Big things were expected of Front Row Motorsports in 2025, as the team expanded to three cars with a talented young lineup featuring Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson, and Zane Smith.<\/p>\n
With only seven races to go, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. Gilliland, and especially Gragson, have been disappointments, sitting 31st and 34th in points<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the team is involved, along with 23XI Racing, in the ongoing charter lawsuit against NASCAR, which has likely impacted on-track performance. Rumors have swirled that the organization could downsize in 2026 as a result.<\/p>\n Smith, however, has been a bright spot. He has punched above his weight all year, and it culminated in a season-best third-place effort in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zane Smith’s improvement deserves more recognition<\/p>\n Last season, Smith’s rookie year with Spire Motorsports started out as a disaster. For much of the first half of the season, he sat 34th (last) in points out of all full-time drivers by a wide margin. But he began to turn it around late in the campaign, ultimately improving to 30th in the final standings.<\/p>\n In 2025, Smith has built on that progress after moving back to Front Row Motorsports, the team with which he won the Truck Series championship in 2022.<\/p>\n Throughout the season, he has consistently been the fastest of FRM’s three drivers, despite the team taking a step back on the whole. He hasn’t always gotten the results to match his performance, but visibly, he has been one of the Cup Series’ most improved drivers.<\/p>\n