Zane Smith, the 2022 Truck Series Champion, made the move to the Cup Series with plenty of promise and with support from Trackhouse, but he didn’t live up to the promise.
Driving the No. 71 for Spire Motorsports with the Trackhouse backing, Smith has only scored two top ten finishes at this point in the season. That compares unfavorably by any measure: he’s being outdone in the stats sheet by Spire teammate Carson Hocevar who leads the rookie of the year standings, and by the other Trackhouse drivers.
Trackhouse signed Smith with the intention of getting a third charter and bringing him into the stable after giving him a chance to get a feel for the Cup Series. And the team appears to have gotten that charter, as is widely rumored, from Stewart-Haas Racing as that team shuts down.
However, an unexpected face has entered the picture: Shane van Gisbergen. Since his win at Chicago that took the NASCAR world by storm, he was signed by Trackhouse to race in a similar arrangement to Smith’s, but with Kaulig in the Xfinity Series.
If Trackhouse wants to bring him up to the Cup Series next year after impressing in his first year in the Xfinity Series – van Gisbergen has picked up three wins, all on road courses – then there’s no room for Smith in the stable.
Trackhouse put out a statement announcing the split that framed the decision as mutual.
“Trackhouse Racing and Zane Smith have mutually agreed to separate at the conclusion of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, allowing the 25-year-old former NASCAR Truck Series champion to immediately accept other opportunities,” the statement read. “Smith drives the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in an alliance with Trackhouse Racing and will continue for the remainder of this season.”
Smith’s statement, put out a few minutes later, suggested that the decision was much less magnanimous from Trackhouse. He pointed to a significant improvement as his rookie season went on that seemed to indicate that he’d gotten a handle on the car.
“Obviously I am disappointed that I’ve been put in a tough spot. I am diligently exploring quality driving opportunities and hope to quickly wrap up my plans for next year. Meanwhile kudos to our No. 71 Cup team. We’ve turned our year around with six top-20 finishes in the last ten races, which includes a top-10 last weekend and a runner-up finish in Nashville.
“With more determination than ever, I will continue to do what I know best and that is to work hard, race my heart out, and prove myself. Thank you to everyone who has and continues to stand behind me.”
Smith might have a point. He’s only had 24 Cup starts this season with just a handful of experiences prior. The drivers he’s being compared to have multiple seasons of Cup experience, in the case of Chastain and Suarez at Trackhouse proper, or got to grips with this car very quickly, in the case of fellow rookie Hocevar.
Asked how he got strong results so quickly, Hocevar acknowledged that he was lucky not to have had to adapt his driving style much.
“I just think we’ve been pretty good,” he said. “I mean, I got to do ten Cup races last year, I had a lot of time in the sim and in development. I felt like I kind of got lucky, per se, that this car fits my style a lot. Entry speed and roll speed and minimum speed being very important, driving off the front tires, it really fits my style a lot and I feel like I’m able to adapt with this.
“Some people struggle with finding the limit, while I feel like I’m really beneficial with being able to find that limit to find speed with this, which has made that learning curve pretty quick.”
But, harsh though it may be for Smith, this split a reminder that NASCAR is a sport that’s all about results. It seems like Smith wasn’t getting results good enough to justify keeping him over other options available.
