Zane Smith is quickly putting his name and face on a Most Wanted poster.
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Last week at Indianapolis, he was involved in an incident with Christopher Bell. Smith’s day came to an end on Lap 161 when he made contact with Bell, finishing 31st. Bell, meanwhile, roared back to a strong eighth place finish, salvaging a day that still had him fuming at Smith after the race.
Sunday at Iowa Speedway, Smith was involved in another incident, this time with Carson Hocevar. Once again, Smith got the worst part of the deal, finishing 36th (second-to-last), while Hocevar recovered nicely, mirroring Bell’s finish at Indy, also finishing eighth.
“I felt like our car was pretty good,” Hocevar said. “The strategy, I don’t know if anybody could have predicted how this race works. Yeah, it was a solid day.”
The post-race interview with Hocevar was abruptly ended when Smith’s crew chief, Ryan Bergenty, reportedly came over and launched into a profane chastising of Hocevar, per media reports by Stephen Stumpf and Toby Christie.
“Hey, when are you going to f***ing drive, dude?” Bergenty can be heard saying on video. “Man, you wiped us the f*** out. Our car is f***ing wrecked because you drive like a f***ing re***d.”
Asked one question before the confrontation started. Video ends when I was told to stop filming. https://t.co/J2IqWG1wRV pic.twitter.com/NEcBia24K3
— Stephen Stumpf (@stephen_stumpf) August 3, 2025
Smith didn’t earn any points with his team, either. According to Stumpf, Smith allegedly said over his team radio after the incident with Hocevar, blasting his crew: “Gotta quit telling me how to f***ing drive these things, dude. Every time I poke middle we get f***ing wrecked.”