During the off-season, there were a lot of questions surrounding Chandler Smith’s future in NASCAR’s National Series, after being displaced from his NASCAR Xfinity Series seat at Joe Gibbs Racing.
After an eleventh-hour deal landed Smith back in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, this time with Front Row Motorsports, the native of Talking Rock, Georgia has been rewarded with a trip to Victory Lane.
The 22-year-old driver held off NASCAR Cup Series superstar Kyle Larson in the final laps of Friday’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, collecting his sixth career victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
“I’m more excited for this team than I am for myself. This group came together, we hired my crew chief like three weeks before Daytona, just take that in for a second, this group just got assembled literally in January,” Smith told Josh Sims post-race.
It’s the 11th career victory for Front Row Motorsports in the NASCAR Truck Series, and the second-ever for crew chief Jon Leonard.
RACE RESULTS: Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway
“My life has been really, really crazy here recently and there was a lot of unknowns about my future going into this season and we kind of had our backs against the wall about putting a group together last-minute,” Smith added. “but holy shit, I wouldn’t want any other group than I got behind me.”
In his second attempt over the last four weeks to sweep NASCAR’s tripleheader race weekend, this time at Bristol, Kyle Larson finished in the runner-up spot, after being unable to reel in Chandler Smith during the race’s final green-flag run.
Corey Heim appeared to be in a prime position to snatch his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season, leading 16 laps towards the end of the event, before being relegated to restart in second after a questionable call of a caution by NASCAR Race Control.
The TRICON Garage driver would finish the afternoon in third place, his fifth top-five result of the season for the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro team.
Tyler Ankrum was able to bring home another solid top-five result for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, while Ben Rhodes, a two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, rounded out the top five.
After being lapped during the long green-flag run to end the second stage, Layne Riggs rebounded to finish sixth, with Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt, Rajah Caruth, and Gio Ruggiero rounding out the top 10.
Friday also served as a career night for Bayley Currey, who paced the field for 14 laps in the No. 44 Chevrolet Silverado for Niece Motorsports, only to have a late-race transmission issue while running inside the top-five late in the going.
Leaving Bristol, Corey Heim continues to hold the lead in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, with an 18-point margin over Chandler Smith. Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum, and Daniel Hemric round out the top five.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return to action next Friday at Rockingham Speedway, with coverage of the Black’s Tire 200 on April 18 at 5:00 PM ET on FS1, NASCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
