Zane Smith Scores Top-10 Result with Two-Tire Strategy Call
After recording a top-10 result in Sunday's FireKeepers Casino 400, it's become quite obvious that Zane Smith has gotten the hang of Michigan International Speedway.
The second-year driver was able to bring his No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse home in seventh, after crew chief Ryan Bergenty gained the Front Row Motorsports driver some track position with a two-tire pit call at Lap 147.
Throughout the final 53 laps of Sunday’s event, the native of Huntington Beach, California was tasked with keeping that track position, while at the same time, making sure that his Ford Mustang had enough fuel on-board to make it to the checkered flag.
“There’s a lot of positive from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better,” Smith said after the race. “I’m on two tires there trying to hold off guys that are on four. If I’m on four against four in the Cup Series that’s already hard enough, so I was trying my best at defending but ultimately, we got beat there some.”
The top-10 finish at Michigan continues what has been a solid first campaign for Smith and Front Row Motorsports together in the NASCAR Cup Series. The (now) 26-year-old driver has back-to-back top-15 finishes, and five top-20 finishes in his last six starts, dating back to Talladega.
Michigan International Speedway has also been a pretty great place for Smith throughout his NASCAR National Series career, with a pair of top-10s in two starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, and a victory in his sole NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start at the racetrack in 2020.
Smith, with two seventh-place results in two starts at Michigan, is the first driver since Chase Elliott to earn top-10s in his first two starts at the two-mile racetrack located in Brooklyn, Michigan.
With his seventh-place result in Sunday's #FireKeepersCasino400, @ZaneSmith is the first driver since Chase Elliott to earn top-10s in each of their first two NASCAR Cup Series starts at Michigan.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/4ldH4CZ3r3
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) June 9, 2025
“There’s a lot of positives from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better,” Smith said.
“All in all, I’m proud to end up in the top-10 there with Long John Silver’s on board and everyone at [Front Row Motorsports]. I wish we could have gotten Ford a win here in their home state, but we’ll try again next year.”
Leaving Michigan, Smith has drastically improved upon his position in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, jumping to 22nd. Heading to the inaugural event at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the driver of the No. 38 sits only 37 points below the cutline.
While he isn’t directly in the picture for the final spots in the post-season on points, with a couple more solid runs, Smith could insert himself into an already highly contested battle.
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Joseph Srigley covers NASCAR for TobyChristie.com, Racing America, and OnSI, and is the owner of the #SrigleyStats brand. With a higher education in the subjects of business, mathematics, and data analytics, Joseph is able to fully understand the inner workings of the sport through multiple points of perspective.