Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Chandler Smith

  • John Hunter Nemechek grabs third Xfinity victory of 2023 at Atlanta

    John Hunter Nemechek grabs third Xfinity victory of 2023 at Atlanta

    An overtime shootout amid a late on-track incident provided an opportunity for John Hunter Nemechek to capitalize against Kaulig Racing’s trio squad, which he did so as he motored his way to a thrilling victory in the Alsco Uniforms 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 8.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led the final three of 169 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and was running up front with the front-runners before he slipped and lost the draft in the closing laps of the first stage. In spite of not finishing in the top 10 during both stage periods, a multi-car wreck at the start of the final stage drew Nemechek and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew back into contention.

    He was left to contend against Kaulig Racing’s triple squad and a host of Xfinity Series regulars for the victory. Then after a caution period for Austin Hill’s wreck with three laps remaining that sent the field into overtime, Nemechek received a push from Daniel Hemric to overtake Justin Haley for the lead and fend off Hemric for two laps to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, rookie Chandler Smith scored his second Xfinity career pole after posting a pole-winning lap at 172.565 mph in 32.127 seconds. Joining him on the front row was John Hunter Nemechek, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 171.971 mph in 32.238 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Greg Van Alst and Mason Massey started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chandler Smith and John Hunter Nemechek dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith launched ahead through the backstretch with drafting help from Josh Berry on the outside lane. Berry then veered left and drew himself alongside Smith through Turns 3 and 4. With both competitors remaining dead even entering the frontstretch, Smith managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Berry as rookie Sammy Smith, Nemechek and Riley Herbst pursued amid the draft.

    During the second lap, Chandler Smith and Berry would continue to duel early for the lead in front of Sammy Smith and Nemechek as Smith managed to pull ahead and lead the proceeding laps while running on the outside lane.

    Then on the fifth lap, Berry would manage to pull ahead on the inside lane in Turn 1 and emerge out in front of the stacked pack that fanned out through the backstretch. Berry would then lead by three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side duel between Chandler Smith and Nemechek as all 37 starters were separated within nine seconds. Berry would continue to lead as the event surpassed its Lap 10 mark. By then, Herbst moved up to third behind Chandler Smith while Nemechek was in fourth in front of teammate Ty Gibbs.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Berry continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Chandler Smith, Herbst, Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Justin Haley, Custer, Jeremy Clements, Daniel Hemric and Justin Allgaier. By then, Austin Hill, who started the event at the rear of the field, carved his way up to 11th ahead of Brandon Jones, Parker Kligerman, Sam Mayer and Anthony Alfredo while Jeffrey Earnhardt, Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed, Joe Graf Jr. and Sammy Smith occupied the top 20.

    Seven laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Kligerman, who was running within the top 15, spun in Turn 2 after cutting a left-rear tire on his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro. During the first caution period, some including Ty Gibbs, Custer, Moffitt, Mayer, Creed and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Berry remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    When the race restarted on Lap 34, Berry, who restarted on the outside lane, muscled ahead with a push from Herbst as he retained the lead over Nemechek, who restarted on the inside lane before he pulled even through the backstretch. Berry and Nemechek would then duel for the lead amid a stacked pack trailing behind, with the former still emerging out in front. As the laps proceeded, Nemechek then slipped up the track in Turns 3 and 4, which allowed Herbst, Chandler Smith, Hill, Haley and Clements to move up while Berry retained the lead.

    When the final lap of the first stage struck, Berry was still leading ahead of a side-by-side battle between Herbst and Chandler Smith. Then exiting the backstretch, Herbst gained a strong run to Berry’s outside amid a push from Haley. With Chandler Smith trying to draw against Berry entering the frontstretch, Herbst used the momentum from the outside lane to pull away with the lead and claim the first stage victory on Lap 40, which marked his first stage victory of the 2023 season. Berry, who led 34 of 40 laps, settled in second while Chandler Smith, Haley, Hill, Allgaier, Clements, Creed, Joe Graf Jr. and Retzlaff were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Herbst pitted while others led by Creed, who was among those who pitted during the first caution period, remained on the track. During the pit stops, Jeb Burton exited first after only opting for fuel in his car while Herbst, the first competitor who pitted for fresh tires, followed pursuit.

    The second stage started on Lap 46 as Creed and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Creed gained a brief advantage on the outside lane until Custer drew himself into a side-by-side challenge with Creed from the inside lane. As both continued to duel, Creed would manage to lead at the start/finish line when the field returned to the frontstretch.

    By Lap 50 and with the field fanning out, Ryan Sieg made his move to the front as he battled Creed for the lead. Not long after, the caution returned for an incident involving Nemechek and Retzlaff in Turn 4. During the caution period, some including Moffitt and Daniel Hemric pitted while the rest led by Sieg remained on the track.

    During the following restart on Lap 56, Sieg and Creed dueled for the lead as Creed attempted to take the lead while restarting on the inside lane. Sieg, however, fought back on the outside lane and despite gaining a strong run through Turns 3 and 4, Creed would return to the top of the leaderboard during the following lap. Creed would continue to lead by a hair through the Lap 60 mark as Hill was lurking in the top five behind Sieg, Custer and Chandler Smith.

    Then two laps later and just as Sieg overtook Creed amid a tight battle at the front, the caution flew when Greg Van Alst, a newcomer to the Xfinity Series and winner of this year’s ARCA Menards Series opener at Daytona International Speedway, wrecked along with Mason Massey in Turn 4 as Van Alst’s No. 44 car burst into flames, with the driver able to exit uninjured. Amid an extensive caution period, some including Chandler Smith, Haley, Herbst, Mayer, Nemechek, Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff, Joe Graf Jr., Brennan Poole, Blaine Perkins, Garrett Smithley and David Starr pitted while the rest led by Sieg remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 71, Creed managed to overtake Sieg to reassume the lead. As Creed continued to lead during the proceeding laps, Hill then commenced his attempt to take the lead as he tried to overtake Sieg, who blocked and briefly stalled his momentum. By Lap 75, however, Hill carved his way into second as he then battled dead even against teammate Creed for the lead. While Hill would lead a lap for himself on Lap 77, he would remain stuck in a dead-even battle with teammate Creed as Sieg, Custer, Berry, Allgaier and the rest of the field pursued in close-quarters racing.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 80, Creed fended off a last-lap charge from teammate Hill to claim his fourth stage victory of the 2023 season. Hill settled in second while Sieg, Berry, Allgaier, Custer, Hemric, Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-12 competitors were separated by nine-tenths of a second while 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Creed pitted for service while Joe Graf Jr., Akinori Ogata and Mason Massey remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Allgaier was the first competitor to exit pit road first followed by Clements, Haley, Mayer, Hemric and Custer. Both Allgaier and Clements, however, would return to pit road after both missed their respective pit boxes amid the pit stops with the majority of the field. This cycled Haley into second behind Graf, who remained on the track with the lead, while Mayer, Hemric and Custer were scored in the top five.

    With 77 laps remaining, the final stage started as Graf and Haley occupied the front row. At the start, Graf briefly took off with the lead through Turns 1 and 2 until Haley rocketed to the lead followed by teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith on the inside lane.

    Two laps later, the caution quickly returned for a multi-car wreck that started when Herbst, who was running within the top 12, dropped off the pace through the backstretch after losing a left-rear tire on his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang. Herbst’s tire issue ignited a stack-up and a chain-reaction wreck that involved Sieg, Mayer, Blaine Perkins, Poole, Weatherman, Alfredo, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones and Creed. The multi-car wreck on the backstretch occurred just as Ty Gibbs had also fallen off the pace and was running at the rear of the field due to a flat right-rear tire on his car.

    During the caution period, names that included Mason Massey, Berry, Mayer, Garrett Smithley, Josh Bilicki, Clements, Allgaier, Poole, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Brandon Jones, Kyle Weatherman and Alfredo pitted for adjustments and repairs while the rest led by Kaulig Racing’s trio of Haley, Hemric and Chandler Smith remained on the track.

    When the race restarted with 67 laps remaining, Haley, who restarted on the outside lane and in front of teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith, retained the lead ahead of Nemechek, who restarted on the inside lane. Haley would remain in front of teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith with the lead during the proceeding laps. The caution, however, would return with 63 laps remaining when Kyle Weatherman came to a stop at the entrance of pit road after he had made earlier contact with the wall.

    During the proceeding restart with 55 laps remaining, Haley received the upper hand amid a side-by-side duel against Nemechek through the first two turns as Haley retained the lead through the backstretch. With Haley out in front, teammate Hemric settled in second while Nemechek, Hill and Graf were in the top five.

    With 50 laps remaining, Haley was still leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Hemric as Hill motored past Nemechek for third place. By then, Graf retained fifth while Custer, Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, Kligerman and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. A few laps later, Hill navigated his way around Hemric for second place as he ignited his pursuit of Haley for the lead.

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Haley continued to lead by a tenth of a second in his No. 10 Campers Inn RV Chevrolet Camaro over Hill while Chandler Smith made a bold, aggressive move from the inside to the outside lane to move up to third in front of teammate Hemric and Nemechek while Custer, Retzlaff, Kligerman, Moffitt and Graf were in the top 10. By then, the top-14 competitors were separated by two-and-a-half seconds with the top seven separated within a second.

    Three laps later, Hill, who tried to make an early move on Haley for the lead, was unable to execute his move for the lead and lost the draft towards the front with no one electing to draft with him as Chandler Smith, Hemric, Nemechek and Custer all overtook him, which dropped Hill to sixth on the leaderboard.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Kaulig Racing’s trio led by Haley and followed by teammates Chandler Smith and Hemric were at the top of the leaderboard followed by Nemechek and Custer while Hill was still mired back in sixth. Meanwhile, Kligerman, who was a lap down following his early incident, was back up to seventh followed by Retzlaff, Moffitt and Allgaier while Sammy Smith, Ty Gibbs, Clements, Graf and Mayer were in the top 10.

    With 15 laps remaining, Haley was still leading by a tenth of a second ahead of teammates Smith and Hemric while Hill carved his way back to fourth as he then tried to challenge Hemric for third. By then, the top-six competitors that included Hill, Nemechek and Allgaier were separated by seven-tenths of a second as the leaders were also starting to approach lapped traffic. With some of the lapped traffic that included Berry were lapped, Haley would retain the lead ahead of his Kaulig Racing teammates with 10 laps remaining.

    Then with three laps remaining, Hill, who moved up to third as he along with Nemechek and Kligerman overtook Hemric, had his hopes of winning at his home track three consecutive times evaporate after the air off of Kligerman’s front nose of the car caused Hill’s No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro to get loose as he slipped sideways and made rear end contact with the outside wall in between Turns 3 and 4 with the caution flying and the event being sent into overtime.

