Zane Smith Ousted from Trackhouse Racing

Trackhouse Racing announced last Friday that they will be severing ties with rookie Cup driver Zane Smith at the end of the 2024 NASCAR season.

Smith signed on with the Justin Marks-led operation in September 2023 on a development deal that would put the Californian in a Spire Motorsports-owned car for this season.

Despite a lot of buzz around the 25-year-old, Smith’s performance throughout the year quieted even some of his most staunch supporters, logging just two finishes higher than 23rd in the first 14 races with three DNFs.

From there, Smith’s #71 Spire Motorsports team gradually picked up the pace, quietly earning top-20s at Gateway and Sonoma before contending for the win in the five-Overtime fiasco in Nashville, coming up one spot short of victory in just his 28th career start.

Zane carried that momentum with him to Indianapolis where a great strategy call from crew chief Stephen Doran put the Focused Health Camaro in position for a top-5 finish before a late caution forced them to pit.

A top-10 at Michigan and another 13th-place result at Daytona bring us to the current day where Smith is on the market and actively searching for work.

Over the first 14 races, Smith averaged an abysmal 29.3 average finish, but since Gateway, he’s coasting on a much more respectable 18.5. That is a drastic overhaul in performance, especially considering the tracks NASCAR visited over the last three months.

With the evidence presented, a team owner could look at these showings and see tons of positive development, so let’s see why Zane Smith and Trackhouse ultimately failed to launch.

Trackhouse’s Roster

As the announcement was made, Trackhouse announced that they’d be adding a third car for 2025 for Australian SuperCars champion Shane van Gisbergen.

The New Zealander took a year to learn the ropes of stock-car racing in the Xfinity Series where he currently paces the series in wins heading into the postseason. While his success on ovals has been sparing, SVG has only strengthened his abilities on road and street circuits in NASCAR’s second-tier division.

Marks initially tabbed van Gisbergen to drive the #91 for the inaugural Chicago Street Race last season where — in his first Cup Series start — the Kiwi drove through the field to become the first Cup driver in 60 years to win in their debut event.

Since that day, it’s felt inevitable that SVG would become a Cup regular, and all Friday’s announcement does is give the superstar from Down Under a concrete timeline for his rise to the Cup ranks.

Further complicating Smith’s path to a true Trackhouse Racing entry was the incumbent driver of the #99 car, Daniel Suárez. The Mexican driver signed on to drive for the team in 2020, becoming their first driver, and since that day, Trackhouse revitalized Suárez’s struggling Cup career.

The 2016 Xfinity Series champion embraced the NextGen era, winning his first Cup race at Sonoma in 2022 and locking himself into the Playoffs for the first time. Daniel ended up a career-high 10th in the final points standings after being eliminated in the Round of 12 due to a power steering failure at the Roval.

With a forgettable 2023 season in the books where he missed out on victory lane and the Playoffs, Suárez made a big statement in Atlanta earlier this season when he made a daring three-wide pass on the final lap to notch his second career win in a thrilling photo finish with Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney.

As it was announced during the Olympic break, the 32-year-old wheelman from Monterrey inked a one-year extension with Trackhouse for 2025.

On top of their current driver lineup, Zane Smith must contend with Trackhouse’s other blossoming talent, Connor Zilisch. The 18-year-old wunderkind exploded onto the scene this year before NASCAR ever hit the track by claiming the LMP2 class victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Zilisch backed this up with victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the CARS Tour, and the ARCA Menards Series, elevating his racing resume all before he was old enough to vote.

Marks remained high on Zilisch’s talent, signing the North Carolinian to a driver development deal that eventually netted them a full-time ride in the JR Motorsports #88 car for next season.

Oh yeah, then there’s Ross Chastain, current driver of the #1 Busch Beer Chevy Camaro.

The organization’s flagship driver, Chastain’s heroics and gaffes throughout the 2022 season mesmerized fans of the sport on his way to a Championship 4 berth clinched by the historic Hail Melon.

