Zane Smith Is Finally A Champion

After finishing runner-up in the championship the previous two seasons, the third time is the charm for Zane Smith, who’s finally a champion in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as of Friday (Nov. 5).

It wasn’t an easy road to the championship, though. Smith took the lead on an overtime restart and held off Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith in the final lap to win the race at Phoenix Raceway, taking the championship in the process.

Smith won his first career pole earlier in the afternoon – surprising considering his Truck Series success. He swept the stages and led the most laps, but a late caution for Hailie Deegan resulted in differing strategies, with Rhodes assuming the championship lead late in the going.

After a hard-fought battle between all four contenders, Smith took the lead on the final lap and had to brace for one last attempt from Rhodes to move him out of the way but was able to do so and finally seal the deal after losing the championship late in the race last year to Rhodes.

Only One Caution in First Two Stages

Other than the stage breaks, the only caution for cause in the first nearly 100 laps of the race came on lap 9, when Armani Williams and Keith McGee crashed together in turns 3 and 4, ending both of their nights.

After that, the next caution for cause came on the stage three restart.

Turn 1 Trouble

When the final stage began, turn 1 became a problem spot on restarts.

It began on the initial restart that kicked off stage three, when Christian Eckes was in the middle of a five-wide situation that resulted in Tyler Ankrum turning Eckes into the outside wall, ending his streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes. He finished 30^th, his second-worst finish of the season behind Sonoma Raceway, where he finished 35^th.

The following restart didn’t see drivers fare any better and ended up taking out more trucks. Layne Riggs, who qualified an impressive second earlier in the afternoon, washed up into Taylor Gray and turned him around, collecting Rajah Caruth in the process. All three drivers sustained damage; Caruth suffered enough damage to cause him to retire from the race – he was credited with 32^nd. Gray recovered to finish 17^th, while Riggs finished 13^th.

On that restart, Riggs’ teammate/team owner Stewart Friesen was penalized for changing lanes before reaching the start-finish line, forcing him to start at the rear of the field on the…