    With the field restarting in overtime, Chandler Smith and Kligerman both ran out of fuel, which caused the field to fan out and scatter as Nemechek rocketed his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra to the lead over Haley with Hemric pushing Nemechek out in front. Through the backstretch and with the field still being scattered, Nemechek led a four-car breakaway that involved Hemric, Haley and Custer, all of whom were separated by three-tenths of a second.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained the leader by a tenth of a second over Hemric as Haley tried to make a move beneath Hemric for second. With Nemechek retaining the lead in front of the field through Turns 1 and 2, Hemric retook the runner-up spot from teammate Haley entering the backstretch and tried to gain a run amid the draft on Nemechek with Custer following suit. Nemechek, however, blocked Hemric’s No. 11 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro entering Turn 3, which stalled Hemric’s momentum and was the difference maker as Nemechek was able to muscle away entering the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag by two-tenths of a second.

    With the victory, Nemechek, who last won at Martinsville Speedway in April, notched his third victory of the 2023 Xfinity season and the fifth of his career as he joined Austin Hill as three-time race winners of this season. He also achieved his second NASCAR national touring series victory at Atlanta after winning the Truck Series event at Atlanta in February 2016 and the fifth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    “I got a huge push from [Hemric in overtime], so thanks to Daniel for giving me that huge push,” Nemechek said on USA Network. “Early on in the race, if you would’ve said that we would’ve won the race, I definitely would’ve told you that wasn’t going to be the case. We didn’t have the fastest car tonight. I’m really proud of this whole No. 20 team. We just had to keep making our Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra better all night. [Crew chief] Ben [Beshore] and the guys did awesome. They made the right adjustments all night, got us to where we needed to be. It came down to an overtime finish and luckily, we were able to execute on that restart. Proud to be the one holding the wheel of this No. 20 car.”

    Meanwhile, Hemric settled in second place for a second consecutive time at Atlanta after also finishing second at Atlanta earlier in March. In between his two runner-up results at Atlanta, he has finished in the top 10 six times in 11 events. Despite coming up one spot short of winning, he has moved up to 10th place in the Xfinity regular-season standings and is 41 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    “I showed some super amount of frustration at the end when I got out of the car,” Hemric said. “I felt like I’d backed up to [Nemechek] there and thought I was gonna have the run down the front to at least give myself an opportunity to get [Nemechek] back. It’s frustrating. Obviously, we all want to bring back Kaulig [Racing] some trophies. For sure, [I] let one get away here tonight. I probably couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to there throughout the last 20 laps, even trying to hold [Hill] off there for our organization. When the dust started to settle, I thought we were gonna have an opportunity to do something special there. Hate it for [sponsor] Cirkul. I wanted to get them to Victory Lane, but fell short.”

    Custer settled in third after edging Haley, who led a race-high 80 laps, in a photo finish while Sam Mayer came home in fifth.

    “I think just leading all those laps, [I was] just short on fuel there,” Haley said. “I thought, obviously, we had [the race] won. Things just don’t work out sometimes.”

    Ty Gibbs, Kyle Sieg, Kligerman, Josh Williams and Sammy Smith completed the top 10. Notably, pole-sitter Chandler Smith ended up 20th after running out of fuel during the overtime attempt and never recovering his pace.

    There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 50 laps. In total, 17 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With nine Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by 16 points over Austin Hill, 45 over Cole Custer and 54 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps led

    2. Daniel Hemric

    3. Cole Custer

    4. Justin Haley, 80 laps led

    5. Sam Mayer

    6. Ty Gibbs

    7. Kyle Sieg

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Josh Williams

    10. Sammy Smith

    11. Brett Moffitt

    12. Austin Hill, one lap led

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Kaz Grala

    15. Jeremy Clements

    16. Parker Retzlaff

    17. Justin Allgaier

    18. Josh Bilicki, one lap down

    19. Josh Berry, one lap down, 34 laps led

    20. Chandler Smith, one lap down, five laps led

    21. Joe Graf Jr., two laps down, four laps led

    22. David Starr, two laps down

    23. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

    24. Mason Massey, two laps down

    25. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    26. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    27. Parker Chase, two laps down

    28. Brennan Poole, four laps down

    29. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Tranmission

    30. Mason Maggio – OUT, Electrical

    31. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

    32. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

    33. Brandon Jones – OUT, Dvp

    34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Dvp

    35. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident, 24 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    36. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, three laps led, Stage 1 winner

    37. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident, 15 laps led

    38. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of the season to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 15, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    AJ Allmendinger survived a series of caution periods and on-track chaos, including one that involved him at the start of the second stage, to muscle his way to the front, assume a late lead and fend off the field during two late-race restarts to win the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 24.

    The 41-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led three times for 25 of 196 over-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in 11th place. After settling in third place at the conclusion of the first stage, he was then involved in a multi-car wreck at the start of the second stage that eliminated a handful of front-runners that included Cup Series rookie Ty Gibbs.

    Following a methodical drive back to the front for the remainder of the event, he then muscled his way into the lead with 46 laps remaining. Despite losing ground amid a slow pit service under green during the proceeding laps, Allmendinger then managed to reassume the lead from Parker Kligerman with 11 laps remaining. Despite having to endure two late-race restarts, including an overtime attempt, Allmendinger did not relent as he fended off the field of Xfinity Series regulars to grab his second checkered flag of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Cole Custer notched his third pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 157.020 in 30.493 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 156.302 mph in 30.633 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Connor Mosack and Zane Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Joey Gase also dropped to the rear of the field as he started the event in a backup car and as a result of a driver change, where he replaced CJ McLaughlin.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, early trouble struck through Turns 1 and 2 when Jeb Burton and Kyle Sieg made contact and triggered a multi-car wreck that included Ryan Sieg, his brother Kyle and Stefan Parsons while the rest of the field veered to the bottom lane to avoid the carnage. Also involved was Justin Allgaier, winner of last year’s event at Nashville, after he collided into Parsons sideways while Parsons smacked the outside wall head-on. Despite suffering cosmetic damage to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, Allgaier managed to continue while remaining on the lead lap along with the Sieg brothers and Jeb Burton while Parsons retired.

    During the following restart on the eighth lap, Custer, who retained the lead through the event’s start and early caution period, continued to lead ahead of rookie Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith and Ty Gibbs battled for third. Entering the backstretch, Gibbs and Smith made contact, which caused the field behind Custer and Sammy Smith to fan out to three lanes. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Austin Hill, who tried to overtake Gibbs and Chandler Smith for third amid three lanes, made contact beneath Gibbs and was sent spinning up the track as he barely clipped Jeb Burton before lightly backing his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro into the outside wall while the rest of the field managed to dodge Hill’s incident. The incident was enough to draw the event’s second caution period.

    At the start of the proceeding restart on Lap 14, Sammy Smith and Custer dueled for the lead as the field fanned out. With Ty Gibbs also fanning out and overtaking teammate Smith for second, Custer retained the lead as the field navigated its way through a full lap under green flag conditions. With Custer leading, Carson Hocevar, winner of Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series event at Nashville, muscled his way into third while Sammy Smith and Riley Herbst occupied the top five ahead of AJ Allmendinger.

    Three laps later, the event’s third caution flew when Chad Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, got loose entering Turns 3 and 4 and spun backward toward the outside wall as he also collected Ryan Ellis, who veered sideways and scrubbed the wall, while the rest of the field escaped unscathed.

    When the race restarted on Lap 21, Custer and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to three lanes entering Turn 1. Through the turns, Gibbs started to peek ahead with the lead ahead of Custer before he assumed the spot with full authority during the following lap. With Gibbs leading Custer, Sammy Smith was in third followed by Hocevar and Allmendinger while Herbst was in sixth ahead of Chandler Smith, Parker Kligerman, Brandon Jones and rookie Parker Retzlaff.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than a second over Custer followed by Sammy Smith, Allmendinger and Hocevar while Chandler Smith, Herbst, Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer were in the top 10. Behind, Brandon Jones was in 11th ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry, Allgaier and Hill while Retzlaff, Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Daniel Hemric and Kaz Grala occupied the top 20.

    Nearing the Lap 40 mark, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Allmendinger and Hocevar remained in the top five while Chandler Smith was in sixth ahead of Herbst.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Ty Gibbs, who was making his fourth Xfinity start of the season and swept both stages at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, claimed his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer trailed in second place by more than a second while Allmendinger, Hocevar, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

    Under the first stage break, the lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hill exited first after only opting for fuel to his car followed by Gibbs. During the pit stops, Nemechek was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall.

    The second stage started on Lap 52 as Hill and Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, trouble struck for the front-runners when Hill made contact with Gibbs and sent Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra spinning through the first two turns, where he clipped Allmendinger and sent him spinning with damage before being hit by Hocevar’s No. 77 Premier Security Chevrolet Camaro against the outside wall as the rest of the field turned to the bottom of the track to avoid the carnage. In the midst of the carnage, Custer escaped with the lead followed by Mayer, Chandler Smith, Herbst and Creed while Gibbs and Hocevar retired.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 59, Custer and Mayer battled dead even for the lead until Custer, who restarted on the outside lane, prevailed to retain the lead ahead of Mayer. The caution, however, quickly returned during the following lap when Connor Mosack slid sideways toward the outside wall in Turn 2. While trying to straighten his car, his car then jerked back across the wall and smacked the wall before emerging with extensive damage on both the front and rear ends.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 65, Mayer peeked ahead to lead a lap for himself, but Custer reassumed the top spot amid a fierce battle between himself, Chandler Smith and Mayer. On Lap 67, Chandler Smith made his move to the front and emerged as the new leader while Mayer, Custer and Herbst battled for second. During the following lap, the caution flew again when Sammy Smith, who was battling Sheldon Creed for fifth place, was bumped by Creed through Turns 1 and 2. The contact sent Smith back hard against the outside wall as the rear end of Smith’s No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra was left destroyed while Creed, who veered sideways amid the contact, was hit by an oncoming Brandon Jones, who veered sideways with left-front damage to his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 75, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Mayer while Custer rocketed his way up to third followed by Hemric, Herbst and Zane Smith.

    By Lap 80, Chandler Smith was leading by more than a second over Mayer followed by Custer, Hemric and Herbst while Zane Smith, Nemechek, Josh Berry, Brett Moffitt and Retzlaff were in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Hill and Grala.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Chandler Smith claimed his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer settled in second followed by a hard-charging Hemric while Mayer, Herbst, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Berry, Retzlaff and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    During the second stage break, where the event surpassed its halfway mark, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith pitted. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith retained the lead after exiting first followed by Custer, Hemric, Herbst, Nemechek and Zane Smith. Amid the pit stops, Herbst was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for an uncontrolled tire violation. In addition, Mayer, who pitted from fourth place, exited just outside of the top 10 amid a slow pit service, where he had to back his car while trying to leave his pit box after being blocked by Blaine Perkins.

