CUP: Brutal crash caused by first in a series of brake failures leads to rare last-place finish by Zane Smith
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: NASCAR on USA
Zane Smith picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) when his #38 Speedy Cash Ford crashed after 129 of 247 laps.
The finish, which came in Smith’s 109th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since March 17, 2024 at Bristol, 95 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 21st for the #38, the 714th from a crash, and the 774th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 67th for the #38, the 1,103rd for Ford, and the 1,474th from a crash.
When Smith was last featured in a Cup Series article on this site, he was competing in his first full season with Spire Motorsports as driver of the #71 Chevrolet. His last-place run in Bristol was already his fourth straight finish of 29th or worse in the first five races of the season, and he remained mired near the bottom of the standings. Things changed by the summer with a stunning runner-up finish to Joey Logano in a multi-overtime finish at Nashville, after which he earned a 7th at Michigan and 5th in Watkins Glen.
He continued to improve in his reunion with Front Row Motorsports last year, earning his first pole at Talladega, taking 3rd in the night race at Bristol, and scoring five total top-ten finishes. This year, there have been other flashes of brilliance, including both Daytona races, where he was challenging for the win on the final lap before he dropped to 6th and 32nd. He’s also earned 4th at San Diego, 5th in Talladega, a 7th in Atlanta, and a 9th in Nashville. But inconsistency has kept him out of the Top 20 in points and a place in the Chase.
For Gateway, Smith was one of the only 36 Chartered entries to attempt the race. In opening practice, he ranked 17th with a best lap of 33.470 seconds (134.449mph). He was tied to the thousandth of a second with Ross Chastain’s #1 Busch Light Chevrolet, but awarded the tiebreaker. The metric placed Smith 12th in the qualifying order, where he earned a strong 12th-place starting spot with a slightly faster lap of 33.420 seconds (134.650mph). This was Smith’s best starting spot since San Diego in June, where he lined up 4th.
Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., whose team on Sunday noticed how similar his #47 Clemco Chevrolet looked to Shane Van Gisbergen’s #97 SuperFile Chevrolet, the 35th-place starter, and 17th-place A.J. Allmendinger in the #16 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet. The lone driver sent to the back prior to the start was John Hunter Nemechek, whose green-over-white variant of his #42 Dollar Tree Toyota surrendered the 28th spot due to unapproved adjustments.
When the green flag dropped, Nemechek was last across the stripe, 3.272 seconds back of the lead to Van Gisbergen’s 3.050 in 35th and Stenhouse now 34th at a 2.947. Nemechek was to start to Van Gisbergen’s right, but Van Gisbergen pulled away from him at the stripe with Stenhouse further ahead. Entering Turn 1, Van Gisbergen dove to the inside of Riley Herbst in the #35 FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota, creating a three-wide logjam with Stenhouse stranded up high. Herbst and Stenhouse pulled ahead into Turn 3, allowing Nemechek to look to Van Gisbergen’s outside. The two were side-by-side at the stripe, Nemechek in last and now 4.221 back of the lead. It wasn’t until Lap 4 that Nemechek pushed his way past Van Gisbergen in the high lane, the #97 held up behind the #34 Ruedebusch Development & Construction Inc. Ford of Todd Gilliland.
Van Gisbergen held the 36th spot until Lap 6, when Herbst spun off Turn 4 and slammed the inside wall with the right-front and right-rear of his Toyota, drawing the first caution of the afternoon. Herbst’s on-board camera hadn’t been working since the pit road speed test during the pace laps, though the audio still played on the HBOMax channel. He made it to pit road on Lap 7, where his crew assessed the damage, and he went a lap down on Lap 8. He returned to the track and pitted again on Lap 9, where this time the crew addressed the splitter and tires. He returned again, still the only driver a lap down. Holding the 35th spot was teammate Tyler Reddick, who was saved by Herbst’s caution after his #45 Comparion Insurance Toyota was squeezed into the Turn 4 wall during the opening run. Herbst and Reddick took the Lap 11 restart side-by-side, and Herbst cleared minimum speed the next time by.
