NASCAR Dishes Out Penalties to Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Team

Zane Smith and the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team have been hit with penalties following unapproved adjustments prior to Saturday's qualifying session at Phoenix. | Mady Mertens-Imagn Images

Following the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session for Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR issued penalties to Zane Smith and his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team. According to NASCAR, the penalties were assessed after the sanctioning body discovered unapproved adjustments to the No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse following inspection, which took place prior to practice.

In an update, the NASCAR Communications department said officials observed the No. 38 team making an unapproved adjustment to the underbody of their car during practice/pre-qualifying adjustments.

The No. 38 in the NASCAR Cup Series was observed making an unapproved adjustment to the underbody during practice/pre-qualifying adjustments. The vehicle was reinspected prior to practice/qualifying session.
 
The No. 38 car chief (Will Norris) has been ejected from the Phoenix…

— NASCAR Communications (@NASCAR_Comms) March 7, 2026

As a result of the unapproved adjustments between practice and qualifying, Smith, who was 25th-fastest in practice and qualified 24th for Sunday's race, will have to drop to the rear of the field prior to the green flag, and after taking the green flag in Sunday's race, Smith will have to perform a pass-thru penalty on pit road.

Additionally, Will Norris, the car chief of Smith's No. 38 Ford, has been ejected for the remainder of the race weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

The penalties will put Smith in a tough spot to open the fourth race of the season, and the penalties come after a solid start to the 2026 campaign, which has the driver sitting 14th in the championship standings. Smith finished sixth in the season-opening Daytona 500 and seventh the following weekend at EchoPark Speedway.

Smith was running near the front of the field late in the day at Circuit of the Americas until he was swept up in an incident with 20 laps to go, which cut his tire down, and resulted in a 33rd-place finish.

If Smith doesn't get an early-race caution Sunday at Phoenix, he could find himself trapped a lap down if additional drivers fall a lap down to the leaders before he can get a free pass on Sunday.

The 26-year-old racer has one top-10 finish in five career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 1-mile oval in Avondale, AZ. If he hopes to tally a second top-10 finish on Sunday, he'll have to overcome some obstacles.

Joey Logano will start from the pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway, which is set for Sunday, March 8, and will be televised on FS1 with television coverage set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race.