Zane Smith wins thriller Truck Series Race at Martinsville: Locks himself into Championship 4

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

     This weekend's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway was far from calm, as no driver came into the race clinched for the Championship 4. Boy, did those Round of 8 drivers have a hectic race on their hands.

Zane Smith won this race by very slim margins, taking the leaders; Todd Gilliland and Stewart Friesen three-wide on the final restart. Friesen became very loose, sending the No. 38 of Gilliland spinning into the wall, and moments later Friesen’s Toyota Tundra would stay uncontrolled, and collide into Zane Smith who was battling for the lead, before spinning into the wall himself. This final restart was an overtime attempt, and therefore since the white flag had been taken, Smith scored his first win of the 2021 season, and a very timely one at that.

John Hunter Nemechek came into Martinsville, Virginia with a decent points cushion, but some conflict between him and Austin Wayne Self Nemechek's championship hopes were placed on the line. 

Interestingly enough, the conflict that ended Nemechek’s race was not enough to end his bid at the championship four, as he joins Zane Smith, Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton as one of the four drivers who will compete for the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title next weekend at Phoenix.

This race was quite the let down for drivers like Sheldon Creed and Stewart Friesen who had very strong seasons up until this point. Friesen specifically was in position to make the championship-four until the chaos that ensued on the final restart (which I spoke about above). Creed on the other hand, a multi-time winner this season, was in a good position for some of the race but fell off in performance when it mattered most. Unfortunately for Creed, he could not out-compete Nemechek for point who wasn’t even running the race in the closing laps. Creed finished 9th.

A driver who had a really solid day at Martinsville was Tanner Gray in the No. 15 David Gilliland Racing entry. As a community, we’ve seen struggle and strife from Tanner Gray throughout the past season. He certainly proved his racing ability today, and the speed of David Gilliland Racing as he ran within the Top-10 consistently all day long.

Todd Gilliland won both Stage 1 and Stage 2.

The following are the complete race results:

NASCAR Media