MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Regardless of coming into this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Sequence spherical at Sonoma Raceway, twenty fourth within the standings Zane Smith has quite a bit to realize.
The driving force of the No. 38 Entrance Row Motorsports Ford Mustang stays alive within the In-Season Problem match and will nonetheless make the playoffs with a victory.
Smith matches up with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs, who’s nineteenth within the standings, this weekend at Sonoma. The highest finisher of the 2 advances to the semifinal spherical of the match, which pays $1 million to the winner.
“It’s cool to nonetheless be alive on this bracket problem,” Smith mentioned throughout a midweek media name. “My final week’s pairing with Chris (Buescher), I knew we had been gonna have our work reduce out for us simply with Chris’ stats, however it’s nonetheless racing and issues occur and we had been capable of advance.
“I do know going into this week if we did advance it was going to be both Ty or A.J. (Allmendinger), who’re each nice street racers, so you understand they’re gonna have pace in Sonoma, and I believe as will I.
“I loved the repave at Sonoma and had lots of enjoyable there final yr, so I’m hoping for one more strong day. I hope to advance this week as properly, however with that mentioned, I’m centered on beating everybody and hopefully advancing into these playoffs.”
Smith mentioned, nonetheless, his crew is extra centered on making an attempt to win a race than to seize the In-Season Problem.
“I don’t need to communicate for Ty, however I really feel like we’re each within the boat as of at present — we’re going to Sonoma to attempt to win the race and advance to the playoffs,” Smith mentioned. “We’re actual shut collectively in factors and with that we’re centered on having an excellent day, however our weekends are gonna shake out the place various things and completely different sorts of adversity goes to thrown at us.
“We’re every gonna have our personal technique, so we may run nowhere close to one another and by no means see one another all day, however in all probability with this bracket problem and the way issues work out on this sport, we shall be proper subsequent to one another all day lengthy. Who is aware of?
“All I can hope for is to have a shot at it and, hopefully, hold this consistency up that we’ve been having,” Smith mentioned. “I’m positive I’ll get instructed a few times about the place he’s operating or what’s happening with him and what technique they’re doing and plenty of different issues, however, finally, we’re making an attempt to advance to the playoffs.”
Smith, who returned to Entrance Row Motorsports throughout the offseason, is comfortable along with his crew’s efficiency this season.
“I don’t know what number of occasions I’ve completed eleventh this yr, however I felt that if I used to be one spot higher, it might be talked about quite a bit in a different way of much more prime 10s, however I’m actually pleased with the pace we’ve been capable of carry,” Smith mentioned. “The aptitude we’ve had of creating our automobiles higher, which is extremely essential, and I’m simply having lots of enjoyable working with this group. For this again half of the yr, like I discussed, I actually wished to simply attempt to stack up these prime 10s and hopefully discover myself in competition on one among these late-race restarts within the first few rows and attempt to execute a win.
“At Atlanta, we got here near that, main a few of these closing laps, which was good gasoline for my complete crew and myself,” he added. “I consider our pace is there to do it, as a crew we’ve acquired to execute the entire day. Sunday races are lengthy and there’s lots of alternative to mess up, however with that mentioned, all the things simply has to go proper and we’re getting nearer to doing all the things proper. I believe that’s why you’re seeing these extra constant prime 15 days and racing inside the highest 10, amassing stage factors right here and there. These issues simply go a great distance, so hopefully we are able to hold that going.”