    With 91 laps remaining, the final stage started as Chandler Smith and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead following a push from teammate Hemric while Hemric challenged Custer for second. With Custer retaining the runner-up spot over Hemric, Chandler Smith continued to lead while Nemechek charged his way in fourth followed by Zane Smith and Allmendinger.

    Six laps later, the caution returned when Kligerman spun in Turn 4 after receiving a bump by Kaz Grala, though Kligerman managed to quickly straighten his car below the apron and proceed without sustaining any significant damage.

    With the race restarting under green with 79 laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Custer and Hemric, with Hemric launching his charge for the lead as he overtook Custer for second. Then two laps later, Hemric assumed the lead over teammate Chandler Smith. Smith, however, reignited another charge on his Kaulig Racing teammate as he reassumed the top spot during the following lap with Custer rechallenging Hemric for second. Behind, Nemechek and Allmendinger battled for fourth as Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to half a second.

    With 70 laps remaining, Chandler Smith was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer and by more than a second over teammate Hemric while Nemechek and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Smith would continue to lead with 60 laps remaining, but his advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over Custer as Custer methodically caught and challenged Smith for the lead. By then, Allmendinger, Hemric and Berry were in the top five while Nemechek, who was running in the top five a few laps earlier, made an unscheduled pit stop after reporting a vibration to his No. 20 Pye Barker Fire and Safety Toyota Supra.

    Five laps later, the battle for the lead intensified as Custer drew his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang into a side-by-side battle against Chandler Smith’s No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro. While Custer had the advantage on the inside lane, Smith refused to relent as he remained on the gas and maintained the momentum with a narrow lead on the outside lane. With both continuing to duke for the lead, Allmendinger joined the battle as he gained massive ground on the two leaders in his No. 10 Bailey Zimmerman – Religiously Chevrolet Camaro. The battle amongst Smith, Custer and Allmendinger soon narrowed down to six-tenths of a second with the trio still dueling for the lead with 50 laps remaining.

    Two laps later, Allmendinger made his way into the runner-up spot after overtaking Custer before he proceeded to challenge his Kaulig Racing teammate Chandler Smith for the lead. With Custer losing ground on the two leaders, Allmendinger, who had managed to methodically carve his way back to the front following his Stage 2 incident, assumed the lead for the first time with 46 laps remaining while their third teammate, Hemric, was trailing in fourth place by more than three seconds.

    Then with under 45 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Allgaier pitted along with Custer, Chandler Smith and Jeremy Clements. The race leader Allmendinger and teammate Hemric would also pit with 43 laps remaining as Berry cycled his way into a brief lead. Amid the pit stops, Smith and Custer managed to cycle ahead of Allmendinger, who endured a slow pit stop.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Kligerman, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Allmendinger, who had overtaken teammate Chandler Smith, who was dealing with an ill-handling race car amid a slide, on the track while Brandon Jones, Smith and Custer were in the top five.

    With 20 laps remaining, Kligerman, who remained on the track and was trying to conserve fuel to finish, continued to lead by more than six seconds in his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro and over a hard-charging Allmendinger with third-place Custer trailing by more than nine seconds. Kligerman would proceed to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger with 15 laps remaining.

    Then with 11 laps remaining, Allmendinger, who methodically gained ground and drew himself alongside Kligerman during the proceeding lap, overtook Kligerman for the lead entering Turn 1. Allmendinger would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over Kligerman, who continued to run on fuel-conserve mode, with 10 laps remaining while third-place Custer trailed by more than three seconds.

    Then with six laps remaining, the event’s 10th caution period flew when Chad Chastain spun in Turn 4. The caution period stalled Allmendinger’s progress as he was leading by more than two seconds over Custer while Kligerman was in third. During the caution period, six competitors that included the leader Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Hill, Herbst, Berry and Hemric remained on the track while the rest led by Custer and Kligerman pitted.

    With the race restarting under green with two laps remaining, Allmendinger was drafted into the lead with help from Hill as the front-runners fanned out, among which included Herbst as he bolted his way towards the front. Then in Turns 1 and 2, trouble struck for Chandler Smith after contact with Berry amid a tight four-wide action that also included Custer and Hemric sent Smith spinning up the track while the rest of the field scrambled to the bottom of the track to avoid Smith’s incident. Amid the incident, Allmendinger remained as the leader followed by Herbst, Hill, Hemric, Berry and Kligerman, but the return of the caution sent the event into overtime.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Allmendinger managed to rocket away from Herbst and the field. The field behind would then fan out to multiple lanes through the backstretch as Allmendinger continued to muscle away with the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Herbst, who was trying to fend off Hemric. Then just past the start/finish line, Hemric veered sideways, but he managed to straighten his car without triggering a wreck. Hemric’s loose moment, however, cost him a bevy of spots as Herbst, Hill and Mayer went by him. By then, Allmendinger was long gone with an advantage of more than a second through the backstretch. With the field battling amongst one another for as high as second, Allmendinger was able to cycle his way back to the finish line uncontested and score his second Xfinity victory of the 2023 season just as a multi-car wreck in the middle of the field erupted.

    With his first victory at Nashville, Allmendinger scored his 17th career win in the Xfinity Series, his second of the season after winning at Circuit of the Americas in March and his first oval, superspeedway venue victory since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022. In addition, this marked the third victory of the season for Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 “all-star” entry: twice made by Allmendinger and once by Kyle Larson at Darlington Raceway in May.

    “All thanks to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said on USA Network. “We got [country artist] Bailey Zimmerman. He flew in from Chicago this morning. [It’s] Awesome to have him here and win a race for him. The car was really good. [I] Got caught up in that wreck on that one restart. [I] Thought at least our chance to win was over, but the guys did such a great job of fixing [the car]. This is one of those iconic trophies [Gibson guitars] you wanna win. What a cool way to do it.”

    “All these wins are amazing,” Allmendinger added. “I love winning on ovals because I know a lot of people doubt me being on an oval. What a great time.”

    Herbst, racing for the first time with new crew chief Davin Restivo, settled in a career-best second place for the third time in his career and after coming off eight consecutive events of finishing no higher than 14th. Mayer ended up third while Hill and Berry finished in the top five.

    Nemechek came home in sixth place while Zane Smith, Hemric, Custer and Retzlaff finished in the top 10. Behind, Kligerman, Moffitt and Allgaier, all of whom wrecked approaching the finish line, ended up 11th, 14th and 15th, respectively, while Chandler Smith rallied his way to 12th.

    There were 17 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured a record-tying 11 cautions for 58 laps. In total, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With 11 Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by nine points over Austin Hill, 41 over Justin Allgaier and 51 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. AJ Allmendinger, 25 laps led

    2. Riley Herbst

    3. Sam Mayer, six laps led

    4. Austin Hill, three laps led

    5. Josh Berry, one lap led

    6. John Hunter Nemechek

    7. Zane Smith

    8. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

    9. Cole Custer, 32 laps led

    10. Parker Retzlaff, three laps led

    11. Parker Kligerman, 22 laps led

    12. Chandler Smith, 74 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Brett Moffitt

    15. Justin Allgaier

    16. Kaz Grala

    17. Sheldon Creed, one lap down

    18. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

    19. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

    20. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    21. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

     22. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    23. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

    24. Brandon Jones, one lap down

    25. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    26. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    27. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

    28. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    29. Chad Chastain, two laps down

    30. David Starr, three laps down

    31. Joey Gase, three laps down

    32. Mason Massey, 10 laps down

    33. Josh Williams – OUT, Alternator

    34. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    35. Connor Mosack – OUT, Dvp

    36. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident

    37. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident, 28 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    38. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 1, at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Chandler Smith notches first Xfinity Series career victory at Richmond

    Chandler Smith notches first Xfinity Series career victory at Richmond

    Nearly a month after having a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway within his grasp slip out of reach in the final laps, rookie Chandler Smith redeemed himself through a late shootout to claim his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career win in the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, April 1.

    The 20-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, led three times for a race-high 83 of 250-scheduled laps as he spent a majority of the event running towards the front. After claiming the lead from John Hunter Nemechek during a restart with 12 laps remaining prior to a late caution, Smith then used the outside lane during the final restart with six laps remaining to duel and fend off Nemechek before pulling away and retaining the top spot to claim his first checkered flag in the series.

    With on-track qualifying that was scheduled to occur on Saturday canceled due to inclement weather, the starting lineup for the main event was determined through a qualifying metric system from NASCAR’s rulebook qualifying procedure. Based on the metric system, Justin Allgaier was awarded the pole position and was joined on the front row by rookie Sammy Smith.

    Prior to the event, Parker Kligerman dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 48 Big Machine Racing entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced amid a delay spanning more than half an hour due to inclement weather, Allgaier jumped ahead with the lead on the inside lane as he managed to clear Sammy Smith and proceed to lead the first lap. Behind, teammate Sam Mayer launched an early challenge on Smith for second ahead of Riley Herbst, Daniel Hemric and Sheldon Creed while the field behind jostled for positions.

    Two laps later, Sammy Smith overtook Allgaier with a strong launch entering Turn 3. A lap later, Mayer would overtake teammate Allgaier on the outside lane through the frontstretch to claim second place as Hemric and Herbst closed in on the battle.

    During the fifth lap, early troubles ignited for Joe Graf Jr., who went dead straight into the Turn 2 outside wall due to a left-front tire while running inside the top 20. He was, however, able to make a pit stop without drawing a caution.

    With the event surpassing the first 10-scheduled laps, Sammy Smith was leading by a second over Hemric followed by Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek, and Allgaier while rookie Chandler Smith, Herbst, Josh Berry, Sheldon Creed and newcomer Derek Kraus were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Anthony Alfredo was in 11th ahead of Brandon Jones, Cole Custer, Jeremy Clements and Ryan Sieg while Jeb Burton, Austin Hill, Kaz Grala, Josh Williams and Brett Moffitt were running in the top 20.

    Through the first 20 laps, Sammy Smith continued to lead by more than a second over Hemric while Chandler Smith moved up to third ahead of Nemechek as Mayer fell back to fifth. Behind, Allgaier was back in sixth ahead of Herbst and Berry while Creed and Kraus occupied the top 10.

