Posted on by Dustin Albino

Nobody has started the 2022 Camping World Truck Series season better than Zane Smith. But it almost didn’t come to fruition.

Last fall, Smith was searching for a ride after a “pretty realistic” shot of going Cup Series racing with Chip Ganassi Racing vanished. He also knew he wouldn’t return to GMS Racing for a third season in trucks. He said he was “pretty much committed” to joining Bill McAnally Racing before he was told Front Row Motorsports was interested in adding the California native to its driver lineup.

The rest is history.

“Todd Gilliland is a buddy of mine, so I asked him a couple of questions,” Smith told NASCAR.com last week about joining Front Row for 2022. “I knew I really liked the group, the team on the truck, so that’s what really caught my eye.

“The racing world is extremely cutthroat and scary at times. As I’m getting older, I’m finding it’s not fun at all not knowing when you don’t know what you’re going to do the next year when you have things to pay for, especially when you’re wanting to start life.”

RELATED: Martinsville weekend schedule | Truck Series standings

Front Row wanted an established driver added to its truck lineup, with Gilliland departing for the Cup Series. For team officials, Smith was an easy candidate to move over to the Ford program.

“(Team owner) Bob Jenkins has really been keen on Zane for a little while,” Jerry Freeze, general manager of FRM, said in a statement. “Zane fit in perfectly the moment he came to the shop.”

Since joining Front Row, Smith has found near-instant success. In the season opener at Daytona, the No. 38 truck went to Victory Lane after making a pass for the lead in overtime.

That win was a sizable confidence boost for Smith, who won just once in 2021. It was also a shot in the arm for the No. 38 bunch, which won one race in its first two years as a Truck Series operation. It also allowed for the team to let loose, going solely after playoff points for the rest of the regular season.

“[We’re] making sure we were going to hit the ground running as fast as we could, and we’ve hit the ground sprinting,” Smith said. “I feel like that’s a product of starting [off the year] good at Daytona. Everyone wants to just be rolling at the end of Daytona and it’s like your year is good. When you win Daytona, the rest don’t come easy by no means, but winning is as contagious as losing is. I feel like the communication and confidence in the team, it’s a lot more fun.”

Smith followed up his Daytona win by taking the checkered flag in second place at Las Vegas, rebounding from an early incident that tore off the right-front fender. Unfortunately for the No. 38 team, it was disqualified in post-race inspection for a lug-nut violation.

In the series’ third race of the season at Atlanta, Smith rounded out the top five. But at Circuit of The Americas two weeks ago, the No. 38 team found itself in prime position late in the race.

During a green-white-checkered finish, Alex Bowman and Stewart Friesen charged hard into Turn 12. The two made contact and moved race leader Kyle Busch out of the way, allowing Smith to catapult to the lead.

Logan Riely | Getty Images
Logan Riely | Getty Images

“I saw those three get together and I got off the brake pedal as soon as I could and carried as much roll speed past them because I knew once I got past them, I could control it more,” he said. “I was expecting to have a bigger gap. Then, I tried not looking in my mirror and hitting my marks. I looked at it again on the frontstretch and probably had a 10, 12 truck-length gap and knew I had to manage that.”

Smith managed the gap, earning his second win in four races this season. With more than 80% of the season left, Smith has already tied his career-high total for wins in a single season (2020). It’s the best start to the season he’s ever had, he believes, even compared to the 2018 ARCA Menards Series season, when he won three of the first five races.

Without the DQ, Smith would have already bettered his top-five total from 2021, when he finished second in the championship standings. Even still, it’s been a solid stretch of races for the 22-year-old.

“We’re counting a first, second, fifth and a first,” Smith said of FRM’s outlook. “The points may not show it, but it’s been an awesome year so far.”

Team officials are pleased as well.

“Zane runs smart races, the team runs a smart race, and Zane has closed at the end of the races when it counts,” Freeze added. “You just can’t ask for a better start to the season.”

MORE: Camping World Trucks 2022 schedule

On a personal level, it was important for Smith to claim a checkered flag on a road course. Growing up, he raced karts all across the United States, originally competing for Top Kart USA. With his parents – who now live out of a motorhome in California – in attendance, the COTA win was reassurance that their investment paid off.

“All we had to pay for was plane tickets, but to a normal family, flying out every week is extremely expensive,” Smith recalled of his young racing career. “My parents sacrificed a ton to be able to see me do that. That’s all my road course background. I’ll have to give them a replica trophy or something.”

No matter what happens the rest of the year, Smith says he’s having fun so far in his first season at FRM. It’s a young team and Freeze noted that crew chief Chris Lawson has taken reins of the group, making it a formidable team that sits tied for fourth in the regular-season championship battle.

