Life as a NASCAR driver can be pretty grueling and full of unpredictability. Two races in, and you’re having the best start you’ve ever had to a season in your career. Two races further from that, it turns into a bleak nightmare. Such is the case with 26-year-old Zane Smith at the moment.

Zane Smith and the #38 FRM team face the wrath of NASCAR

The Front Row Motorsports driver had a promising start to his season in the first two races at Daytona and Atlanta. He ended up finishing inside the top 10 in both races, a career first for the young driver. With a 6th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and 7th in Atlanta, Smith was soaring high.

However, at COTA, all of Smith’s high flying and momentum came undone as a late crash left him with a result pretty far from the top 10. It was a 33rd-place finish for the FRM driver.

But somehow, a week from that, it is shaping up to be an even worse weekend for Smith at Phoenix.

During inspection on Saturday, the #38 team was observed “making an unapproved adjustment to the underbody during practice/pre-qualifying adjustments,” per a NASCAR release.

The car failed the test again when it was checked, leading to a massive penalty.

Zane Smith would be starting Sunday’s Cup race from the rear. He would also have to perform a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag. On top of all of that, Smith also had his crew chief ejected as part of the penalty.

Smith is currently ranked 14th in the points table. Unless he gets a good finish at Phoenix, he could potentially lose his spot and fall in the standings.

Smith is quietly finding his feet at the Cup level

Having wowed everyone on the Truck level, Zane Smith earned his first full-time season on the Cup level in 2024 with Spire Motorsports. In his rookie year, Smith faced a string of poor results in the first half of the season. However, a runner-up finish at Nashville saw him finish the season with another top 5 and a couple of top 10s.

For 2025, Smith joined Front Row Motorsports. In his second season in the Cup, Smith found more consistency in the first half of the season with a run of finishes inside the top 20. He finished the season with four top 10 finishes and a single top 5.

But his performance and results in the 2025 season were enough for his team to offer him a multi-year extension to his contract. It was announced towards the end of 2025. Speaking about his contract extension, Smith said, as per NASCAR, “We’ve had an up-and-down year, but heading into the offseason, I feel like we’ve put our program in a great position to hit the ground running in 2026.”

He claimed that FRM has ‘always felt like home,’ be it the people or the shop. Smith expressed his excitement for the 2026 season, which had gone quite well for the first two races. And even if there was a speed bump at COTA, it was due to a late crash.

But now with a penalty and losing his crew chief at Phoenix, Zane Smith could be in for a pretty grueling race on Sunday.