    When the competition caution flew on Lap 35, Sammy Smith retained the lead over Hemric, Chandler Smith and the rest of the field with 36 of 38 starters scored on the lead lap. During the competition caution, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Hemric pitted while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith and John Hunter Nemechek remained on the track. During the pit stops, Hill was penalized for speeding on pit road. Brennan Poole was also penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation after a tire rolled out of his pit box during his pit stop.

    Once the event restarted under green on Lap 42, Sammy Smith jumped ahead with a brief advantage while Chandler Smith, Hemric and Herbst took Nemechek through a four-wide battle entering the first turn as Nemechek struggled to launch on old tires. With Nemechek getting swallowed up by the field and competitors running on fresher tires, Sammy Smith was then quickly challenged for the lead through the backstretch as Herbst muscled his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang to the lead on the outside lane. Kaulig Racing’s Hemric and Chandler Smith would quickly follow suit for podium spots against Sammy Smith, who was then overtaken by Brandon Jones, Creed and Custer as he returned to the frontstretch and continued to lose spots. As the field behind continued to scramble for positions during the following lap, Herbst was overtaken by Chandler Smith during the following lap with the latter clearing the field and slowly pulling away.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Chandler Smith was leading by six-tenths of a second over Herbst followed by Hemric, Brandon Jones and Creed while Berry and Cole Custer duked for sixth. Allgaier was in eighth ahead of teammate Mayer, Kaz Grala, Kligerman and Ryan Sieg while Sammy Smith and Nemechek plummeted all the way back to 30th and 32nd while running on older tires compared to the field.

    Fifteen laps later, Chandler Smith continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Herbst while Jones, Berry and Hemric occupied the top five. By then, teammates Nemechek and Sammy Smith were mired in 32nd and 34th, respectively, towards the rear end of the lead lap field as the leaders started to close in to lap them.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 75, Chandler Smith claimed his first stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Herbst settled in a close second followed by Brandon Jones while Berry, Custer, Hemric, Allgaier, Creed, Ryan Sieg and Mayer were scored in the top 10. By then, Nemechek and Sammy Smith were lapped by the leaders. By being scored the first competitor a lap down, however, Nemechek was the recipient of the free pass while Smith remained pinned a lap down.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Herbst exited first followed by Jones, Chandler Smith, Custer and Hemric. During the pit stops, Mayer endured a long pit stop and lost a lap after running in the top 10 while Ryan Sieg was penalized for having too many men over the pit wall.

    The second stage started on Lap 84 as Herbst and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Herbst launched ahead to retain the lead while Chandler Smith battled Jones for second as the field behind jostled for positions. With Herbst keeping his No. 98 entry in front of a side-by-side battle between Chandler Smith’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing entry and Jones’ No. 9 JR Motorsports entry, Custer followed suit in fourth while Berry was up in fifth.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Herbst was leading by two-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith followed by Jones, Custer and Berry while Allgaier, Parker Kligerman, Creed, Kraus and Hemric were running in the top 10. Behind, Hill was in 11th ahead of Kaz Grala, Clements, Nemechek and Jeffrey Earnhardt while Ryan Ellis, Brett Moffitt, Alex Labe, Chris Hacker and Jeb Burton occupied the top 20.

    Five laps later, Chandler Smith reassumed the lead over Herbst, who had to check up as Joe Graf Jr. endured more on-track issues by slipping sideways on the backstretch. Jones would eventually make his way into second place over Herbst while Custer was locked in a battle with Berry for fourth.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 125, Chandler Smith was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Jones followed by Herbst, Berry and Custer while Kligerman, Allgaier, Kraus, Nemechek and Hill were in the top 10. By then, 27 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap, none of which included Sammy Smith and Mayer.

    Fifteen laps later, Chandler Smith continued to lead ahead of Berry as Jones and Herbst fell back to third and fourth. Custer occupied fifth while Allgaier was the highest-running Dash 4 Cash competitor in eighth. By then, Hemric was lapped by the field.

    Another lap later, Berry navigated his No. 8 Jarrett Companies Chevrolet Camaro into the lead with the leaders lapping the benchmarkers. Teammate Jones followed suit in second as Chandler Smith fell back to third. By then, Anthony Alfredo had scrubbed the Turn 2 outside wall with a flat right-front tire, but the event remained under green flag conditions.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 150, Berry claimed his first stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Teammate Jones settled in second followed by Herbst, Chandler Smith and Custer while Grala, Nemechek, Kligerman, Allgaier and Creed were scored in the top 10. By then, 18 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Berry pitted and Berry retained the lead after exiting first followed by teammate Jones, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Custer and Nemechek.

    With 89 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Berry and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Berry retained the lead in front of Jones and Herbst while Chandler Smith launched his bid for the lead while running in fourth. During the following lap, Jones muscled his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro into the lead while Chandler Smith battled Berry for second. Behind, Nemechek and Herbst battled for fourth in front of Custer and Allgaier as the field jostled for late positions.

    Fourteen laps later and with 75 laps remaining, Jones was leading by two-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith followed by Berry, Nemchek and Allgaier while Custer, Herbst, Grala, Creed and Hill battled within the top 10. By then, 19 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while names like Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg, Moffitt, Hemric, Mayer and Connor Mosack were off the lead lap category.

    Another nine laps later, Berry battled and overtook teammate Jones to reassume the lead lap. With Berry slowly pulling away, Nemechek, who rallied from losing a lap during the first stage, started to challenge Jones for second while Chandler Smith fell back to fourth in front of Allgaier and Herbst.

    With 50 laps remaining, Berry was leading by six-tenths of a second over Nemechek while third-place Jones trailed by more than two seconds. Chandler Smith and Custer remained in the top five while Herbst, Allgaier, Hill, Grala and Creed were back in the top 10.

    Nearly 10 laps later, Allgaier, who was running inside the top 10, pitted under green for four fresh tires as Berry maintained his advantage over Nemechek. With 30 laps remaining, however, the caution flew due to Clements coming to a stop on pit road. By then, 13 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while a multitude of names, among which included all four Dash 4 Cash competitors Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Mayer and Hemric were pinned at least a lap behind. In addition, Berry retained the lead in front of Nemechek, Jones, Chandler Smith and Herbst.

    During the caution period, the field led by Berry pitted and Berry retained the lead after exiting with the lead followed by Nemechek, Jones, Chandler Smith and Herbst.

    Down to the final 22 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Berry and Nemechek battled for the lead as Nemechek managed to muscle ahead on the outside lane and retain the lead through the frontstretch. With 20 laps remaining, however, the caution returned when Jones made contact with Herbst as Herbst backed his car into the outside wall as Jones slipped sideways and spun backward while getting hit by Custer’s No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang and barely by Connor Mosack’s No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota Supra. At the moment of caution, Chandler Smith cycled into second over Berry while Mayer was the recipient of the free pass after being scored the first competitor a lap down in front of Hemric and Sammy Smith.

    During the following restart with 12 laps remaining, Nemechek retained the lead amid a side-by-side battle with Chandler Smith before the latter managed to move back into the lead. The caution returned shortly after, however, when Moffitt spun in Turn 3 as Leland Honeyman and Graf also spun to avoid hitting Moffitt. At the moment of caution, Sammy Smith received the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap.

    With six laps remaining, the event proceeded under green. At the start, Chandler Smith and Nemechek dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Smith managed to move into the lead through Turns 3 and 4. During the following lap, Nemechek drew himself back alongside Smith’s No. 16 entry for the lead as both continued to battle through two tight lanes. Smith, however, would pull away through Turns 3 and 4 while Nemechek settled in second in front of Berry. Then with four laps remaining, Nemechek launched a final bid beneath Chandler Smith, but the latter pulled away with a clear racetrack in front of him and behind him. As the laps continued to dwindle, Chandler Smith retained a narrow advantage ahead of Nemechek and Berry.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chandler Smith remained as the leader ahead of Nemechek and Berry. With Nemechek unable to close the gap despite launching a final overtake bid on the outside lane entering Turn 3, Smith was able to navigate his way around the short track circuit for a final time and claim the checkered flag by more than two-tenths of a second for his first series career victory.

    With the victory, Chandler Smith became the 173rd different competitor to win in the Xfinity circuit and the fifth overall to win for Kaulig Racing. He also became the second first-time winner of the 2023 Xfinity circuit and the fifth different competitor to win through the first seven events on the 2023 Xfinity schedule.

    Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images.

    “[The win] Feels great,” Smith said on FS1. “This goes to testimony just to Vegas. Dominated that race, didn’t win. I said it was all in God’s timing. He’s in something creating way bigger better something than I know to do it. Here we are at Richmond, my favorite racetrack and we’re sitting in Victory Lane. All glory goes to God. Thank you, [owner] Chris Rice, [team president] Matt Kaulig, Quick Tie Products, everybody at Kaulig Racing, [crew chief] Bruce [Schlicker]. This is unbelievable.”

    Nemechek rallied from nearly losing a lap during the first stage to settle in second place for his third top-five result of the season and at Richmond for a second consecutive season while Berry ended up third after leading 63 laps.

    “We weren’t very good on the short run,” Nemechek said. “We had a long-run speed car. [I] Came from the back up there to battle for the win, put ourselves in position. Disappointed to run runner-up again. That’s the last three races here I’ve run second, so frustrating, but we’ll go back to work. We just got to figure out how to execute a little bit better. Just one of those days, but good run.”

    Grala and Custer claimed top-five finishes in fourth and fifth while Creed, Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Hill and newcomer Derek Kraus finished in the top 10.

    Meanwhile, Allgaier was the winner of the first Dash 4 Cash initiative despite finishing in 13th place, which was enough for him to claim the bonus ahead of his opponents Mayer, Sammy Smith and Hemric, all of whom finished 17th, 19th and 24th, respectively. The accomplishment marked Allgaier’s first Dash 4 Cash bonus since 2018 and his fourth since 2016. Allgaier along with race winner Chandler Smith, runner-up John Hunter Nemechek and third-place finisher Josh Berry will contend for the second Dash 4 Cash bonus that will occur two weeks from now at Martinsville Speedway.

    “Weird day today,” Allgaier said. “We didn’t fire off quite as good as we’d hoped, but [the team] kept working. Great pit stops all day. We pitted under green there to go for the win and ultimately, it bit us. Then it was just hanging on. We weren’t really sure what was gonna happen, but luckily, we were able to hold everybody off. It’s weird finishing 13th and still be standing here holding this [Dash 4 Cash] check.”

    There were 10 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 43 laps.

