Zane Smith Wins the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship

The final race of the season was held on Friday night for the Camping World Truck Series, meaning one of four drivers was going end the night as a champion in a moment that could change their careers and lives forever. The championship battle was between Zane Smith, Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski, and defending champion Ben Rhodes. This race also marked the final race with Camping World as the title sponsor of the truck series, a partnership that has dated back to 2009.

At the end of the night, after two runner-up finishes in the last two years, Zane Smith was finally able to capture his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship in a two-lap overtime restart. Zane Smith was able to hold off Ben Rhodes by 0.236 seconds in what was an exciting finish to the 2022 season.

“The third time’s the charm,” an emotional Zane Smith said after the race.

Zane Smith lined up behind Rhodes for the final restart, allowing him to cut into the dogleg of the track and gain the advantage he needed to scoot by the defending champion for the win and title.

“I’m going to win this,” Zane Smith said of his mindset during the final overtime restart. “There was no other option. I was either backing it in the fence wrecking, or I was leaving tonight with a championship trophy. There were no other options, and when I saw the No. 18 [Chandler Smith] get underneath me I was worried that I got him too loose underneath me.”

“Fortunately, he stayed off of me. I have a lot of respect for all three. It’s pretty impressive for some of the racing we’ve seen lately for us three to go at it that hard and that clean.”

After a caution came out on lap 134, Hailie Deegan hit the wall hard to bring out the caution which led to strategy coming into play that affected who the champion would be. While three of the championship contenders took four fresh tires, Ben Rhodes opted to take two tires, making him restart third behind Stewart Friesen and Carson Hocevar, who didn’t pit during that caution. Rhodes was able to take the lead from Friesen on lap 141 (9 laps to go) and worked hard to keep the other three behind him, who were all running in the top four. That was until Ty Majeski lost control of his truck trying to make a move on Chandler Smith, causing the caution and the overtime restart.

“I don’t know, two tires versus four, that was the name of the game,” Rhodes said after the race. “We didn’t have the pace all night that we needed to be up there and repeat so it was a great heads-up call by my crew chief (Rich Lushes). Ultimately, we just didn’t need that last caution. I think we could have held them off for the final few laps. I was giving him (Zane Smith) all the dirty air he could handle. I think we were going to be fine until that caution got us.”

“On that last restart, I tried to get a jump, but two tires versus four, I just didn’t have the grip I needed. I did the best I could and threw a move on him but didn’t have enough grip to make it stick… We just need to go back and do our homework, and second is not fun. I’m going to mope my way back to Kentucky (his home state).”

Zane Smith, who won the pole and swept the stages as well, will return to Front Row Motorsports in the soon-to-be-named Craftsman Truck Series for 2023, as well as running a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Cup Series that includes the Daytona 500.

Chandler Smith finished third, John Hunter Nemechek finished 4th, followed by Stewart Friesen in 5th. Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim, Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top 10 to close the 2022 season.