MARTINSVILLE, Va. – In a must-win situation, Zane Smith delivered.
Smith escaped a wild overtime restart to earn his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season Saturday at Martinsville Speedway to earn an opportunity to race for the series championship next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Also securing spots in the Championship 4 at Phoenix were John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton.
Smith entered Saturday’s race well below the cutoff line and needed to win the race in order to advance to the Championship 4. His team used pit strategy to get him to the front, opting to pit on lap 82 prior to the end of stage two.
That call cycled Smith to the front of the field as Todd Gilliland, who had dominated the first half of the race, opted to pit at the end of the second stage along with many others.
Smith was able to remain at the front of the field through several restarts, including one for Nemechek, who got turned by Austin Wayne Self entering turn three and crashed on lap 131. Nemechek was unable to continue, putting him in jeopardy of being eliminated despite being considered the championship favorite.
While all that was going on Gilliland was working his way back up to the pack and got there with less than 50 laps to go. He lined up alongside Smith during a restart with 37 laps left and fell in line behind Smith before making the move to retake the lead with 28 laps to go.
Gilliland was able to hold the lead during three more restarts, including one with four laps left when Corey Heim and Dawson Cram made contact and Cram spun. That set up an overtime restart with Gilliland leading Smith and Stewart Friesen, who like Smith had to win if he hoped to race for the championship at Phoenix.
Smith opted to restart behind Gilliland via the choose rule, with Friesen taking the top to start alongside Gilliland on the front row. As they entered turn one Smith used his bumper to get Gilliland loose and was able to get under him to make it a three-wide fight for the lead.
They stayed that way entering turns three and four, with Gilliland washing up slightly and forcing Friesen into the outside wall at the exit of turn four. Coming down the frontstretch Friesen came back down and clipped the right-rear of Gilliland, sending him spinning as the field roared under the white flag.
Smith narrowly avoided the spinning Gilliland as Friesen then made contact with Smith going into turn one. Friesen bounced off the door of Smith’s truck and then spun in turn one as the caution flag waved, handing the victory and a spot in the championship race at Phoenix Raceway to Smith.
“I did not want Todd in front of me. He’s a good buddy of mine,” Smith said. “Honestly I got shoved from behind by the 16 (Austin Hill). I pissed him off earlier in the race, so it wasn’t all me. Such hard racing.”
Smith admitted that the victory has extra meaning as he attempts to lock down a job for next season.
“I’m looking for a job right now. I have nothing,” Smith said after his third career Truck Series victory. “It’s a good day.
Now Smith turns his attention to Phoenix, where he’ll attempt to earn his first Truck Series championship.
“I haven’t been able to sleep right all year,” Smith said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to win the damn thing.”
Unofficially Hill ended up second, followed by Tanner Gray, Chandler Smith and Crafton.
Rhodes finished seventh while Nemechek finished 39th after his wreck earlier in the day. He ended up four points ahead of defending series champion Sheldon Creed for the final spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix.
In addition to Creed, Carson Hocevar, Chandler Smith and Friesen were eliminated from championship contention.