    Following the seventh event of the 2023 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 12 points over Riley Herbst, 18 over John Hunter Nemechek, 24 over Chandler Smith, 43 over Josh Berry and 46 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. Chandler Smith, 83 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    2. John Hunter Nemechek, 11 laps led

    3. Josh Berry, 63 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    4. Kaz Grala

    5. Cole Custer

    6. Sheldon Creed

    7. Ryan Sieg

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Austin Hill

    10. Derek Kraus

    11. Alex Labbe

    12. Jeb Burton

    13. Justin Allgaier, two laps led

    14. Chris Hacker

    15. Ryan Ellis

    16. Parker Retzlaff

    17. Sam Mayer

    18. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    19. Sammy Smith, 40 laps led

    20. Kyle Sieg

    21. Brandon Jones, 24 laps led

    22. Brett Moffitt

    23. Riley Herbst, 27 laps led

    24. Daniel Hemric, one lap down

    25. Leland Honeyman, one lap down

    26. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    27. Joey Gase, two laps down

    28. Connor Mosack, two laps down

    29. Patrick Emerling, two laps down

    30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    31. Mason Maggio, three laps down

    32. Stefan Parsons, three laps down

    33. Josh Williams, three laps down

    34. Brennan Poole, three laps down

    35. Gray Gaulding, five laps down

    36. Jeremy Clements, seven laps down

    37. Joe Graf Jr., 14 laps down

    38. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is another Virginia event as the series travels southwest from Richmond to Martinsville for its first of two visits to Martinsville Speedway, which will also serve as the site of the second Dash 4 Cash event. The event is scheduled to occur on April 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Sammy Smith dominates for first Xfinity Series career win at Phoenix

    Sammy Smith dominates for first Xfinity Series career win at Phoenix

    In the valley of the desert where a handful of NASCAR’s future stars battled against the all-time series winner and champion Kyle Busch, a new star shined the brightest as rookie Sammy Smith notched his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in the United Rentals 200 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 11.

    The 18-year-old Smith from Johnston, Iowa, led a race-high 92 of 200-scheduled laps, including the final 52, as he withstood a flurry of cautions, a 15-lap dash to the finish and a late charge from teammate Ryan Truex to claim his first Xfinity career victory in his 13th start in the series and become the first first-time winner across NASCAR’s top three national touring series for the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Cole Custer notched his first Xfinity pole of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 129.959 mph in 27.701 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 129.706 mph in 27.755 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Kyle Busch and Jeffrey Earnhardt dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars. Parker Kligerman also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch dogleg as Custer, who also went through the dogleg, retained the lead ahead of Daniel Hemric and Sheldon Creed while Allgaier fell back into a side-by-side battle with John Hunter Nemechek for fourth. At the conclusion of the first lap, Custer led ahead of Hemric and Creed while Allgaier retained fourth in front of Nemechek and the field.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Custer was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Creed followed by Hemric, Allgaier and Nemechek while rookie Chandler Smith, Josh Berry, rookie Sammy Smith, Riley Herbst and Austin Hill were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Truex was in 11th ahead of Ryan Sieg, Sam Mayer, Brett Moffitt and Kaz Grala while Jeb Burton, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones, Kyle Sieg and rookie Parker Retzlaff rounded out the top 20.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Custer extended his advantage to more than a second over Creed while third-place Allgaier trailed by more than two seconds. By then, Nemechek and Hemric remained in the top five while the two Smiths involving Sammy and Chandler battle for sixth. In addition, Kyle Busch cracked the top 20 after starting towards the rear of the field.

    Ten laps later, Custer continued to lead by more than two seconds over the new runner-up competitor Allgaier while Creed fell back to third as he trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nemechek and Sammy Smith were in the top five in front of Herbst while Hemric was back in seventh in front of teammate Chandler Smith, Josh Berry and Austin Hill. By then, Ryan Truex was back in 11th in front of Mayer and Brandon Jones while Kyle Busch was up in 14th.  

    Another eight laps later, the first caution of the event flew when the back bumper from Leland Honeyman’s No. 45 Alpha Prime Racing entry came loose and fell onto the frontstretch. The cause of the loose bumper happened a few laps earlier when Honeyman got loose and made contact against the outside wall towards Turn 1.

    With 10 laps remaining in the first stage, the event proceeded under green. At the start, Custer bolted ahead with the lead as the field fanned out through the dogleg again. Behind, Sammy Smith challenged Allgaier for second while Creed, Nemechek, Sammy Smith and Herbst battled for fourth. Shortly after, Allgaier launched a challenge to the outside of Custer for the lead but was unable to prevail as Custer maintained the lead on the inside lane.

    Then on Lap 37, Allgaier made his move to the outside of Custer as he assumed the lead in his No. 7 hellowater Chevrolet Camaro through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch. A lap later, the caution returned when Berry, who was running in eighth, got bumped by Chandler Smith as he spun in the middle of Turn 3. Despite the spin, the entire field managed to dodge Berry as he continued without sustaining any damage. During the caution period, some led by Nemechek pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    With two laps remaining in the first stage, the event resumed under green. At the start, the field fanned out to four lanes through the dogleg and through the frontstretch as Allgaier retained the lead. Behind, Creed made his way into second in front of a bevy of competitors that continued to fan out to multiple lanes. This, however, allowed Allgaier to pull away from the field.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Allgaier claimed his second stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Creed fended off Sammy Smith for second followed by Herbst and Hemric while Custer, Busch, Mayer, Nemechek and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by Allgaier pitted for the first time in the event while the rest led by Mayer and Nemechek remained on the track.

    The second stage started on Lap 55 as Mayer and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out through the dogleg, Nemechek muscled into the lead on the inside lane while Hill and Mayer battled for second in front of a flurry of competitors. As the battles around the circuit proceeded, the caution returned during the following lap when Moffitt, who was running just outside the top 10, got loose underneath Jeremy Clements and spun in the middle of Turn 3, though he was narrowly dodged by the field.

    During the following restart on Lap 62, Nemechek rocketed with the lead on the inside lane while Hill made his way into second. Behind, Ryan Truex and Jeb Burton challenged Mayer for third, though the later prevailed exiting the backstretch. As Nemechek retained the lead, Berry, who spun towards the conclusion of the first stage, carved his way back to sixth with multiple battles ensuing behind.

    Following another caution period for a two-car incident involving Connor Mosack and Josh Williams in Turn 2 on Lap 68 and another restart on Lap 74, Nemechek battled and fended off Hill to remain the lead on the inside lane. Shortly after, however, NASCAR assessed Nemechek a pass-through penalty through pit road as a result of Nemechek dipping his No. 20 Safeway/Albertsons Toyota Supra below the frontstretch’s double yellow line boundary, which was deemed a violation. With Nemechek penalized, Hill assumed the lead followed by Sammy Smith while Ryan Truex, Mayer, Berry and Busch occupied the top six.

    By Lap 84, the caution flew when Berry, who was running in fourth, got bumped by teammate Mayer as he spun his No. 8 Jarrett Logistics Systems Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2 and towards the pit road’s entrance while being dodged by Busch. By then, Nemechek, who was mired in the next-to-last position in 37th place, managed to remain on the lead lap while Hill retained the lead in front of Sammy Smith and Truex. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Hill pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    With two laps remaining in the second stage, the event restarted under green as Allgaier and Anthony Alfredo occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier and Alfredo dueled for the lead through the frontstretch with the field behind fanning out to multiple lanes. As the field continued to battle through the backstretch, Allgaier pulled away as he commenced the final lap of the second stage. With no competition luring behind, Allgaier claimed his second consecutive Xfinity stage victory of the season and third overall at the Lap 90 mark. Hill carved his way back to second followed by Hemric, Sammy Smith and Kyle Busch while Alfredo, Mayer, Herbst, Kaz Grala and Creed were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a few drivers including Allgaier and Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Hill remained on the track.

    With 100 laps remaining, which marked the event’s halfway mark, the final stage started as Hill and Hemric occupied the front row. At the start, a three-wide battle ensued through the frontstretch as Kyle Busch and Hemric challenged Hill for the lead.  In the process, Sammy Smith made it a four-car battle as he joined the battle while Busch carved his way into the lead by a hair over Smith. Soon after, Smith launched his challenge on Busch for the lead before prevailing in Turn 2 with 97 laps remaining. As Smith assumed the lead, Busch fell back to second while Hemric, Hill and Mayer were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Ryan Truex was in sixth in front of teammate Nemechek, who rallied from his restart penalty, while Herbst, Custer and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10.

    With 90 laps remaining, Sammy Smith was leading by more than a second over Busch followed by Hemric, Hill and Nemechek while Mayer, Herbst, Ryan Truex, Custer and Chandler Smith occupied the top 10. Behind, Creed was in 11th ahead of Brandon Jones, Kyle Weatherman, Grala and Parker Kligerman while Berry, Jeb Burton, Allgaier, Moffitt and Ryan Sieg were running in the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Sammy Smith extended his advantage to more than three seconds over the new runner-up competitor Hill as Busch, who had debris on his front grille, slipped back to third to remove the debris behind Hill’s rear bumper. By then, Nemechek moved up to fourth in front of Mayer while Herbst, Hemric, Custer, Chandler Smith and Creed were running in the top 10.

    With 62 laps remaining, the caution flew when Gray Gaulding wrecked against the Turn 1 outside wall as his event came to a late end. During the caution period, the field led by Sammy Smith pitted, but Hill reassumed the lead following a stellar pit service from his No. 21 crew followed by Busch while Sammy Smith dropped to third. Nemechek, Herbst and Mayer exited fourth through sixth while Allgaier gained four spots to move up to eighth.

    Down to the final 53 laps, the event restarted under green. At the start, Hill led a stampede of competitors through the frontstretch until Kyle Busch pulled his No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro even to Hill’s outside through the backstretch. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Busch peaked ahead with the lead, but Hill fought back on the inside lane. Then As Sammy Smith drew himself in between Busch and Hill to regain his lead through Turn 2, the caution returned when Creed got loose beneath Custer as he spun his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2 while being dodged by the field. At the moment of caution, Smith had reassumed the lead in front of Busch and Hill.

    During the following restart with 44 laps remaining, Smith fended off Kyle Busch to retain the lead through the frontstretch and entering the backstretch. In the process, Busch came under attack from Nemechek for the runner-up spot, which he lost in Turn 3 while Hill fell back to fourth in front of Berry and Allgaier. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Smith maintained the lead as he also started to extend it over teammate Nemechek while third-place Busch trailed by more than a second.

    Then with 30 laps remaining, the caution flew when Alfredo got loose and spun in Turn 2. By then, Sammy Smith was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Nemechek while third-place Busch trailed by more than three seconds.

