Zane Smith takes maiden ARCA win after late-race pass for the lead

Sometimes the win is worth the wait when you have a car as good as Smith had in the Music City 200.

Smith passed teammate Sheldon Creed on Lap 180 and pulled away for his first ARCA Series win in his 18th start Saturday at the historic short track in Nashville, Tenn.

“I can’t believe this man,” said an ecstatic Smith in Victory Lane. “I’ve been waiting forever to get a (win). I started to doubt myself last year and this whole team with (crew chief) Mardy Lindley and this whole team brought me back up.”

The native of Huntington Beach, Calif., finally got his first win after finishing second three times previously and most recently at Kentucky last season.

“I’ve been waiting so long for this and this (win) is what I needed,” said Smith. “Our season isn’t fully funded yet and this is exactly what we needed. This car has been bad fast all night long.”

Smith led 120 of the 200 laps in the event with Creed taking the lead from Smith on Lap 168 on the restart after the fifth and final caution of the race set up a 33-lap sprint to the finish.

His effort and all of the drivers for MDM Motorsports didn’t go unnoticed by Smith’s crew chief, Lindley.

“It was a big effort by our entire team and a long time coming for Zane,” Lindley. “He drove a smart race.”

“Pretty pumped to have a run like that,” said Creed. “I didn’t know if we would have another caution so I thought I would get all I could get on that last restart and got clear of him off the top on the restart and Zane got by us, but I’m really happy with our car tonight.”

Burton gained the most spots in the race after having to start 25th in the 26-car field after his team missed pre-qualifying tech. That didn’t keep him from running in the top-10 for most of the race.

“It was a tough race,” said Burton. “We elected to work on our car and we missed qualifying time-wise and we started in the rear and it was all about saving the tires. We moved up through the field and ended up with a top three and glad we were able to get that done.”

Michael Self, who won the season opening ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway in February, finished fourth with Chandler Smith completing the top five.

Tyler Dippel was sixth with Chase Purdy seventh followed by Christian Eckes, Brandon Grosso and Bret Holmes. Natalie Decker finished 11th as the final car on the lead lap.