortunate events for Smith. After a quiet, but solid 13th-place showing in the Daytona 500, Smith crashed out at Atlanta and had a broken toe link within the first 10 laps at Las Vegas. While he did complete all the laps at Phoenix, the car showed little speed and Smith finished 29th.

On Sunday in Bristol, Reddick went around early in the race. It looked like Smith had enough time to brake and avoid Reddick, but alas, that was not the case.

The last-place finish not only set Smith last on race day, but also in the points standings as well where he now sits 35th out of 35 full-time drivers, having accumulated just 41 total points through the first five races of the season.

Smith continued on in Sunday's Food City 500 before eventually falling out on lap 192 with engine issues.

The good news for Smith, though, is that the next race on the schedule is Sunday at Circuit of The Americas, where Smith won twice with Front Row Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series. The race goes green at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

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