    When the race restarted under green with 24 laps remaining, Kyle Busch launched a three-wide challenge on Sammy Smith and Nemechek in his bid for the lead through the frontstretch. Then in Turn 1, Nemechek went up the track and tagged the outside wall as he began losing spots. Meanwhile, Busch and Smith dueled for the lead through the backstretch, but Smith prevailed on the outside lane to remain as the leader. As Smith began to pull away during the following lap, a flurry of competitors running in the middle of the pack fanned out and jostled for late positions. Then with 22 laps remaining, Allgaier, who nearly got turned by teammate Brandon Jones in Turns 3 and 4 while running ninth, collided against Kaz Grala, who got pinned by Moffitt, and wrecked into the outside wall across the frontstretch as his eventful event came to an end with a wrecked race car.

    During the following restart with 15 laps remaining, Smith rocketed his No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra away with the lead on the inside lane while Busch battled and just fended off Hill for second. Through the backstretch, Chandler Smith made his way into third followed by Ryan Truex as Hill fell back to fifth. Back at the front, Busch tried to launch an attack beneath Smith on the backstretch, but Smith fended off Busch to retain the lead as Chandler Smith joined the battle in his No. 16 Quick Tie Chevrolet Camaro.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Sammy Smith was leading by nine-tenths of a second over the new runner-up competitor Ryan Truex, who was piloting Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra, while Busch was being challenged by teammate Chandler Smith for third. Meanwhile, Herbst carved his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang to fifth while Nemechek, Creed, Hill, Berry and Hemric occupied the top 10.

    With five laps remaining, Sammy Smith continued to lead by nearly half a second over teammate Ryan Truex, who continued to reel in on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the lead and potential win, while third-place Busch trailed by more than a second in front of teammate Chandler Smith and Herbst.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Sammy Smith remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over teammate Ryan Truex, who kept Smith close within his sights but was running out of time to bid for the lead. Despite Truex executing a late valiant effort for his first NASCAR victory, he ran out of time as Smith was able to cycle his No. 18 Supra way back to the start/finish line and claim his first checkered flag in the series.

    With the victory, Smith, whose previous best result was 17th through the first three scheduled events, became the 172nd different competitor to win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series level, the 21st to win an Xfinity event while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and the third different winner of the 2023 season. He also became the youngest series winner at Phoenix and the fourth-youngest overall at age 18 years, nine months and seven days. In the process, he recorded the record 16th Xfinity victory for JGR at Phoenix.

    “It’s amazing,” Smith, a two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion, said on FS1. “It’s a dream come true. Just thanks to Pilot Flying J, TMC, Allstate Peterbilt Group, Toyota, all the guys on the [Joe Gibbs Racing] team for giving me this opportunity. It’s awesome.”

    Teammate Ryan Truex notched a career-best runner-up result in his first of six scheduled starts with Joe Gibbs Racing for this season, which marked his third runner-up finish in the series overall and his first runner-up result in the series since Phoenix in March 2019, which occurred while driving a part-time stint with JR Motorsports.

    “I thought we were good at the start,” Truex said. “Man, I think the track just changed a lot more than I expected it too. That long run, we were really bad. I was just hanging on, but [crew chief] Jason [Ratcliff] and these [No. 19] guys let me complain on the radio and made the right adjustments. That was a good restart at the end. Glad I could at least try to make it exciting. Congrats to Sammy. He was just the class of the field all day. His car just looked so good. [He] Could really kind of do whatever he wanted. Just thankful to be here. Thanks to Toyota Genuine Parts. Sammy was just a little bit faster, but I’ll try again next time.”

    Sheldon Creed muscled his way to third in front of Herbst while Chandler Smith, who had a last-lap dust-up with Kyle Busch, completed the top five. Nemechek, Hill and Berry finished sixth through eighth, respectively, while Busch, who got sideways beneath teammate Chandler Smith and hit the Turn 1 outside wall on the final lap, ended up ninth. Hemric completed the top 10 in the final running order.

    There were 14 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 69 laps. In total, 33 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the fourth event of the 2023 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill continues to lead the regular-season standings by 30 points over John Hunter Nemechek, 39 over Justin Allgaier and 40 over both Chandler Smith and Riley Herbst.

    Results.

    1. Sammy Smith, 92 laps led

    2. Ryan Truex

    3. Sheldon Creed

    4. Riley Herbst

    5. Chandler Smith, two laps led

    6. John Hunter Nemechek, 19 laps led

    7. Austin Hill, 22 laps led

    8. Josh Berry

    9. Kyle Busch, three laps led

    10. Daniel Hemric

    11. Sam Mayer, four laps led

    12. Cole Custer, 38 laps led

    13. Brett Moffitt

    14. Anthony Alfredo

    15. Parker Kligerman

    16. Ryan Sieg

    17. Kyle Weatherman

    18. Parker Retzlaff

    19. Ryan Ellis

    20. Jeremy Clements

    21. Josh Williams

    22. Jeb Burton

    23. Brandon Jones

    24. Connor Mosack

    25. Kyle Sieg

    26. Joey Gase

    27. Leland Honeyman

    28. Bayley Currey

    29. Brennan Poole

    30. Patrick Emerling

    31. Joe Graf Jr.

    32. Garrett Smithley

    33. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    34. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    35. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Suspension

    36. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident, 20 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    37. Gray Gaulding – OUT, Accident

    38. Dawson Cram – OUT, Fuel pump

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is a trip back to the south for the series’ first of two visits this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 18, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Austin Hill scores dramatic Xfinity Series victory at Las Vegas

    Austin Hill scores dramatic Xfinity Series victory at Las Vegas

    From trailing rookie Chandler Smith by nearly three seconds with 25 laps remaining to narrowing the deficit and overtaking him prior to the final lap, Austin Hill cashed in with his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season in the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 4.

    The 28-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led three times for 19 of 200-scheduled laps, including the final two, as he overtook Smith for the lead prior to the final lap. Smith, who led a race-high 118 laps but had an advantage of nearly three seconds erased in the closing laps, was then overtaken by Justin Allgaier for the runner-up spot as Allgaier, who had been penalized earlier for a restart violation, tried to steal the victory away on the final lap. Time, however, fell in the favor of Hill as he held off a hard-charging Allgaier to steal the spotlight with his second victory through the series’ first three events of the season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, rookie Chandler Smith notched his first Xfinity career pole after posting a pole-winning lap at 183.119 mph in 29.489 seconds. Joining him on the front row was veteran Justin Allgaier, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 182.778 mph in 29.544 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed, Gray Gaulding, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones and Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars. Brennan Poole, Ryan Ellis, Alex Labbe and Garrett Smithley also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars along with Patrick Emerling, who replaced CJ McLaughlin in the No. 53 Emerling-Gas Motorsports entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chandler Smith peeked ahead with the lead on the outside lane followed by Brett Moffitt while John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill fanned out entering the first turn. With a three-wide action occurring through the first two turns between Nemechek, Hill and Parker Kligerman for spots in the top five, Smith cleared the field to assume the lead followed by a side-by-side battle for the runner-up spot involving Justin Allgaier and Brett Moffitt.

    As the field returned to the frontstretch, Chandler Smith led the first lap ahead of Moffitt and Allgaier while the field behind continued to fan out and jostle for positions early. Then during the following lap, the first caution flew when Kligerman, who was locked in a battle with Daniel Hemric for fifth place, got loose and slightly tapped by Nemechek as he spun in Turn 2, though he did not make any contact to his No. 48 Big Machine Racing entry as he pitted for fresh tires.

    When the race restarted under green on the sixth lap, Chandler Smith and Allgaier dueled for the lead for nearly a lap until Smith managed to pull ahead on the outside lane to retain the lead. As the field behind fanned out, Austin Hill made his way into third place followed by Nemechek, Brett Moffitt and Daniel Hemric.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Hill and Hemric while rookie Sammy Smith, Herbst, Sam Mayer, Berry and Moffitt were running in the top 10. Tyler Reddick was in 11th ahead of Rajah Caruth, Anthony Alfredo, Kyle Sieg and Jeb Burton while Kyle Busch methodically worked his way up to 16th from the rear of the field.

    Three laps later, Allgaier muscled his No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro past Chandler Smith for the lead as Nemechek started to gain ground on the two leaders. Another four laps later, Nemechek assumed the runner-up spot over Smith while Hill and Hemric remained in the top five. It would not be until Lap 22, however, when Nemechek cycled his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra into the lead over Allgaier.

    Through the first 30 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Hill, Hemric and Chandler Smith while Herbst, Sammy Smith, Berry, Mayer and Kyle Busch were battling in the top 10. Behind, Moffitt was in 11th ahead of Creed, Reddick, Jeb Burton and Kligerman while Brandon Jones, Alfredo, Custer, Ryan Sieg and Kyle Sieg occupied the top 20.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Nemechek, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Auto Club Speedway, captured his first stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Allgaier trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Hill, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Hemric, Kyle Busch, Sammy Smith, Creed and Berry were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the field led by Nemechek pitted for service and Hill was the first competitor to exit pit road first followed by Nemechek, Allgaier, Busch, Hemric and Chandler Smith. During the pit stops, Alex Labbe was penalized after a tire rolled out of his pit stall and toward the track. Josh Bilicki was also penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage started on Lap 53 as Hill and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Nemechek dueled for the lead as the field behind fanned and jostled for spots. Entering the backstretch, Nemechek cleared Hill for the lead while Chandler Smith, Kyle Busch and Allgaier engaged in a three-wide battle for third place. A few laps later, Allgaier launched a bid for the lead to the outside of Nemechek, but Nemechek managed to pull ahead on the inside lane as Chandler Smith and Hill joined the battle. The battle for spots towards the top five proceeded as Sammy Smith and Kyle Busch crept into the picture at the front while Allgaier managed to pull ahead in front of Chandler Smith and Hill for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles, Nemechek checked out with a decent advantage while Hill and Kyle Busch duked for fourth place in front of Sammy Smith.

    Through the first 60 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier, who had Chandler Smith closing in for the spot, while Kyle Busch and Sammy Smith were in the top five. Meanwhile, Hill fell back to sixth ahead of Mayer, Herbst, Hemric and Kligerman while Brandon Jones, Creed, Berry, Custer and Moffitt were mired in the top 15.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over the new runner-up competitor Chandler Smith, who overtook Allgaier for the spot nearly 10 laps earlier, while Allgaier, Kyle Busch and Mayer were running in the top five. In the midst of the battles, Hill was back in sixth ahead of Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Brandon Jones and Herbst while Hemric was back in 11th.

