Zane Smith sets realistic expectations as he craves “consistency” amidst the natural quest for race win

Zane Smith has been tabbed by Front Row Motorsports to drive its No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. With this opportunity ahead of him, the 25-year-old driver revealed his expectations for 2025.

Every driver out there wants to win races, and so does Smith. But more than winning, he wants to be consistent. He wants to run inside the top-10 every single week.

“We all wanna see a race win, get in the playoffs- that would be awesome,” Zane Smith told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But to me, I just wanna see consistency. It'd be awesome to try to run in the top-10 week in and week out.”

Smith, along with teammates Noah Gragson and Todd Gilliland, will kick off his second season at the Cup level with The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The 200-lap, non-point paying race will begin 8 pm ET onwards and will stream live on FOX.

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Zane Smith to make chartered entry in 2025 following recent legal ruling

Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing are currently engaged in a legal battle against NASCAR. According to them, the governing body of the sport had penned their newest charter deal without giving the teams an opportunity for a fair bargain. Hence, they slapped NASCAR with an antitrust lawsuit.

It was certain that if the latest ruling went against the organizations, they would not be able to compete as chartered teams. But U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell granted the teams a preliminary injunction that would allow them to run their chartered cars.

This helped Smith immensely as he was looking for a ride following his split with Trackhouse Racing. Reflecting on this, Front Row Motorsports General Manager Jerry Freeze said (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio),

“We only had two Cup cars and two charters, and we liked the two guys we had at the time — Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland — and we just didn’t have a place for Zane.” (0:14)

As per reports, McDowell will join Spire Motorsports in 2025. He will drive the No. 71 car that was previously driven by Smith, under a loan from Trackhouse Racing.

“We really tried to talk him into trucks another year, but he was ready to move on. He had done all he could do in the Truck Series, winning the championship and a lot of races. And he had opportunities to move on, and he chose to move on last year into a new program with Trackhouse,” Freeze added.

This isn’t the first time Zane Smith will be racing under the banner of Front Row Motorsports. He competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, Smith won the Truck Series Championship with the team.