And while Smith had the aforementioned possibility of going Cup racing in 2022 before Chip Ganassi Racing’s sale to Trackhouse Racing last summer, Smith says he is content with where he’s at with FRM.

“I’m not in a huge rush to get to Cup by any means, especially hearing that my name is popping up there,” he said. “I think I can get there sometime, but I know when you do get there, you have to have all the right people, all the right everything and maybe you have a shot at winning.

“I’m having a ton of fun collecting trophies and racing for wins.”

And if Smith performs well enough for FRM, it has two potential landing spots in the Cup Series someday.

Posted on by Press Release

DEARBORN, MI — A fully electric truck that is helping change the future of Ford Motor Company will be on track at Martinsville Speedway as the 2022 F-150 Lightning makes its debut as a pace vehicle for the NASCAR Cup Series on April 9.

RELATED: Full schedule for Martinsville | Buy tickets

Lightning received nearly 200,000 reservations since being unveiled last May and is part of a growing EV portfolio for Ford that includes the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit.

“Ford is fully invested in electrification and the response to Lightning has been so overwhelming that it was an easy decision to bring it to a NASCAR event,” said Jeannee Kirkaldy, motorsports marketing manager, Ford Performance. “One thing we definitely know is that our fans love trucks and we’re confident that feeling will only grow when they see Lightning out on the track leading the field to green.”

”We can’t wait to show our Ford fans how capable the F-150 Lightning is. With 563 horsepower, 775 lb.-ft. of near instantaneous torque and a 0-60 mph time in the mid-4-second range, I think it will turn some heads out on the track.” said Darren Palmer, vice president, Ford electric vehicle programs.

This marks the second straight year an all-electric Ford vehicle will pace a NASCAR race after the Mustang Mach-E led the field in April at Talladega Superspeedway. Ford became the first OEM to use an electric vehicle to pace a NASCAR race way back in April 2012 when the all-electric Ford Focus paced the field at Richmond, Virginia.

“I haven’t driven the Lightning yet, but if it’s anything like the Mustang Mach-E, it’s going to be a blast,” NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney said.  “I hope it ends up being the only thing in front of me once the race starts.”

The Ford F-150 is part of F-Series, America’s best-selling truck 45 years in a row. F-Series recently reached a milestone when the 40 millionth unit rolled off the assembly line in January.

Martinsville Speedway, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, will host all three top NASCAR touring series, beginning with the Camping World Truck Series on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. The NASCAR Xfinity Series takes the track on Friday with the NASCAR Cup Series scheduled for Saturday. Both of those races are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour picked up where it left off in February at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway with a trip to Richmond Raceway on Friday night.

In desperate need of a strong performance after a part failure relegated him to a last-place finish at New Smyrna, defending Tour champion Justin Bonsignore delivered with a victory in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at the 0.75-mile oval.

RESULTS: Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond

It wasn’t easy for Bonsignore, who led early in the race after starting from the pole before being shuffled back in the field via pit strategy.

He ultimately chased down and passed Tommy Catalano with 11 laps left to secure his 32nd Tour victory and first of the season.

Below are the key takeaways from Friday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150, beginning with Bonsignore’s quick rebound to Victory Lane.

Last no more for Justin Bonsignore

For approximately seven weeks, every day Justin Bonsignore would drive home from work thinking about it.

A last-place finish at New Smyrna meant Bonsignore was last in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings after ending the 2021 season as the Tour champion for the third time in his career.

The constant reminder of his place in the standings was enough to drive Bonsignore just a little crazy.

Thankfully, he no longer has to think about being last in the standings after his victory Friday at Richmond.

“We have another long break until we can start racing up in the New England area. We have another six weeks off,” Bonsignore said Friday night. “Now we get to spend six weeks going, ‘We won the last time out.’ That’s huge for our confidence.”

The victory catapulted Bonsignore from 31st in the Tour standings to ninth, 20 points behind the duo of Eric Goodale and Tony Catalano, who are tied at the top of the standings.

“The ride home from work each day will get a little better,” Bonsignore said.

RELATED: Catalano family gets confidence boost at Richmond

Ebersole, Beers overcome adversity

Kyle Ebersole and Austin Beers each overcame significant adversity Friday.

Both drivers had issues prior to the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150, with the trouble for Beers coming during practice earlier in the afternoon.

As he entered Turn 1, the left-rear tire failed on his No. 64 Modified, and he backed his car into the outside wall, resulting in significant damage to his race car.

His crew got to work and managed to get him back on track in time for qualifying, where he qualified 13th. He ultimately came home 11th, the highest finishing rookie in the race.

