FRM signs Zane Smith as third driver for 2025

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) has made good on its recent court overcome NASCAR by signing Zane Smith because the team's third driver for 2025.

Last September, FRM and 23XI refused to sign a 2025 charter agreement and as a substitute filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, alleging monopolistic practices that put the teams in a precarious position. However, on December 18, Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing secured a big legal victory when a North Carolina judge granted each teams' motion for a preliminary injunction, giving them the proper to compete under their statutes until the antitrust trial concludes in 2025. (If the teams lost December's application — or NASCAR's subsequent failed appeal — would have needed to race as “open” teams with no guaranteed race entry). The court's decision also forced NASCAR to approve FRM's purchase of the Stewart-Haas Racing charter, which was obligatory to expand the operation to 3 cars.

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Winning these court victories allowed FRM to turn out to be certainly one of six teams with three chartered Cup Series cars (Trackhouse, Spire, RFK, Penske and — soon — 23XI). As a result, 25-year-old Zane Smith will drive full-time in FRM's No. 38 Ford Mustang, alongside Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson.

Zane Smith lifts the 2022 Truck Series championship trophy for Front Row Motorsports

Photo: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images

It's a reunion for Smith: He won the NASCAR Truck Series title in 2022 with FRM, then ran a partial Cup schedule with the team in 2023, only to drag away and have a tricky 2024. He competed last yr as a Cup Series rookie for Spire Motorsports being under contract with Trackhouse.

Smith had 11 finishes of twenty fifth or worse in the primary 14 races of the yr and didn't look ready for a full-time Cup run – only to show things around within the second half of 2024 with a second-place finish at Nashville and a fifth at Watkins Glen and seventh in Michigan. He lost his place, but now has a likelihood at a second likelihood at FRM, where he’ll look to match FRM's recent trajectory.

In addition to taking over NASCAR alongside 23XI, the team has made loads of noise on the track: winning the 2021 Daytona 500, making two playoffs within the last 4 years and winning the Tier 1 Ford team title in 2024. And last season, FRM achieved success six pole positions, including a front-row lockout on the second race at Daytona.

The onward development will rest on Smith's shoulders after a difficult begin to his debut cup campaign last season. Now he’ll wish to add a number of good days to FRM's series of victories.