Zane Smith

Much like his GMS Racing teammate, Sheldon Creed, Smith came out of nowhere last season to win races and vie for the title. His rookie campaign in the Camping World Truck Series was quite impressive, claiming two victories and 13 Top-10 finishes. Smith would push Creed hard over those final three races of last season, claiming two runner-up and one third-place finish. However, that would be the difference in winning the championship and finishing runner-up. Smith will return to this strong race team in 2021 and once again be paired with the veteran crew chief, Kevin Manion. Entering the new season, GMS Racing seems to have all the momentum in this division of NASCAR and their young drivers appeared to be poised to reap the rewards.

Smith takes over the vaunted No. 21 team of GMS Racing this year. This is the same team that Johnny Sauter piloted to a championship in 2016 and 13 total victories between 2016 and 2018. The 20-year-old Californian will be paired with crew chief Kevin Manion and set out to capture the Rookie of the Year honors in the truck series. Smith raced an impressive 10-start schedule with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series last season. He earned seven Top 10's in those 10 starts. Now Smith will continue his NASCAR development with a full-time ride in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. There's a lot of potential in this driver and team lineup, and Smith could be under-ranked in the middle teens to start the season.

The California native and next young face in the Xfinity Series will take over the reins of the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet for the departed champion, Tyler Reddick. Smith will race in eight events spread throughout the upcoming year, starting in March at Las Vegas and ending at Dover in October. The 19-year-old talent is fresh off a dominant campaign in the ARCA Series where he nabbed four victories and 12 Top-5 finishes en route to a runner-up finish in the final driver standings of that racing series. Smith will share this ride with other drivers that have yet to be named at the time of this writing. This is a strong race team that has taken both William Byron and Tyler Reddick to the last two Xfinity Series titles. It will be a different story in 2019, but tons of potential for the future with some good finishes along the way as well as a lot of lessons learned.