    Then after Chandler Smith reassumed the lead on Lap 72 followed by Allgaier, the caution flew a lap later when Josh Berry, who was battling Herbst for 10th place, got loose entering Turn 4 and spun his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro across the grass without sustaining any damage. By then, Nemechek had fallen back to third in front of his former boss Kyle Busch. During the caution period, Berry pitted along with Nemechek, who radioed a possible vibration and loose wheel throughout the second stage, while the rest led by Chandler Smith on the track.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 78, Chandler Smith and Allgaier battled for the lead for nearly a lap until Allgaier managed to pull ahead on the inside lane to take over the lead. In the midst of the battles, Hill was in third place followed by Kyle Busch while Brandon Jones emerged in the top five in fifth over Sammy Smith.

    Five laps later, however, Allgaier surrendered the lead and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty down pit road after being assessed a restart violation for diving his car below the inside line prior to the start/finish line. With Allgaier plummeting to 26th place and as the last competitor on the lead lap, Chandler Smith reassumed the lead followed by Hill and Kyle Busch while Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith were in the top five. Then with four laps remaining in the second stage, Hill overtook Chandler Smith for the lead as Kyle Busch and Jones closed in on the two leaders.

    With two laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when Rajah Caruth spun towards the apron in Turn 2. Caruth’s spin was enough for the second stage scheduled on Lap 90 to conclude under caution as Hill captured his second stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Brandon Jones settled in second in front of a hard-charging Kyle Busch while Mayer, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Custer, Moffitt and Creed were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders led by Hill returned to pit road for service and Hill retained the lead after exiting pit road first. Kyle Busch exited second followed by Berry, who only opted for fuel for his service, while Herbst, Brandon Jones and Chandler Smith exited in fourth through sixth, respectively. Following the pit stops, Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Hill and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Busch duked for the lead through the first two turns as the field behind fanned out. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Busch peaked ahead with the lead and started to maintain control of the field in his No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro while teammate Chandler Smith battled Hill for second place.

    With the event surpassing its halfway mark, Busch maintained a slight advantage over teammate Chandler Smith, with the latter launching his own challenge for the lead before reassuming it on Lap 102. Meanwhile, Hill fell back to third in front of Brandon Jones and Herbst while Berry was back in sixth over teammate Mayer, Sammy Smith, Custer and Hemric. By then, Allgaier was in 12th while Nemechek was in 15th.

    Down to the final 90 laps of the event, Chandler Smith was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch and a second-and-a-half over Hill while Bery and Mayer were in the top five. By then, Brandon Jones was in sixth ahead of Herbst and a hard-charging Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Hemric occupied the top 10. By then, Custer was back in 11th over Creed, Nemechek, Kligerman and Tyler Reddick while Moffitt, Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton and Joe Graf Jr. were mired in the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Chandler Smith continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch, who slowly began to decrease his deficit to his Kaulig Racing teammate, while Hill remained in third place and trailed by more than a second. Meanwhile, Allgaier charged his way back to fifth place following his restart violation penalty in the second stage as he tried to navigate his way around teammate Mayer for fourth place. Then with 69 laps remaining, Hill navigated his way around Busch for the runner-up spot as Allgaier started to close in on Busch for third place.

    With nearly 60 laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead by more than a second over the new runner-up competitor Allgaier while Hill, Mayer and Kyle Busch were scored in the top five. By then, Nemechek carved his way back to eighth behind Herbst and Berry while Hemric had fallen to 14th in between Custer and Moffitt.

    Not long after, pit stops under green ensued as Kyle Busch pitted. Chandler Smith would pit his No. 16 Quick Tie Chevrolet Camaro a lap later along with Allgaier, Hill, Mayer and others. During the pit stops, Sammy Smith slid his No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra sideways below the apron while trying to enter pit road. During his spin, he managed to come to a stop sideways in front of Josh Williams’ pit stall and avoid hitting Mayer, who was completing his service, as the race remained under green flag conditions. Amid his spin, Sammy Smith was penalized for speeding on pit road. Brandon Jones was also assessed a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road, but his situation went from bad to worse when he received another speeding penalty when he sped while serving his first penalty.

    With less than 55 laps remaining and with the series of green flag pit stops completed, Chandler Smith, who lost the lead to Hill following his pit stop under green before navigating his way back around Hill, cycled his way back to the lead followed by Hill, Kyle Busch, Allgaier and Mayer.

    Under the final 40 laps of the event, Chandler Smith was leading by more than two seconds over Hill followed by Allgaier, who navigated his way around Kyle Busch for third place, while Mayer settled in fifth. By then, Berry occupied sixth in front of Herbst, Nemechek, Creed and Hemric while 13 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap. Following his pair of pit road speeding penalties, Brandon Jones was relegated back to 28th.

    With 25 laps remaining, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Hill while Allgaier trailed by nearly four seconds in third place. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was mired in fourth place, trailing by more than six seconds, while Mayer was back in fifth place and trailing by nearly 10 seconds.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Chandler Smith, who was mired behind lapped competitors a few laps earlier and had led by more than two seconds, continued to lead by over a second Hill despite being reported to save fuel. Hill remained in second followed by Allgaier, who closed in on Hill for the runner-up spot.

    With five laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead, but only by nearly half a second as Hill continued to cut Smith’s advantage in his final bid for the lead and the win. Then with two laps remaining, Hill, who managed to close the gap and get close to the rear bumper of Smith’s car through the first two turns and through the backstretch, made his move beneath Smith’s No. 16 entry as he assumed the lead entering the frontstretch.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill was out in front ahead of Smith as Allgaier drew himself alongside Smith for the runner-up spot. Through the backstretch, Allgaier overtook Smith as Hill remained as the leader. As Allgaier tried to close in to Hill’s rear bumper, Hill managed to methodically navigate his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet Camaro through the final two turns out in front and beat Allgaier by two-tenths of a second to steal the show and grab the victory.

    With the victory, Hill, who won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February, notched his fourth career win in the Xfinity Series, his first in the series at Las Vegas and the 90th Xfinity victory overall for Richard Childress Racing.

    “[While I was] Passing one of the lapped cars early in our run, when [Chandler Smith] got by me [after a restart on Lap 98], I got really, really loose on entry to [Turn] 3,” Hill said on FS1. “I thought I was gonna wreck it, saved it. [Smith] got really far out. I just knew I had to not abuse the tires and try to methodically just work my way through traffic. The track was really tough today. Had a really thin line between [Turns] 3 and 4. If you missed it by—it seemed like a half of an inch—you paid for it through the whole lap. That’s just really what I stuck to all race long, was just trying to be disciplined through 3 and 4…I saw [Smith] struggling in traffic and my spotter Derek [Kneeland] was like, ‘Come on, baby. You can get it!’ I saw him get tight off of [Turn] 4 there, and I knew I painted the line perfectly. I knew if I could clear him down the frontstretch, I felt like once we had clean air, we could hold him off. We still got some things to work on, but it feels good to win on a mile and a half, not just these superspeedways.”

    As Hill celebrated the victory, Chandler Smith was left disappointed over falling short of his first Xfinity Series victory. The 20-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, however, remained optimistic over his third-place finish and a strong run in his third career start with Kaulig Racing.

    “Overall, I got a little tight there at the very end,” Smith said. “It is what it is. That’s a tough pill to swallow. There’s some things I could’ve done inside before we started getting tight. All in all, I can’t be too disappointed. It’s my sixth [Xfinity] start, third start with Kaulig Racing. We had a really fast Quick Tie Products Camaro, and I just really appreciate [owner] Matt Kaulig, [team president] Chris Rice, everybody at Kaulig Racing for bringing me on board, believing in me. We’re going to win a few races this year, for sure.”

    Allgaier settled in second place while Kyle Busch, who was aiming for a triple weekend sweep at his home track, ended up in fourth place in his first start with Kaulig Racing and in his first of five Xfinity starts of the 2023 season. Berry rallied to finish fifth while Nemechek, Mayer, Herbst, Creed and Hemric completed the top 10.

    There were 14 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 22 laps. Only 12 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the third event of the 2023 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 21 points over Justin Allgaier, 24 over John Hunter Nemechek, 34 over Chandler Smith and 44 over Riley Herbst.

    Results.

    1. Austin Hill, 19 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Justin Allgaier, 10 laps led

    3. Chandler Smith, 118 laps led

    4. Kyle Busch, four laps led

    5. Josh Berry, two laps led

    6. John Hunter Nemechek, 45 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    7. Sam Mayer, one lap led

    8. Riley Herbst

    9. Sheldon Creed

    10. Daniel Hemric

    11. Parker Kligerman

    12. Cole Custer

    13. Tyler Reddick, one lap down

    14. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    15. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    16. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

    17. Sammy Smith, one lap down

    18. Alex Labbe, one lap down

    19. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down, one lap led

    20. Kyle Sieg, two laps down

    21. Brandon Jones, two laps down

    22. Brett Moffitt, two laps down

    23. Kaz Grala, two laps down

    24. Ryan Sieg, three laps down

    25. Jeremy Clements, three laps down

    26. Rajah Caruth, three laps down

    27. Ryan Ellis, three laps down

    28. Bayley Currey, three laps down

    29. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

    30. Josh Williams, three laps down

    31. Josh Bilicki, four laps down

    32. Gray Gaulding, four laps down

    33. Brennan Poole, four laps down

    34. Patrick Emerling, six laps down

    35. Blaine Perkins, eight laps down

    36. Garrett Smithley, 13 laps down

    37. Parker Retzlaff, 14 laps down

    38. Joey Gase – OUT, Fuel Pump

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the series’ third and final stretch of a three-week West Coast swing. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 11, at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Logano edges Bell for first Bluegreen Vacations Duel win; Zane Smith transfers to Daytona 500

    Logano edges Bell for first Bluegreen Vacations Duel win; Zane Smith transfers to Daytona 500

    The reigning two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano prevailed in a final lap duel against Christopher Bell to win the first of two Bluegreen Vacation Duels at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, February 16.

    The first Duel victory for Logano occurred as he led the final 29 of 60 scheduled laps, with his first opportunity of leading occurring following the first and only cycle of green flag pit stops just past the halfway mark. Then on the final lap, he fended off a brief challenge from teammate Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick entering the backstretch before he came under fire from Bell entering the frontstretch. Locked in a side-by-side battle with Bell coming to the finish line, Logano was able to pull ahead and edge him by 0.018 seconds to win a Daytona Duel event for the third time in his career.

    The Duel victory also awarded Logano a handful of championship points and the third-place starting spot for this year’s 65th annual running of the Daytona 500 as he will contend for his second victory in the Great American Race.

    Prior to the event, Alex Bowman, who claimed the pole position for the 65th running of the Daytona 500 on Wednesday night, started on the pole for the first Duel event and was joined on the front row by teammate William Byron. Meanwhile, newcomer Chandler Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his Kaulig Racing entry.

