To say it’s been a disappointing rookie year for Zane Smith thus far would be a massive understatement.
The 24-year-old native of Huntington Beach, Calif., has had horrendous luck to start the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, being involved in three incidents. It’s been quite a shock for the 2022 Craftsman Truck Series champion, who was used to being a weekly contender for the win.
His early crash at Bristol, in which it appeared he had adequate time to slow down before hitting Tyler Reddick, is just the latest misfortune in a series of unfortunate events for Smith. After a quiet, but solid 13th-place showing in the Daytona 500, Smith crashed out at Atlanta and had a broken toe link within the first 10 laps at Las Vegas. While he did complete all the laps at Phoenix, the car showed little speed and Smith finished 29th.
On Sunday in Bristol, Reddick went around early in the race. It looked like Smith had enough time to brake and avoid Reddick, but alas, that was not the case.