Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith, for the first time ever, led the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag on Sunday, April 27, at Talladega Superspeedway. Despite the dominance he showed in qualifying, the polesitter is well aware the race would be anything but predictable.
During the qualifying session on Saturday, April 26, the second-year Cup Series driver secured the pole position for the Jack Link’s 500 with a blistering lap of 52.565 seconds at 182.174 mph. This was a major milestone for Smith, earning his first-ever Cup Series pole in his 55th career start.
Zane Smith Aims To Stay Up Front Amid Potential Talladega Chaos
Despite the strong start, Smith kept his expectations grounded. In a clip of the post-qualifying interview posted on X by journalist Bob Pockrass, Smith admitted he planned to spend Saturday night studying race footage to prepare for Talladega’s notoriously chaotic racing.
“I’m going to have to go through and watch how the leader controls a lot of that. I expected it to have speed, but didn’t really expect it to have a pull there, so kinda gotta go study up on quite a few things over the night, but all in all, a lot’s going to change, I’m not gonna lead every lap every lap tomorrow,” Smith said.
“But just if I can be around rolling at the end and hopefully in the first few rows and have a shot at it is all you can ask for.”
Zane Smith will lead the field to green from the pole today at Talladega Superspeedway. Why he was going to do some extra studying Saturday night and how comfortable he would feel if he is out front near the end of the race. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/GIQjRKfhuB
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass)
Smith added, “I’m in my second year of the Cup Series, so its all still kinda new to me but learning every race and I feel like I learnt alot in these superspeedway races is just kinda weird how they play out sometimes, towards a little unpredictabable and you just gotta roll with it.
“But, yeah, like I was saying, you gotta control what you can control, and we’ll study up on some of that tonight.”
For Smith, a rising young driver, Talladega marked a major opportunity to showcase his talent at one of NASCAR’s more famous stages. And while he knew he would face shifting fortunes once the green flag dropped, Smith remained focused on staying grounded and giving it his best shot at a career-defining win.
In the end, Smith finished in 19th place, earning 22 points at Talladega Superspeedway. Austin Cindric pulled off the win in what turned out to be a surprising finish, with five drivers logging DNFs and multiple disqualifications being dished out.