NASCAR
Zane Smith Passes Three Trucks in One Corner for COTA Win
AUSTIN, Texas – Zane Smith grabbed the win in a double-overtime finish at Circuit of the Americas. During an overtime restart with two to go, Smith took advantage of leaders Kyle Busch, Stewart Friesen, and Alex Bowman going three-wide into turn 11, and snuck around all of them. He then drove away from the field at the Texas road course, picking up the second-straight COTA victory for Front Row Motorsports.
“Truck races are crazy,” Smith said after climbing from his truck. “You’re never out of it till you’re out of it. Man, what a statement from this team. It’s so crazy to go back-to-back years at a road course like this. Huge thank you to them, it’s been a wild effort they’ve put in this year.”
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Kyle Busch dominated the day, leading 31 of 46 laps. Prior to each Stage, Busch pitted to jump those looking for Stage points, which forced them to pit under the Stage coming caution. This allowed Zane Smith, the only other driver to lead more than a lap today, to pick up the win in both Stage #1 and Stage #2, maximizing on points earned.
On a day that had high temperatures, high tempers, and high amounts of spinning, one driver, in particular, finished the day with even more bad luck. Hailie Deegan was caught up in a wreck that severely damaged her right-front tire, resulting in another early end to the day. This marks the third-straight DNF for Deegan and drops her to 33rd in the driver standings. Deegan could be at risk of missing a race if an unexpected issue occurs in qualifying.
Top 10 from COTA:
- Zane Smith
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Kyle Busch
- Ben Rhodes
- Chandler Smith
- Christian Eckes
- Tyler Ankrum
- Carson Hocevar
- Stewart Friesen
- Grant Enfinger
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next heads to Martinsville Speedway on April 7th for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200. Zane Smith is the most recent Truck Series winner at the historic short track. Tune in on FS1, MRN, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 at 8:00 p.m. ET to see if he can back it up.
Written by Noah Lewis
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Photo Credit to Front Row Motorsports on Twitter.
