“He’s aware that he owes us”: Zane Smith opens up on his message to John Hunter Nemechek after the horrific Kansas incident

Zane Smith delved into his one-on-one conversation with John Hunter Nemechek after getting flipped over at Kansas Speedway. Smith revealed that Nemechek is 'in debt' and has to make up for the incident in the remaining races.

In the first overtime restart at Kansas, Nemechek made contact with Smith and shoved him up the outside walls, resulting in the No.38 Chevy getting perpendicular with the asphalt.

Josh Berry and Ty Gibbs got caught up in the ensuing melee, while Smith rode the walls for a while before tumbling over multiple times. The result left all four drivers with backmarker finishes.

On the latest episode of Stacking Pennies podcast, Smith spoke to Corey Lajoie and went over the whole ordeal.

"I'm like, man, I just flat out got wrecked like, I mean completely driven through. And so yeah, I mean I know John Hunter well and I just text him you know like hey what what was the plan there? I mean, we were I think that was for like 16th or 18th or something. I mean, I don't even know if you do like that to win a championship," he said.[26:27 onwards]

"He basically owned up to just how he messed up. And that doesn't make it any any better. And yeah, he's aware that he owes us a lot now and he's in debt and he has to, you know, think about that for the remainder of races," he added.

Zane Smith also revealed that he originally thought a huge pile-up from 'underneath' pushed him towards the wall. He shared how scary the incident was from his standpoint, as his head was 'right by the ground'.

He currently ranks one spot below John Hunter Nemechek on the driver's standings, sitting at 27th with 537 points to his name.

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John Hunter Nemechek admits to his mistake at Kansas

In a recent interview with NASCAR analyst Bob Pockrass, John Hunter Nemechek expressed remorse for causing the multi-car wreck at Kansas Speedway. He broke down his reasoning for the move and how he intended to run three-wide in the middle, before he got 'tight' upon corner entry and brushed Smith's car.

"Just a mistake on my part. It’s unacceptable and definitely have to learn from and not let that happen again," he said.

John Hunter Nemechek and Zane Smith retired from the race at P32 and P31, respectively. Nemechek opened the playoffs with two top-10 finishes at Darlington and Gateway. He has since then struggled to repeat the feat, finishing 14th at Bristol and outside the top-30 at New Hampshire.

Kansas marks the Legacy Motor Club driver's third DNF this season. Across, 31 starts, the No.42 driver has logged eight top-10 results, including two top-5s.