On Lap 15, Herbst’s crew radioed the message, “Big picture – I get it, frustrating.” Herbst may have spun after contact from Stenhouse, who Herbst was now catching on the outside lane. Coming off Turn 2, Stenhouse spun, though replays indicated Herbst didn’t cause the accident. When discussing his car with the team, Herbst said, “My splitter's fucked, my toe's knocked out, I don't know.” The crew wasn’t satisfied with this answer, so he then said, “Fine – I’m a little loose.” Stenhouse’s spin gave Herbst his lap back, and on Lap 17, the last spot fell to Chris Buescher in the #17 Body Guard by Fastenal Ford. Herbst then made an extended stop for repairs, retaking the last spot on Lap 18.
Buescher briefly retook last place on the Lap 20 restart, only for another caution to immediately fall after Van Gisbergen tangled with Daniel Suarez in the #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, Michael McDowell in the #71 Delaware Life Chevrolet, and Noah Gragson in the #4 Long John Silver’s Ford. All three continued with Gragson taking last on Lap 21, then losing a lap on Lap 22. Gragson made a second stop on Lap 23, saying he felt like he had a bent toe link. He returned to the track once more, this time dropping McDowell to last place, his #71 losing a lap after a long stop of his own. On Lap 24, Gragson pitted for a third time, only to be told NASCAR was about to restart the race the next time by. They hurried him out of the pits, but not as fast as McDowell’s crew. On the Lap 25 restart, McDowell was a lap down in 35th, but directly behind the cars in front. Gragson was at least another half-lap behind, and his crew was unable to fix his toe link.
Fortunately, still another caution fell on Lap 28, this time after Van Gisbergen spun battling Allmendinger off Turn 2. This allowed Gragson to make up his deficit to the field and awarded McDowell his lap back, putting Gragson back in the Lucky Dog spot for the ensuing run. Scoring briefly swapped Gragson’s running position with McDowell’s before it was quickly corrected. And it was during this yellow that Gragson came in for the crew to repair his right-front toe link. Gragson again made a second stop, this time for fresh left-side tires on Lap 32. The crew struggled with the left-rear wheel, but still got him on track without losing another lap. But the delay again put him about a quarter-lap back of the field on the Lap 33 restart. This time, he made up the gap on his own, catching them by Lap 34. By Lap 43, he’d passed the next three cars on track – Buescher, McDowell, and the #51 Rocket Doctor Chevrolet of Cody Ware. When the caution fell again to end Stage 1 on Lap 46, Gragson finally got his lap back. He reported his car was no longer vibrating, and was “okay about it right now.” But on Lap 48, he said his brake pedal was “getting long,” and he had to pump it.
With Gragson back on the lead lap, the last spot fell to Ryan Preece on Lap 49 in his #60 Kroger / International Delight Ford, then back to McDowell on Lap 49. McDowell had made a pit stop under the caution, but didn’t beat the pace car, so NASCAR had him stop on the inside line off Turn 4 to let the field pass. This left McDowell as the only driver off the lead lap on Lap 53, when Stage 2 began. But again, the caution quickly fell, this time after Ty Gibbs’ #54 Monster Energy Toyota spun Erik Jones’ #43 Dollar Tree Toyota in Turn 1. Jones, who incurred a tail-end penalty for pitting on a closed pit road, took last on Lap 59. But McDowell, now back on the lead lap again, was also on pit road for a toe link issue of his own, one stemming from the Lap 20 wreck and a subsequent flat tire. On Lap 60, when Austin Hill briefly held last in the #33 Lucas Oil Chevrolet, McDowell took it back after his crew, in their words, “maxed out on adjustments.”
On the Lap 61 restart, McDowell took the green to the outside of 35th-place Gragson, and all 36 starters were again on the lead lap. They dropped Hill to last for a moment, but Hill got back again by Lap 62, dropping McDowell back to last. Still another caution fell on Lap 65, this time caused by Buescher breaking loose, followed by Herbst crossing Van Gisbergen’s nose. Allmendinger’s was the last of the cars to roll away, having to re-fire his engine, dropping the #16 to last on Lap 66. He only held it for a moment as Herbst was making another lengthy stop under this yellow, now with a flat right-front tire, and took last again before the lap counter changed. Once it did, the last-place runner on Lap 67 was Carson Hocevar, whose #77 Spectrum Chevrolet pitted with the leaders. Herbst retook the spot on Lap 68, moving Hocevar to 35th. In so doing, Herbst spent so much time on pit road that his “Damaged Vehicle Policy” clock nearly expired. Just like McDowell, Herbst also failed to beat the pace car off pit road, so Herbst had to stop on the backstretch and let the field by, putting him a lap down for the second time in the race.
