Zane Smith nabs Daytona season-opening truck win in wild final laps
Brenden Martin recaps the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series season opener with the NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
In his first race in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150, 22-year-old Zane Smith won his fourth-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race with a yellow flag win in the NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
In what was an unusually calm race up until the end, drivers bided their time until it was time to put the pedal to the metal as overtime came about as late in the final lap as possible.
A caution came out only a few feet before Smith crossed the finish line first to claim the white flag. In some ways, Smith had to win the race twice as in overtime, he crossed the line just before the race-ending caution came out.
“Literally my heart hurt during that red flag,” Smith said. “I thought we had it.”
ThorSport Racing driver No. 66 Ty Majeski made his first career start on the pole Friday night and led almost every single lap in Stage 1. On lap 13, most of the trucks settled on the bottom lane and didn’t take many risks with the main goal being to survive till the end.
With less than two laps to go in Stage 1, Kyle Busch Motorsports driver No. 4 John Hunter Nemechek used a push from his three KBM teammates behind him to get past Majeski and take the win in the first stage. Majeski fell to seventh at the end of the stage.
Many of the early incidents were kept to just one car at a time. At the end of Stage 1, On Point Motorsports driver No. 30 Tate Fogleman suffered a flat tire but somehow managed to save his Toyota Tundra from hitting the wall.
Pit lane was just as dangerous as the actual track in the race.
In the first wave of pit stops after Stage 1, KBM driver No. 51 Corey Heim spun after and smashed right into Niece Motorsports driver No. 40 Dean Thompson. The two suffered big damage that would ultimately hinder them for the rest of the race. Heim had front right bumper damage that eventually caused his right front tire to give out and force him to retire the truck.
On the Stage 2 restart at lap 27, Nemechek took the green flag with Halmar Racing driver No. 52 driver Stewart Friesen on his outside. In just a few laps, Friesen got a push from Majeski to put him in the lead.
Around this point, Friesen began relaying to his team that his car wasn’t feeling right.
On lap 33, Friesen took the lead with a push from McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver No. 19 Derek Kraus, who would take the lead himself after Friesen took it upon himself to concede the lead fearing his car would give out and wreck the field.
With four laps to go in Stage 2, Hattori Racing Enterprises driver No. 16 Tyler Ankrum took the lead but got loose on a turn which gave Nemechek the lead yet again.
The theme of issues at the end of stages continued in Stage 2. Thompson, with his damage from the pit road incident with Heim, suffered a flat left-front tire.
NASCAR kept the green flag out, paving the way for Nemechek to sweep the stages. Nemechek just barely beat ThorSport No. 99 driver Ben Rhodes, the defending Daytona and series champion, to the line at the end of Stage 2.
Just like in stage one, pit road in stage two was treacherous. No. 32 driver Brent Holmes spun leaving his pit stall as his left front tire never started spinning. He would eventually go to the garage after the incident.
Pit road penalties were also aplenty.
Only a few laps into the final stage, Nemechek found his way back to the front with Smith right behind him on the outside. The damage to Heim’s front bumper finally got to his right front tire as went limp on lap 61. As the tire gave out, Heim made contact with Majeski.
The first caution for cause didn’t come out until 37 laps to go when GMS Racing driver No. 24 Jack Wood slammed hard into the backstretch wall.
"Something broke,” Wood said on his radio. “It just turned on me."
This is where pit road strategy came into play. Most trucks went fuel only, including Nemechek who won the race off pit road. Nemechek led with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver No. 91 Colby Howard to his outside.
Ankrum fought his way back to the lead with 31 laps to go, but was caught in the middle of the field with no draft partners and fell back to give Howard the lead. The following lap, Howard got loose and almost went completely sideways, leading to another Nemechek pass for the lead.
Heim brought out yet another caution involving tire run on his right front, this time with the carcass of the tire rolling off of the car. The carcass laid to rest in the middle of the backstretch.
With 16 laps to go, Nemechek took the green flag with Rhodes to his outside. Rhodes immediately swung his car right behind Nemechek to stay in the inside lane. On that lap, what was considered the small one occurred. A three-car wreck involving No. 44 Kris Wright, No. 33 Jason White and Fogleman brought the yellow flag.
At this point, it seemed all but inevitable that the “Big One” would come. The question was when would it happen and how big was it going to be.
The “Big One” happened heading to the final lap. Smith was mere feet away from taking the white flag, which would have meant the yellow flag would have ended the race.
A 19-car pileup ensued, taking out some big names that had run very well until that point. The red flag was called, leading to a stoppage of over 15 minutes.
ThorSport driver No. 98 Christian Eckes was deemed the leader at the point of caution, letting him take the green flag for overtime. Before the field got to the white flag, Smith received a huge bump from No. 75 Parker Kligerman to take the lead. As soon as the white flag was taken, Wright got into an incident that brought out the yellow flag, awarding the race to Smith.
The 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series got off with a bang. The series will continue with the second race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Mar. 4 at 9 p.m. EST for the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200.
All truck series races can be viewed on Fox Sports 1 and listened to on the Motor Racing Network.
Race Results:
Driver points: