Zane Smith ‘Absolutely’ Ready For NASCAR Cup After Hot Truck Start

There is no driver hotter in the Camping World Truck Series right now than Zane Smith.

Now in his third full-time season, Smith moved from GMS Racing to Front Row Motorsports in the offseason, and the pairing has immediately clicked. Smith has already doubled his career wins this year, with three through just the opening nine races.

He’s also already scored more top fives than all of last year, a season where he finished second in the championship. Smith would be leading the points had his second-run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway not been disqualified, but instead he is fifth. 

It’s not too shabby a start for a deal that came together in December. Smith had previously been rumored to take over Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 1 once Kurt Busch departed, but Ganassi ultimately sold his assets to Trackhouse Racing Team. 

Smith is also recently engaged. His new fiancé, McCall Gaulding, is the back-to-back winner of Motor Racing Outreach’s Better Half Dash and sister of fellow driver Gray Gaulding.

Frontstretch caught up with Smith at Darlington Raceway to discuss his fiancé, his hot start with FRM, the Ganassi rumors and if he’s ready for the NASCAR Cup Series. 

Michael Massie, Frontstretch: The more important title that you got recently is the title of fiancé. So how’d you propose? I heard that Todd Gilliland might have been involved as well.

Zane Smith: Yeah, I was getting the ring shipped to his house at the time and trying to obviously keep it a secret, a surprise. I had planned during that little break we had to go down to Folly Beach [S.C.] and hang out with the dogs and, yeah, popped the big question.

Massie: Yeah, well, congrats on that. How’d you and McCall meet? Was it at a racetrack, given her brother Gray?

Smith: Yeah, it was at New Smyrna Speedway in 2015. And, yeah, we weren’t dating at that time, but that was the first time we had met, and the rest is history.

Massie: She…