The race finally settled into its longest green-flag so far, during which Herbst remained the only driver off the lead lap. On Lap 93, the team noticed Herbst get loose and asked if there was something wrong with the car. He continued without incident. Then on Lap 106, Ware received the black flag for his window net coming unhooked. Running on the lead lap in 34th at the time, Ware pitted on Lap 106, where he received new right-side tires as the net was re-attached. He returned to the track two laps down, immediately taking last from Herbst. Around Lap 112, the now 34th-place McDowell went a lap down again, taking the Lucky Dog from Herbst. By Lap 126, the leaders also lapped 33rd-place Ty Dillon in the #10 Patriot Mobile Chevrolet and 32nd-place Gragson. On Lap 130, Ross Chastain pitted his #1 Busch Light Chevrolet. Just as he returned to the track in Turn 1, the caution fell for an accident. Scoring seemed to indicate Gragson was ahead of Chastain at the time of the yellow, but Chastain received his lap back instead.
This caution was what secured Smith the last-place finish. Heading into Turn 1, Smith was the last car on the lead lap in the 31st spot - directly in front of race leader Kyle Larson. Just before corner entry, something popped in the right-front of his Ford, and a cloud of black dust burst from his wheel. As the spotter reported in the moment, his overheated brake rotor had shattered, and worse, his car was sent spinning up the banking, where it slammed the wall hard with the left-front. By Lap 133, when Smith dropped to last place behind Ware, Smith climbed from the car with help from rescue crews, and appeared unsteady as he walked to the ambulance. Front Row Motorsports confirmed Smith was conscious and walking, and would ultimately be released from the infield care center. His car was towed behind the wall through an opening at Turn 2, where it was transferred to a rollback. On Lap 139, his onboard camera was shut off, and NASCAR declared him out soon after.
The caution that eliminated Smith was already the eighth of the race, and ultimately ended Stage 2. Another ten yellows would fall by the checkered flag for a total of 18. Many were due to similar brake issues to Smith’s, each happening at the entrance to Turn 1. Next to fall victim to the issue was Ryan Blaney, who took 35th, but managed to keep his #12 Menards / ATLAS Designer Shingles Ford in the outside wall. Herbst took 34th, his bad day made worse by a fire during a mid-race pit stop, then another spin that sent him backwards into the wall between Turns 1 and 2. Gragson was still on the lead lap in 28th when his own brakes failed on Lap 199, putting him into the wall and leaving him 33rd. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Chase Briscoe, whose #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota was collected after the brakes failed on a spinning Chase Elliott in the #9 Llumar Chevrolet.
Bowman, Zilisch, and Ware survive the chaos in Gateway
After the dust settled, Alex Bowman earned an emotional runner-up finish, his first Top Five since Chicagoland and his best run of the season. Active in the field of animal rights, Bowman was mourning the passing of his dog Finn, who died last Friday. Taking the 7th spot was Connor Zilisch, who matched his season-best performance of 7th at Sears Point by again taking 7th, this time in the #88 Very Good Ventures Chevrolet. After a rough start, Zilisch’s teammate Van Gisbergen nearly joined him in the Top 10, only to spin in Turns 1 and 2 and fall to 23rd. One spot ahead in 22nd came Cody Ware, who gained both his lost laps from the loose window net and finished 22nd, tied with Nashville for his third-best finish of 2026.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #38 in a Cup Series race since August 18, 2024, when Todd Gilliland crashed after 114 laps around Michigan. The number had never finished last in a Cup race at Gateway.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #38-Zane Smith / 129 laps / crash
35) #12-Ryan Blaney / 154 laps / crash
34) #35-Riley Herbst / 16 laps / crash
33) #4-Noah Gragson / 198 laps / crash
32) #19-Chase Briscoe / 213 laps / crash
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Trackhouse Racing (6)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (4)
3rd) Hendrick Motorsports (3)
4th) 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Garage 66, Kaulig Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, RFK Racing (2)
5th) Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (15)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Toyota (5)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
