Zane Smith 2025 season in review

Driver: Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Crew chief: Ryan Bergenty

Final 2025 ranking: 28th

Key stats: 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 22 laps led

How 2025 ended: Finishing his second full-time season in the Cup Series, Smith showed improvement in his return to Front Row Motorsports after a challenging rookie season in 2024 at Spire Motorsports. In the last 10 races of the 2025 season, Smith finished inside the top 10 twice at Bristol and Talladega. With five top-10 finishes, Smith could have likely increased his total if circumstances out of his control had not occurred on numerous occasions, such as crashing out in Stage 3 of the Coca-Cola 600 after spinning off the front bumper of Shane van Gisbergen while running inside the top 15. The 26-year-old native of Huntington Beach, California, improved his average starting position from 26.1 to 20.1 and average finishing position from 23.2 to 21.1, giving the No. 38 driver something to build on entering 2026.

Best race: Smith excelled in the Bristol Night Race, with a season-best third-place finish in Thunder Valley. In a race that required NASCAR's best to master tire management, Smith restarted on the front row with four laps remaining at the high-banked Tennessee short track. Although he fell short of victory, Smith was right up there competing with the sport's top drivers for his first career Cup Series win. He ran inside the top 10 for most of the night before rising to the top five at the end, with a third-best average running position of 7.88.

Other season highlights: After setting a quick time in qualifying for the Talladega spring race, Smith earned his first career Busch Light Pole Award. In the summertime, he got in a feud with former Spire teammate Carson Hocevar, who sent the Front Row driver spinning into the outside wall in Turn 1 at Iowa. The two collided again in the Kansas fall race, as Smith moved Hocevar up the hill in Turn 3. In addition, Smith walked away from a wild ride at the 1.5-mile Sunflower State track after getting squeezed against the wall and flipping several times during an overtime restart.

Stat to know: Two of Smith's five top 10s were a pair of seventh-place finishes at Michigan and EchoPark. He started in the top 10 in both races. In his three other top 10s at Phoenix, Bristol and Talladega, he rolled off the grid 23rd or worse.

Quotable: "When you're trying to get your first win in the Cup Series -- something you've just wanted to be in for your whole life -- and then the opportunity is right in front of you (and) it's going to be settled in a couple of minutes, yeah, there's a lot of things running through your head. Like, man, pretty much everything that I have known in my career, I need to funnel it down to right now to see how I could possibly execute this race win." -- Zane Smith said in a teleconference on being in contention to win at NASCAR's highest level.

Looking ahead: On Oct. 23, Front Row announced that Smith will return as the driver of the No. 38 Ford in 2026 after signing a multiyear contract extension, with crew chief Ryan Bergenty back atop the pit box. The Bob Jenkins-owned organization is searching for its first Cup Series win since 2023. If Smith can produce more breakout performances next year, he might be the first Front Row driver to take them back to Victory Lane.