Zane Smith wins Truck Series season opener in first start for new team

Smith joined Front Row Motorsports for 2022, the same team that won the Daytona 500 last year.

What a difference a second makes.

Zane Smith was at the front of the field, less than one second from crossing the start-finish line -- which would have brought out the white one-lap-to-go flag -- when a major wreck occurred two laps from the scheduled finish in Friday night's NextEra Energy 250 Camping World Truck Series 2022 season opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

Had Smith crossed the start-finish line, he likely would have been awarded the win. But instead, after a lengthy cleanup from a wreck that involved 16 trucks in the field, NASCAR decided to go to a green-white-checker finish, extending the 100-lap event to 106 laps.

When the race restarted, Smith somehow was relegated to the second spot on the grid, as NASCAR ruled Christian Eckes was in the lead rather than Smith at the time of the multi-truck wreck after reviewing a series of video angles.

Even so, Smith roared back, timed his final pass around Eckes just perfectly, and wound up going to victory lane when a race-ending crash on the final lap involving Jason White and Kris Wright prompted NASCAR to award Smith his fourth career Truck Series victory.

Smith joined Front Row Motorsports for 2022 after spending the last two seasons with GMS Racing.

"Obviously, Front Row is pretty good here," Smith said with a laugh to Motor Racing Network, alluding to Michael McDowell's surprising win in last year's Daytona 500. "It's wild how these things play out. ... Just what a cool day to start off the year. Never in my life would I thought I'd be in victory lane at Daytona.

"Winning is contagious as losing, so we're starting out right."

Eckes took his runner-up finish in stride.

"Just a couple more laps," was his reply when asked what he needed to have earned the win. "Yeah, I felt like we were in a good position there.

"At the end of the day, really proud of these AHI Toyota Tundra guys. Obviously wish we could have won, but good way to start off the year.

After Smith and Eckes, Tanner Gray finished third, followed by Parker Kligerman, Carson Hocevar, Jesse Little, Ty Majeski, Danny Bohn, Matt DiBenedetto was ninth in his first-ever Truck Series race, and Riley Herbst rounded out the top 10.

Defending Truck Series champ Ben Rhodes looked like he might finish in the top 3, but faded in the last couple of laps to an 11th place finish

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