West Creek Native Pivotal on Pit Team for NASCAR Truck Series Champ

VICTORIOUS: Justin Clapper savors the moment of his part in Zane Smith’s truck championship run. Clapper is front tire carrier on the pit crew. (Supplied Photo)

West Creek native Justin Clapper, front tire carrier on the pit crew for Zane Smith, won his bet that Smith’s #38 truck would win the NASCAR Truck Series championship Friday, Nov. 4 at Phoenix Raceway. It cost him the beard that he hadn’t shaved since high school. But that was worth it.

The whole team shares the win, and Clapper, son of Dennis and Janine Seeley of West Creek, got to hoist a trophy during the post-race celebration.

Clapper met Smith in the Automobile Racing Club of America stock car series as Smith’s jackman in 2018, and they won five races that year, so to win a championship with him in 2022 was special. Smith had finished second in the championship finale in 2020 and 2021. Because the rosters were moved around and Clapper got rotated to different teams last year, he missed out on being a part of the second-place ending.

“I was kind of disappointed not being a part of it, so it was really cool to come full circle and win a championship with him,” Clapper said.

“Zane has made the Final 4 three times now. We’ve been saying all year, ‘The third time’s the charm; we’re finally going to get it done this year.’ It was his 69th start in the truck series.”

The race was won in a two-lap overtime sprint. Smith had carried all three stages after a start on the pole. A caution with 13 laps to go had sent all four Championship 4 drivers – Zane Smith, Chandler Smith, Ben Rhodes and Ty Majeski – down pit road. It was another caution with three laps to go when Majeski bumped into Smith on a turn and spun out – Majeski finished 20th.

Rhodes, last year’s Truck Series champion, finished second, and the last pit stop was pivotal.  He told the Charlotte Observer he didn’t have the pace he needed, so he took two new tires on the last pit stop instead of the four that the other leaders took. That made for the lead temporarily and dropped Smith to 11th at that point, but Rhodes said to the Charlotte Observer, “I just didn’t have the grip I needed.”

Phoenix Raceway is a track known for tire wear, Clapper said to The SandPaper after the race. “In a truck series you have a limited set of tires. Chris Lawson, our crew chief, made the perfect call to put four tires on. It cost us a lot of track position … (but) I had all the faith in the world in Zane getting the job done.

“I knew we had it in the bag. I knew we had the best truck, but I was still nervous going into a championship,” he recalled. “The best truck won the race.”

Even four nights later, “I don’t think it has fully sunk in yet,” Clapper said of the win. “I think it will once we get to Nashville at the end of the month. The drivers will bring their vehicles out and do a burnout competition and do a banquet for all three series champions. Everybody wants to go…