Ebersole’s bad luck struck during qualifying. As he was coming out of Turn 4 during his qualifying attempt, his car suddenly got sideways, and he spun across the start/finish line, eventually coming to a stop moments later.

It was later discovered that an oil line had come loose on his car, which sprayed oil on the track and on his rear tires, leading to the spin.

His team was able to repair the car in time for the race, where he started 20th. After the completion of 150 laps, Ebersole had managed to make it all the way to fourth, a career-best finish for the 31-year-old from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania.

Solid start for Newman, SS Racing

Prior to Friday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150, former NASCAR Cup Series regular Ryan Newman said he believed SS Racing had brought him a fast race car that was capable of running up front.

He proved that with a strong fourth-place qualifying effort and later backed that up by racing near the front of the field for the first half of the race. He also took a brief turn at the front of the pack, leading two laps just prior to the halfway point.

However, during the second half of the race, Newman began to fall off the pace of the leaders. He slowly fell through the field, eventually finishing 13th for the team co-owned by former NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler and Virginia Senator Bill Stanley.

NOTES:

  • Max McLaughlin, making his first Tour start of the year Friday in the No. 77 Curb Records entry fielded by Gary Putnam, started third and finished 12th after leading 10 laps. He then traveled to Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York, for a big-block modified race on Saturday and finished second.
  • Two-time Tour champion Donny Lia completed his return to the series Friday with a ninth-place result for Boehler Racing Enterprises after qualifying eighth.
  • Despite losing the air cleaner on his car with 53 laps left and being forced to make an unscheduled pit stop to replace it, Jimmy Blewett was able to pilot Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s No. 7 to an eighth-place finish.
  • Chuck Hossfeld’s third-place finish Friday was the 50th top-five finish of his career with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and his first since 2019. The seven-time Tour winner hasn’t run the full series schedule since 2010.
Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

AJ Foyt is quite possibly the greatest race car driver that ever lived. And while NASCAR might not have been Foyt’s primary endeavor, when he entered a Cup Series race, he elevated the profile of the sport … and the competition on the track.

Foyt made 128 NASCAR Cup Series starts over 30 years, including at least three races every season from 1963-77.  More importantly, he was competitive in almost all of them. He won seven races and finished in the top 10 36 times, a 28% rate.

His crowning NASCAR achievement came in February 1972 when Foyt won the Daytona 500 for the Wood Brothers, leading 167 laps.

Foyt is the only driver to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Foyt was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers

AJ FOYT BIO

Born: Jan. 6, 1935
Hometown: Houston, Texas

Cup Series Stats
Competed: 1963-94
Starts: 128
Wins: 7
Poles: 9
Years on Ballot: 2

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

LESA FRANCE KENNEDY

Hometown: Daytona Beach, Florida

Years on Landmark Ballot: 3 

Lesa France Kennedy is the Executive Vice Chair of NASCAR and one of the most influential women in sports.

In her more than 30-year career with ISC (International Speedway Corporation), Kennedy advanced through several key executive positions with increasing responsibility including Secretary, Treasurer, Executive Vice President and CEO.

Kennedy spearheaded the revitalization of Phoenix Raceway, and the state-of-the-art Daytona Rising project at Daytona International Speedway. She also helped cement NASCAR’s presence in the Midwest with the building of Kansas Speedway.

Kennedy has been honored by Forbes, Adweek, Sports Business Journal, the National Women’s History Museum and is enshrined in the Cynopsis Sports Hall of Fame.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

Sam Ard was a throwback to the sport’s earliest days. He proudly proclaimed of his time in the sport: “I used to build my cars, haul ’em to the race track, race ’em, then haul ’em back home.”

Ard was a master of short tracks across the Southeast and shined in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Series in the 1970s. But his true brilliance came with the creation of what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Ard finished championship runner-up in the inaugural 1982 season (winning four races) then convincingly answered with back-to-back season championships.

Ard’s 10 wins in 1983 distinguishes him as one of only two drivers in the series history (also Kyle Busch) to win 10 or more in a single season.

The following year Ard won eight more times before suffering a serious injury in the next to last race of the 1984 season.  He was forced to retire from driving and focus instead on team ownership.

Ard was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers.

SAM ARD BIO

Born: Feb. 14, 1939
Died: April 2, 2017
Hometown: Scranton, South Carolina 

Championships (2)
Xfinity – 1983-84

Xfinity Series Stats
Competed: 1982-84
Starts: 92
Wins: 22
Poles: 24
Years on Ballot: 3

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

From his first race as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief at the ripe age of 18, Tim Brewer was destined for greatness. The Winston-Salem native joined Richard Childress Racing as one of the youngest crew chiefs in the sport’s history and immediately guided Childress to his first career top-10 finish.

