MOORESVILLE, N.C. \u2014 Despite entering this weekend\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series round at Sonoma Raceway, 24th in the standings Zane Smith has a lot to gain.<\/p>\n
The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang remains alive in the In-Season Challenge tournament and could still make the playoffs with a victory.<\/p>\n
Smith matches up with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs, who is 19th in the standings, this weekend at Sonoma. The top finisher of the two advances to the semifinal round of the tournament, which pays $1 million to the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool to still be alive in this bracket challenge,\u201d Smith said during a midweek media call.\u00a0\u201cMy last week\u2019s pairing with Chris (Buescher), I knew we were gonna have our work cut out for us just with Chris\u2019 stats, but it\u2019s still racing and things happen and we were able to advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know going into this week if we did advance it was going to be either Ty or A.J. (Allmendinger), who are both great road racers, so you know they\u2019re gonna have speed in Sonoma, and I think as will I.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed the repave at Sonoma and had a lot of fun there last year, so I\u2019m hoping for another solid day.\u00a0I hope to advance this week as well, but with that said, I\u2019m focused on beating everyone and hopefully advancing into these playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said, however, his team is more focused on trying to win a race than to capture the In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to speak for Ty, but I feel like we\u2019re both in the boat as of today \u2014 we\u2019re going to Sonoma to try to win the race and advance to the playoffs,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re real close together in points and with that we\u2019re focused on having a good day, but our weekends are gonna shake out where different things and different kinds of adversity is going to thrown at us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re each gonna have our own strategy, so we could run nowhere near each other and never see each other all day, but probably with this bracket challenge and how things work out in this sport, we will be right next to each other all day long.\u00a0Who knows?<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can hope for is to have a shot at it and, hopefully, keep this consistency up that we\u2019ve been having,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019ll get told once or twice about where he\u2019s running or what\u2019s going on with him and what strategy they\u2019re doing and many other things, but, ultimately, we\u2019re trying to advance to the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who returned to Front Row Motorsports during the offseason, is happy with his team\u2019s performance this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve finished 11th this year, but I felt that if I was one spot better, it would be talked about a lot differently of a lot more top 10s, but I\u2019m really proud of the speed we\u2019ve been able to bring,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0\u201cThe capability we\u2019ve had of making our cars better, which is incredibly important, and I\u2019m just having a lot of fun working with this group.\u00a0For this back half of the year, like I mentioned, I really wanted to just try and stack up these top 10s and hopefully find myself in contention on one of these late-race restarts in the first few rows and try to execute a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Atlanta, we came close to that, leading some of those closing laps, which was good fuel for my whole team and myself,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u201cI believe our speed is there to do it, as a team we\u2019ve got to execute the whole day.\u00a0Sunday races are long and there\u2019s a lot of opportunity to mess up, but with that said, everything just has to go right and we\u2019re getting closer to doing everything right.\u00a0I think that\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing these more consistent top 15 days and racing inside the top 10, collecting stage points here and there.\u00a0Those things just go a long way, so hopefully we can keep that going.\u201d<\/p>\n
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