​Dale Earnhardt Jr. disclosed that he texted Zane Smith after last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland, where Smith was involved in an on-track incident with Carson Hocevar that ended with both drivers crashing into the outside retaining wall. The collision began when the Front Row Motorsports driver bumped Hocevar as they headed into turn one. It appeared Smith might have been aiming Hocevar toward the wall, but the contact sent both cars into the wall, leaving Hocevar and Smith’s cars battered and their crews facing a difficult aftermath.
During a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr. said he couldn’t find any preceding incident between Hocevar and Smith that would explain what happened at Chicagoland. He raised possibilities such as Hocevar aeroblocking Smith or a retaliatory move from Smith in response to a prior race. Yet the bottom line for Earnhardt Jr. was that Smith wrecking himself is unacceptable. In a text message that Smith did not respond to, Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on the incident. “I reached out to Zane and he didn’t reply back to me. … I’m sure he’s upset. I’m like, ‘Dude, I like the aggression but you can’t wreck yourself. You just can’t do that.’ … He puts too much effort into this to go out there and do that to himself. Not to mention the car and the crew and ownership and partners,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. Earnhardt Jr. emphasized that he dislikes seeing Smith mishandle a situation in a sport where he has rooted for his young colleague to have a long, successful career.
Earnhardt Jr. also noted his fondness for Smith as both a driver and a person, expressing a desire to see him remain in NASCAR for years to come. Because Smith’s NASCAR résumé isn’t as long as many others, he cannot afford to endure incidents like the one at Chicagoland. “I just hated to see it because I like him as a driver and as a person. I like Zane a lot and I want him to be around and I want his deal to work. I want him to be a successful race car driver in this sport and I don’t know that he’s got enough roots into the ground to go out there and do those kinda things,” Earnhardt Jr. commented.
Despite finishing 28th at Chicagoland last Sunday, Smith has shown notable progress in his second full season with Front Row Motorsports. After 19 races, the 27-year-old sits 23rd in the points standings, 62 points behind the cutoff for The Chase. He began the 2026 season with back-to-back top-10s in the Daytona 500 and Atlanta, followed by his first top-five of the year with a fifth-place finish at Talladega. Smith also performed well in the Coca-Cola 600 in May, leading laps and finishing 10th, and he looked like a contender again at Nashville, where he led in the late going in an attempt to secure a fuel-mileage victory before finishing ninth. His most recent strong result was a fourth-place finish at Naval Base Coronado. While Sunday’s incident with Hocevar may have been a setback, there is little doubt that Smith has shown steady improvement through 2026.