But it was Brewer’s subsequent partnership with NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson that thrust him into the spotlight. Upon joining Johnson’s team, Brewer led Hall of Famers Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip to 32 wins during a magical four-year stretch, bookended by two championships (1978 with Yarborough, ’81 with Waltrip).

He was painfully close to two other Cup championships, losing by 16 points in ’80 and 10 points with Bill Elliott in the famous ’92 finale. Over his 30-year career, Brewer racked up 53 victories — including two Southern 500s — and 55 poles. Following his crew chief career, Brewer spent time as a technical analyst for ESPN race broadcasts.

TIM BREWER BIO

Born: Feb. 4, 1955

Hometown: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Championships (2): Cup–1978, ’81(crew chief)

Cup Series Crew Chief Stats
Competed: 1973-2004
Wins: 53
Poles: 55
Years on Ballot: 4

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

MATT KENSETH

Born: March 10, 1972

Hometown: Cambridge, Wisconsin

Cup Series Stats

Competed: 1998-2020

Starts: 697  Wins: 39 Poles: 20

Years on Ballot: 1

Matt Kenseth’s unassuming, every-man demeanor disguised an inarguable truth: He was one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers ever. A quick glance at his resume would prove his brilliance behind the wheel.

Over 18 full-time seasons Kenseth quietly filled his trophy cases, conquering every major milestone on the Cup Series schedule, including two Daytona 500s, the Southern 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the All-Star Race. His 39 Cup wins tie for 21st on the all-time list and include wins at 19 of the 23 tracks at which he competed more than once.

His crowning achievement was his 2003 Cup Series championship, a thoroughly impressive season in which he led the points standings for the final 32 weeks of the season. And though he ‘only’ captured that one title, Kenseth was consistently in championship contention — he made the playoffs in 13 of 14 seasons and finished runner-up twice.

Success came early to the 2000 Cup Series Rookie of the Year. He finished sixth in his first Cup Series start and finished runner-up in the standings in his first Xfinity Series season. Kenseth has 29 career Xfinity wins, eighth-best all time.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on April 4. Voting for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be held May 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame unveiled the ballot for its Class of 2023 on Monday, April 4, adding four new names to form the list of 15 nominees.

Matt Kenseth, the 2003 Cup Series champion and a 39-time winner in NASCAR’s top division, joined the list in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility. He joins legendary crew chief Tim Brewer, a two-time Cup Series champion, as a newcomer to the Modern Era Ballot.

Two more legends were added to the Pioneer Ballot — Sam Ard, an early star and champion in what is now called the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and A.J. Foyt, the 1972 Daytona 500 winner and a transcendent figure in the world of motorsports.

VOTE NOW: Modern Era Ballot | Pioneer Ballot

The quartet of new nominees helps to fill the void left by the induction of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik earlier this year. Ard was previously on the ballot in 2020; he was briefly omitted when voting procedures changed from five to three annual inductees, and the list of nominees was trimmed before the Class of 2021 vote. Crew chief Jake Elder, a first-time nominee in 2021, dropped from the list this year.

The Hall of Fame also revealed the list of five nominees for the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR, adding Lesa France Kennedy — NASCAR’s Executive Vice Chair — to the ballot. Janet Guthrie, Alvin Hawkins, Mike Helton and Dr. Joseph Mattioli remain on the Landmark Award list for this year; longtime R.J. Reynolds executive and stock-car promoter Ralph Seagraves is the most recent recipient.

Voting for the Class of 2023 is scheduled for May 4. Two inductees will be chosen from the Modern Era Ballot, which includes (alphabetically): Neil Bonnett, Brewer, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Kenseth, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd and Kirk Shelmerdine. One will be elected from the five names on the Pioneer Ballot: Ard, Foyt, Banjo Matthews, Hershel McGriff and Ralph Moody.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame canceled balloting and induction ceremonies last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic; Earnhardt, Farmer and Stefanik were officially inducted in January as the Class of 2021.

RELATED: See the nominees for the Class of 2023

Kenseth, 50, won Rookie of the Year honors in 2000 then three years later, he claimed the Cup Series championship in the last season before NASCAR’s playoff era. In 18 full-time seasons at the Cup level, he won the Daytona 500 two times and added one victory in each the Southern 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.