Florida’s favorite watermelon farmer collected the valuable Anheuser-Busch sponsorship from the retiring Kevin Harvick and became the first driver to win the Phoenix finale from outside the championship-eligible drivers at the conclusion of 2023.

Though his 2024 season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, Chastain has a ride at Trackhouse for years to come should he choose to stay there.

How Smith Stacks Up

Finally, there’s Zane Smith. The Huntington Beach native spent much of his formative years driving for GMS Racing where he secured two Championship 4 berths, finishing second in points to teammate Sheldon Creed in 2020 and Ben Rhodes in 2021.

Moving over to Front Row Motorsports’ #38 Ford for 2022 paid off in the biggest way possible when Smith pulled into Daytona victory lane for the season-opener before taking his second win of the year at COTA after making a big move in turn 11 to get by Kyle Busch and Alex Bowman.

Smith tacked on another win at Kansas in the spring that gave him a sizable points cushion in the postseason where he took the FRM group to the Championship Race at Phoenix.

That night, he started on pole and led half of the event’s 154 laps on the way to his fourth win of the year and becoming a Truck Series champion.

Smith’s 2023 got off to a familiar start when he collected wins at Daytona and COTA, but the reigning champ’s performance took a nosedive, going significant stretches without finishing above 20th. This culminated in his exit from the Playoffs in the Round of 6 after losing the lead at Homestead to Carson Hocevar late in the going.

Zane also made select starts with Front Row’s Cup Series team as the owners looked to see if he would be suitable to replace incumbent Todd Gilliland in the team’s #38 Cup car. The team chose to retain Gilliland for 2024, leaving Smith no choice but to seek out other options in the Cup Series.

Where Does Zane Go From Here?

If the rumors about the upcoming charter agreement are true, Smith would not have fit into Trackhouse’s lineup at any point.

Three of their drivers are Cup winners, two of them have top-10 Cup points finishes, one of them is grossly accomplished in other motorsports, and the fourth driver is possibly a superstar in the making at just 18.

At 25 years old, Smith’s timeline with Trackhouse was never going to work out if all of their other drivers performed at the level they were capable of, which is unfair to a driver that proclaimed it was dream to drive for Justin Marks when Smith’s signing was made public last year.

Going back to an article I published with a fellow Pit Box Press writer in June, I speculated that Smith could land with Front Row once again as it made entirely too much sense for both sides with Michael McDowell’s departure for Spire beginning in 2025.

Talks between drivers and teams are seldom made public, but Kevin Harvick commented on Smith’s free agency on his show this week, suggesting that the Cup rookie may have ruffled some feathers at Ford on his way out last season.

Any lingering ill will from Ford or Front Row could lock him out of several opportunities in Cup, so it’s entirely possible he moves down to the Xfinity Series or even back down to Trucks in 2025.

Denny Hamlin went to bat for Zane on his podcast this week, acknowledging how tough the situation must be. With 23XI expected to expand to a third car next year, Smith could theoretically be in the running for that seat if the team’s supposed deal with Riley Herbst evaporates.

Another possible landing spot could find him behind the wheel of a Spire Motorsports’ entry next season as the team recently deferred on Corey Lajoie’s 2025 option, opening up a seat in the team’s flagship #7 car with championship crew chief Rodney Childers on the pit box.

The move would give Smith some much-needed continuity as he enters his sophomore season, though another former Spire racer, Justin Haley, has been linked to that seat.

In the event that Zane returns to the Truck Series, it’s plausible that he would take a ride with Chevy team McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. Smith has made five starts with the team this year, netting three top-5s at Bristol, Texas, and Kansas while completing every lap in the team’s fourth entry.

Alternatively, Spire could demote him to their Truck Series outfit, but as for the Xfinity Series, it is unclear what rides will be available next season. There have been rumblings that he could end up being stowed away in the Kaulig Racing #16 as AJ Allmendinger moves back up to the Cup Series, keeping him in the Chevy family.

With all that said, it appears the Silly Season continues to get sillier, so for more on Zane Smith’s free agency, subscribe to Pit Box Press to get updates on the pending 2025 Cup Series driver lineups and much more.

(Top Photo Credit: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)