NASCAR champion reunites with former team for 2025

Zane Smith, who won the 2022 NASCAR Truck Series championship with Front Row Motorsports, has long been linked to a return to the Bob Jenkins-owned team for the 2025 season in one of their Cup cars.

Front Row Motorsports announced early on during the 2024 season that they planned to expand from two to three cars for 2025 by acquiring a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing.

After an intense legal battle against NASCAR in which they filed an antitrust lawsuit against the sanctioning body following their decision not to sign the new revenue sharing agreement, it was ruled that Front Row Motorsports can indeed operate as a chartered team in 2025 and that they can do so with three charters.

Now Smith has been confirmed by the team as their third driver for the 2025 season.

Smith was actually once contractually tied to Front Row Motorsports through 2026, and he was long believed to be a future Front Row Motorsports Cup Series driver. But during the 2023 Truck Series season, the team allowed him to look for rides elsewhere for 2024, and he ended up at Spire Motorsports.

Spire Motorsports opted to move on from Zane Smith after just one year, replacing him with longtime Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell for the 2025 season, before his second-half resurgence, highlighted by a runner-up finish at Nashville Superspeedway.

Smith had long been rumored as Front Row Motorsports' third driver for the 2025 season, and now he is indeed set to drive the No. 38 Ford for the team during the upcoming season.

Todd Gilliland drove this car in 2024 but has moved to the No. 34 Ford that McDowell drove. Ex-Stewart-Haas Racing driver Noah Gragson is set to drive the other car, presumably the No. 36 Ford.

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to begin on Sunday, February 16 with the 67th annual Daytona 500. Live coverage from Daytona International Speedway is set to be provided by Fox beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.