Brewer, 67, amassed 53 wins and 55 pole positions during a 31-year career as a Cup Series crew chief. That successful stretch included a pair of Cup championships with Junior Johnson’s racing operation — the first with driver Cale Yarborough in 1978, and the second with Darrell Waltrip in 1981. He was later an analyst for ESPN racing broadcasts.

Ard, who died in 2017 at age 78, earned recognition as a stalwart in Late Model Sportsman and Busch Series competition, which later became the modern-day Xfinity Series. The circuit gained national-series status in 1982, and Ard secured back-to-back titles in ’83 and ’84 before a hard crash late in his last championship season abbreviated his career.

The 87-year-old Foyt made his mark in IndyCar racing, where he won the Indianapolis 500 a record four times, but his contributions to NASCAR and motorsports in general transcend any single racing discipline. Foyt, named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, won seven times in the Cup Series, including a dominant victory in the 1972 Daytona 500 driving the Wood Brothers’ famed No. 21.

Kennedy’s influence has been felt as one of the most powerful executives in the sports world. She was the force behind major renovation projects at Daytona International Speedway and Richmond Raceway, and she helped to found Kansas Speedway in her executive role with International Speedway Corporation. Kennedy, daughter of Bill France Jr. and Betty Jane France, has also served as secretary, treasurer, executive vice president and CEO at ISC, which merged with NASCAR in 2019.

A panel of 62 voting members will meet to cast ballots for the 2023 Hall of Fame class, with one ballot to be added through fan voting on NASCAR.com. The reigning Cup Series champion has participated as part of the Voting Day panel each year since 2014. Because 2022 voting and induction procedures were canceled, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott — the last two Cup Series champions — will both participate in this year’s Hall of Fame balloting.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

The tension in the Catalano pit was palpable Friday night at Richmond Raceway.

As 24-year-old Tommy Catalano was leading during the late stages of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150, his mother Amy Catalano paced nervously.

She’d been pacing for nearly the entire event as she watched her son race at the front of the field. Occasionally, she’d glance down at her phone before quickly looking back up at the screen on the scoring tower in the infield of the 0.75-mile oval.

At one point, she got down on her knees beside a stack of tires, put her hands together and said a prayer for her son.

“I knelt down at one point and I know I probably looked silly to everybody if anybody was looking at me,” Amy Catalano told NASCAR.com. “I was thinking, ‘I didn’t put in this much effort birthing this little boy. I’m putting in more effort praying for him to win this race than I did bringing him into the world.’”

Ultimately things didn’t work out for Tommy Catalano, who lost the lead with 11 laps left to eventual winner and defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore.

Despite falling short of his first Tour victory, Tommy Catalano was all smiles after emerging from his race car with a runner-up finish Friday night.

“It’s one of those deals where you’re so excited but at the same time you’re so disappointed, but nothing to be disappointed about,” Tommy Catalano said. “A good day for us we said would be a top-10 finish. To come up 10 laps short of winning the race is definitely nothing to hang our heads on.

“We battled Justin early in the race. Kind of got a feel for where he was a little better than I was and where I was a little better than he was. We made some adjustments to the car and obviously he did the same. I had a feeling if we were going to race for the win, we would be racing him.”

Entering Friday’s race at Richmond, Catalano’s previous best tour result was a third-place finish at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway. He also led a career-high 69 laps Friday night, more than any other driver in the field.

It was a career-day for the third-generation racer from Ontario, New York, who has followed in the footsteps of his parents. Amy Catalano is a champion racer with eight tour starts on her résumé and his father, Dave Catalano, also raced regularly for years.

Despite having dealt with plenty of stress through the years as she won races and championships, the stress Amy Catalano felt Friday night at Richmond was completely different.

She was a proud mother watching her son race against the best modified drivers in the country and, for a time at least, beat them. It was everything she could to contain her emotions.

“At one point I thought I was going to get sick,” Amy Catalano admitted. “At some points I wanted to cheer. At some points I didn’t want to look. I don’t really know. I had a range of emotions going on.”

For Tommy Catalano, who currently sits tied with Eric Goodale at the top of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings after two races, a performance like the one he and his small family team enjoyed at Richmond is a massive confidence booster.

Now all that’s left is to win his first tour race. He firmly believes that moment is coming sooner than later.

“The more we finish in the top 10, the more we finish in the top five, eventually hopefully luck will go our way,” Tommy Catalano said. “We’ll have a car capable of it and we’ll end up getting one.”

Always her son’s biggest supporter, Amy Catalano agreed.

“We always say we’ve got to walk before we can run,” Amy Catalano said. “Tonight I feel like we jogged pretty steady, so let’s hope we can run at the next one.”

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season resumes May 14 with the first of three visits this season to New York’s Riverhead Raceway.