KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Zane Smith was uninjured in a wild ride as his car slid on its side along the Kansas Speedway backstretch wall before flipping twice and landing on its wheels.
John Hunter Nemechek had contact with Smith and as Smith hit the wall, his car turned on its side. The wreck came in the first two-lap overtime restart, where wrecks sometimes happen as drivers dig for their final finishing position.
“It was a wild ride, no doubt,” Smith said. “Before I knew it, I had a decent restart going and I just get wrecked by [Nemechek]. He just drives through me, and then I was sliding on the wall.
“I was just mad at that point from how our day was going and this just pissed me off even more because that’s what really hurt was just flipping down the track. It was violent, no doubt.”
The race was halted for about nine minutes so NASCAR’s safety team could make sure that Smith was OK and to check the wall and fencing. There was a small gouge in the track from where Smith’s roof hit during the flip, but there was no damage to the fence.
Zane Smith went for a wild ride at Kansas Speedway.
After the race, NASCAR officials and Front Row Motorsports crew members were looking at the car. NASCAR will let the team take the car back to its shop but then likely will send some engineers to take another look to make sure everything held up as it should have (and appeared that it did).
“It’s just a bummer,” Smith said. “Right before that caution came out, we were going to have a top-10 day, racing up inside the top 10 a majority of the day, and it’s a shame that it has to come to an end out there.
“I want to give a shout-out back to everyone at FRM for bringing another really good car, especially at a mile-and-a-half.”
The 26-year-old Smith, in his second year of Cup racing, is 27th in the series standings.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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