Smith Gets Back To Truck Series Victory Lane At Bristol
Chandler Smith celebrates his win at Bristol Motor Speedway Friday night. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Midway through the offseason, Chandler Smith found a late home with Front Row Motorsports. Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, he paid off their faith in him with a win.
Smith dominated early at The Last Great Colosseum, then rallied through traffic late on the top side of the concrete high banks en route to his sixth career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory and first since 2022.
After passing polesitter Daniel Hemric on lap nine and leading 113 straight circuits, a pit strategy shuffle left Smith trying to work his way forward from sixth during the final stage of the 250-lap WEATHER GUARD Truck Race.
Slowly and methodically, Smith did just that, clawing his way forward while Rajah Caruth led on older Goodyear rubber after a spin on a lap-79 restart forced Caruth onto an alternate strategy in the latter third of the event.
Smith followed Corey Heim past Caruth with 29 to go, then waited out a brief caution for light raindrops before making what turned out to be the winning move on a restart with 14 laps left.
With a deep dive into turn one on the inside of then-leader Heim, Smith was scored in front when the last of eight cautions waved on that lap-237 green flag, after third-running Bayley Currey broke a driveline and the ensuing chaos collected Andres Perez further back.
From there, with control of the race in hand, Smith pulled away during a seven-lap sprint to the checkered flag. He beat NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson by .934 seconds, denying Larson’s attempt to sweep the weekend tripleheader in its opening act.
It was an emotional win for Smith, who didn’t know after Phoenix Raceway in November if he’d even have a ride in NASCAR this season after being released from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Xfinity Series team.
“I’m more excited for this team than I am for myself. This group came together … so late,” Smith noted. “We hired my crew chief (Jon Leonard) three weeks before Daytona. Take that in for a second. This group just got assembled literally in January. The Good Lord works in mysterious ways.
Chandler Smith (38) battles Ben Rhodes (99) and Corey Heim Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Wyatt Tinsley/Race Face Digital photo)
“My life has been really, really crazy here recently, and there were a lot of unknowns about my future going into this season. We kind of had our backs against the wall about just putting a group together at the last minute, but I wouldn’t want any different group than I’ve got behind me,” he continued. “This No. 38 QuickTie Parts Ford F-150 was on a rail all night.”
For an extra bonus, not only did Smith take home the traditional gladiator sword given to all Bristol winners, but he earned $50,000 for winning race two of the Triple Truck Challenge bonus program.
“I forgot about that,” Smith added with a chuckle. “That puts the topping on the cake.”
Larson’s runner-up finish ended his run of two straight wins in his last two Truck Series starts prior to Friday night. He believed that he just had too far forward to fight through the middle portion of the race and just ran out of time on a short run to the finish.
“We fell back on the long run to end the second stage; I got super tight,” said Larson. “Then I sped on pit road on the next (pit) stop, and honestly, I think that actually helped us because then we were still buried … and that allowed us to pit and have a little bit of a (tire) advantage to get toward the front.
“I thought it would be more of an advantage than it was, but it was still a benefit to our race,” Larson added. “I felt like if we didn’t get the (penultimate) caution, when we were all in traffic and getting ready to race, that I might’ve had a good shot at it, but still to get (back) to second is good.
“Unfortunate not to get the win tonight, but we still have two more shots this weekend.”
Heim crossed the line third and maintains an 18-point lead over Smith in the regular season standings leaving Bristol. Tyler Ankrum finished fourth and two-time Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes was fifth.
Smith’s FRM teammate Layne Riggs, Jake Garcia, and Kaden Honeycutt were sixth through eighth, respectively, with Caruth fading to ninth on tires that were 54 laps older than the leaders after having to pit following his spin and run nearly 170 laps to the finish.
Rookie-of-the-year contender Gio Ruggiero closed the top 10.
The night’s biggest incident came on lap 54, when defending series champion Ty Majeski got into the back of the lap truck of Frankie Muniz entering turn three and sent Muniz spinning up the track into traffic. Brandon Jones and Stewart Friesen were both collected in the ensuing chaos also.
Majeski was eliminated in the incident after running inside the top five early on, credited with 33rd.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series moves next to Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway for its first race at the one-mile oval in 12 years on Friday, April 18.
Broadcast coverage of the Black’s Tire 200 is slated for 5 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
