Spire Motorsports Too Far Off the Pace for Zane Smith to Contend
4 weeks agoZane Smith has definitely had a significant uptick in performance in the second half of 2024, particularly as he sees tracks a second time, although this is overstated to some extent as he is usually finishing better than he is running of late and that is not necessarily sustainable. However, all three Spire cars were dreadfully slow in qualifying and Smith ranked only 39th between B.J. McLeod and J.J. Yeley's backmarker operations and except for Corey LaJoie in the Daytona 500, it hasn't seemed like Spire has had much speed at these tracks at all. While Carson Hocevar has gotten finishes despite lacking speed by dodging crashes, it will likely be harder to do so in this race since Talladega has tended to have fewer crashes lately, so Smith will probably run poorly.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference