He’s the reigning series champ in NASCAR trucks. But he’s not content with just 1 title

Forgive NASCAR’s Zane Smith if he wondered whether he’d ever win a Craftsman Trucks series championship.

In 2020, Smith fell a mere five points shy of winning the championship when he finished second in the final race of the playoffs.

In 2021, it was even worse. Smith was a measly two points short of winning the title after finishing fifth in the final in Phoenix.

“It was absolutely frustrating,” Smith recalled. “It’s super hard to get to the Championship Four in any of the top three series, and once you get there, it’s anyone’s game, and whoever is the best that day. Unfortunately, those two years we were second-best that day.”

But last season, buoyed by a career-best four wins during the regular season, Smith won the finale at Phoenix and captured the elusive championship. So, now the pressure may be off, but not the desire to become the series’ first back-to-back champion since Matt Crafton in 2013-14.

“It was a massive weight off my shoulders coming into this season, knowing we were able to accomplish that last year,” said Smith, who won the title in his first season as driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

“Now, myself and my whole team are as hungry as ever to defend our title and capitalize on more race wins. I feel like I’ve lived about five different lifetimes in my three years of truck racing that I’ve had with the amount of ups and downs there’s been.”

Smith, 23, got off to a fast start this season, winning the season-opening race at Daytona for the second straight year and repeating as the winner on the road course at Austin. That places him second in the standings, 26 points behind Ty Majeski, heading into Saturday’s Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway, but assured of fourth straight playoff berth.

A year ago, Smith ended two years of frustration at Kansas, winning the spring race after posting three top 10 finishes in four previous starts. A solid fourth-place finish last fall kept him in title contention, leading to Phoenix. In fact, Smith has five top 10s and an 11th in six career starts at Kansas, and an average finish of 6.3.

“Kansas has always been one of my favorite tracks, if not my favorite racetrack,” said Smith, of Huntington Beach, Cal. “I was fortunate to capitalize on the win last year. I had a really good truck, and we executed well all day.

“Any win you can get throughout the year is not only awesome to win, but it’s bonus points and playoff points and you’re locked in (the playoffs). And if you get a win at Kansas in the playoffs, you’re locked into the next round, so Kansas is definitely an important place to win, just like all of them, but Kansas is a driver’s track and one every racer loves going to.

“I personally feel like the mile-and-a-half tracks are my strongest, and at Kansas you’re able to move all around, and that’s something we all look for at racetracks. Finding that maneuverability to go from the top to the bottom to the middle all works at Kansas.”

Smith, who has nine trucks series wins in six seasons and was series Rookie of the Year and Most Popular Driver in 2020, is also double dipping as a part-time driver in the NASCAR Cup series. Running a partial Cup schedule for Front Row, he finished 13th in the Daytona 500; 37th at Talladega and will start the Coca Cola 600 in the No. 38 Ford. He also subbed for the suspended Cody Ware in the No. 51 at Martinsville.

“It’s cool to get my feet wet on the Cup side,” Smith said. “The Cup car is so far apart from anything a racer has driven. Any time you can get in a Cup is valuable. Everyone on the Cup side is really, really good. When you’re part-time, the stage points don’t mean a whole lot to you, so as long as you can make it to the end, you can have a pretty good day. At Daytona we stayed out of trouble and had a good day.”

Like most young drivers, Smith is hopeful of moving onto the Cup series on a permanent basis, but he’s confident in his future after winning the championship in the first year of a multi-year contract with Front Row Motorsports.

“For me to go over there, I had to sign a pretty long-term deal,” said Smith, who spent his first two seasons with GMS Racing. “I was all for it. To get any security in any professional sport, especially in NASCAR, is a really tough thing. So, I’m super thankful for Bob Jenkins, being under the Ford banner and knowing I have a job. My first year with them went really great, and it’ll be a tough one to back up, but I’m confident that we can.”

Kansas Speedway schedule

SATURDAY

9:25 a.m. ARCA Series practice.

10:10 a.m. ARCA Series qualifying.

11:05 a.m. NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series practice.

11:35 a.m. Trucks series qualifying.

1 p.m. ARCA Menards Series Dawn 150 race.

4:05 p.m. NASCAR Cup Series practice.

4:50 p.m. NASCAR Cup qualifying.

7 p.m. NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Heart of America 200 race.

SUNDAY

1:30 p.m. NASCAR Cup driver introductions,

2 p.m. NASCAR Cup AdventHealth 400 race.