    When the green flag waved and the first Duel event commenced, teammates Bowman and Byron dueled for the lead early through the first two turns. As Byron peeked ahead on the inside lane, Bowman fought back on the outside lane through the backstretch as he had drafting help from Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. Shortly after, Blaney ducked his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang below Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through Turns 3 and 4 as he assumed the lead followed by Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Blaney led the first lap followed by Wallace, Bowman, Ross Chastain and Byron as the field started to fan out to three lanes. Shortly after, Bowman dropped to the rear of the field to preserve his pole-winning car as Chastain launched his early bid for the lead against Blaney.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Blaney and Chastain were engaged in a side-by-side battle for the lead while rookie Ty Gibbs, Wallace, Christopher Bell, Byron, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Erik Jones and Harrison Burton were in the top 10 amid the field being stacked up and competing through two lanes. By then, all but one of 21 starters were separated by nine-tenths of a second while Bowman was mired all the way at the rear of the field in 21st place.

    At the Lap 10 mark and with the front-runners settling in a single-file line, Blaney was leading ahead of Wallace, Byron, Logano and Burton while Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chastain were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Zane Smith and Chandler Smith, who were battling for a transfer spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500, were in 11th and 14th, respectively.

    By Lap 20, Blaney continued to lead ahead of Wallace, Byron, Logano, Burton, Buescher, Harvick, McDowell, Stenhouse and Zane Smith while Bell, Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Chastain, Chandler Smith, Cody Ware, Johnson, Ty Dillon and Bowman rounded out the 21-car field.

    A lap later, green flag pit stops ensued as all the Chevrolet competitors pitted. Following the pit stops, however, Stenhouse and Chandler Smith were penalized for speeding on pit road as they were forced to serve a drive-through penalty through pit road under green.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 30, Blaney retained the lead ahead of Wallace, Logano, Burton, Buescher, Harvick, Bell, McDowell, Zane Smith and Gibbs, with the top-nine competitors being separated by a second while the Chevrolet competitors led by Byron in 12th were trailing the leaders by more than 45 seconds. By then, Zane Smith occupied a transfer spot in 10th while Chandler Smith was mired back in 20th.

    Shortly after, a host of competitors led by Blaney pitted under green. Following the pit stops, Gibbs was penalized with a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road. When the field returned to the track under green, Logano cycled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang into the lead followed by Harvick and Blaney.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Logano was leading a nine-car breakaway that included Harvick, Blaney, Buescher and Bell while Burton, Wallace, McDowell and Zane Smith while Byron was mired back in 10th. By then, the top-nine competitors who pitted on Lap 31 were leading 10th-place Byron and a host of Chevrolet competitors who pitted on Lap 22 by more than nine seconds. In addition, Zane Smith, who opted only for fuel during his green flag pit stop, was running in a transfer spot in ninth while Chandler Smith was mired towards the rear of the field in 21st place and a lap down.

    With 10 laps remaining, Logano continued to lead ahead of Harvick, Blaney, Buescher and Bell while Burton, Wallace, McDowell, Zane Smith and Byron remained in the top 10. Logano would also retain the lead ahead of Harvick and a bevy of competitors with five laps remaining.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano remained as the leader ahead of Harvick as Blaney, Bell and Wallace moved to the outside lane in their bids to challenge Logano for the win. Just past the frontstretch, Harvick pulled up to block Blaney’s momentum, but Blaney ducked to the inside lane as he tried to challenge Harvick for second place. Harvick, however, fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from Bell and Wallace while Blaney was slowly losing ground and the draft.

    Then through the backstretch, Bell pulled his No. 20 DeWalt/Rheem Toyota TRD Camry below Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Ford Mustang as he moved into second place. Shortly after, he made his move to the outside of Logano through Turns 3 and 4. Entering the frontstretch, Bell and Logano remained dead even for the lead until Logano, who had teammate Blaney gaining ground on him in the draft, managed to pull his Ford on the inside lane and edge Bell by 0.018 seconds to win the first Duel event.

    Logano’s Duel victory was his first since 2020 and also the seventh overall for Team Penske as the Ford nameplate has achieved at least one Duel victory for a seventh consecutive victory.

    “Just a great job by the Shell/Pennzoil team,” Logano said on FS1. “The execution of this race is everything. You know most likely there won’t be a caution, so you got to do a good job on pit road, cycle yourself to the front, but then, I’m sitting there as the leader. I’m thinking, ‘Man, I am a sitting duck. This is not where I want to be.’ I was hoping they started racing back there, which they did, which ended up kind of working out for me. When [Bell] got to me, I saw Blaney was behind me and I was like, ‘There’s my buddy. I gotta stick with him.’ I knew [Bell] would make the run to the outside [lane] and I probably wasn’t going be able to defend that. [I] Waited for [Blaney] to push me through there, so good Penske effort there to get a Duel win. Much better than what happened last year. I’m glad to have a nice start over here to this season.”

    Bell settled in second place followed by Blaney, Buescher and McDowell while Harvick, Bubba Wallace, Zane Smith, Harrison Burton and Byron finished in the top 10 on the track.

    Meanwhile, Zane Smith was also left smiling on pit road after finishing in eighth place and racing his way into the Daytona 500 for the first time in his career. The 500 event will mark his second career start in NASCAR’s premier series and the first of select Cup starts for the Californian as he is set to compete in this year’s Craftsman Truck Series season to defend his series title.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Once we got to about 10 [laps] to go, I’m like, ‘Man, please, please, no caution,” Smith said. “Just a huge shoutout to my whole [Front Row Motorsports] team. Our Wellcare Mustang was good enough to get in, which there was a lot of really good open cars. Just so proud of everyone. Just unbelievable to be in the Great American Race.”

    As a result, Chandler Smith, who could not recover from his early pit road speeding penalty, finished 21st and failed to qualify for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Nonetheless, he is set to compete on a full-time basis for Kaulig Racing in this year’s Xfinity Series season along with select Cup events throughout the year.

    “Before [the race], I said I’m fine if I don’t make it, but it’d be awesome if I made it,” Smith said. “I’m a believer. I had a lot of fun right there. Even from that one Duel, I just learned so, so much, which was awesome taking that in. We weren’t able to get it this year, but hopefully, we can come back next year, make another attempt and get in on time.”

    Amid the battles between the two Smiths, Jimmie Johnson, who finished 14th, claimed his starting spot for the 500 based on his qualifying speed from Wednesday night.

    There were four lead changes for three different leaders. The event featured no cautions.

    Results.

    1. Joey Logano, 29 laps led

    2. Christopher Bell

    3. Ryan Blaney, 30 laps led

    4. Chris Buescher

    5. Michael McDowell

    6. Kevin Harvick

    7. Bubba Wallace

    8. Zane Smith

    9. Harrison Burton

    10. William Byron

    11. Ross Chastain, one lap led

    12. Erik Jones

    13. Austin Dillon

    14. Jimmie Johnson

    15. AJ Allmendinger

    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    17. Alex Bowman, one lap down

    18. Chandler Smith, one lap down

    19. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

    20. Cody Ware, one lap down

    21. Ty Dillon, one lap down

    The second Bluegreen Vacations Duel is underway at Daytona International Speedway, which will complete the starting lineup for the 65th running of the Daytona 500 scheduled for Sunday, February 19.

  • Zane Smith earns first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship at Phoenix

    Zane Smith earns first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship at Phoenix

    After finishing in the runner-up spot in the final standings during the previous two seasons, the third time was the lucky charm for Zane Smith as he prevailed in a late battle against his title rivals to win the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship along with the season-finale Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, November 4.

    In total, the 23-year-old Smith from Huntington Beach, California, led five times for a race-high 77 of 154 over-scheduled laps during the finale from pole position. Despite losing a combined five spots on pit road during the conclusion of both stages, which he won both, he remained within striking distance of the title fight and against his title rivals throughout the final stage. From executing a bold three-wide pass for the lead during a restart with 39 laps remaining to pitting for four fresh tires and restarting towards the top 10 with 10 laps remaining, Smith carved his way back to the runner-up spot and received another opportunity to reassume the lead after title rival Ty Majeski spun with four laps remaining, an incident that nearly collected Smith. Then during an overtime attempt, Smith prevailed in a late battle against Rhodes and Chandler Smith, including a final lap “bump-and-run” attempt from Rhodes, to assume the lead for good and proceed to win both the finale and claim his first elusive NASCAR national touring series championship.  

    The 2022 Truck Series championship comes in Smith’s third full-time season in the series and his first with Front Row Motorsports, where he commenced the season by winning at Daytona International Speedway in February and notching two additional victories throughout the regular-season stretch before clinching the 2022 Truck Series regular-season title, entering the Playoffs with momentum and utilizing consistency to transfer all the way to the Championship 4 round.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Zane Smith, a Championship 4 finalist, claimed the final pole position of the 2022 season and the first of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 138.032 mph in 26.081 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Layne Riggs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 137.825 mph in 26.120 seconds. Zane Smith’s other three championship rivals that included Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Chandler Smith qualified sixth, eighth and 12th, respectively.

    Prior to the event, Derek Kraus dropped to the rear of the field in a backup truck along with rookie Dean Thompson, who dropped back due to an engine change to his truck.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Zane Smith fended off an early charge from rookie Corey Heim to retain the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as he went on to lead the first lap. During the following lap, however, Layne Riggs mounted a charge through Turns 1 and 2 as he overtook Smith for the lead. Despite being challenged by Smith, Riggs retained the top spot as the field behind jostled for positions.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Riggs was leading by two-tenths of a second over Zane followed by Heim, Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes while Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Tanner Gray and Christian Eckes were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith, the fourth and final title contender, was in 12th while trying to march his way to the front.

    Two laps later, the first caution flew when Keith McGee and Armani Williams, both of whom were battling at the rear of the field, wrecked in Turn 3. The two-truck wreck occurred a lap early after Zane Smith had reassumed the lead over Riggs.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 13, Zane Smith rocketed with a strong start to retain the lead as the field fanned out through the dogleg and entering Turn 2. Meanwhile, Heim moved up to second followed by Riggs, who soon after lost third place to teammate Friesen, while Rhodes retained fifth.

    By Lap 20, Zane Smith’s No. 38 Michael Roberts Construction Ford F-150 was leading by more than a second over Heim’s No. 51 Crescent Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro followed by Friesen, Riggs and Rhodes while Grant Enfinger, Nemechek, Crafton, Eckes and Chandler Smith occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Majeski, who was running within the top 10, was back in 11th ahead of brothers Tanner and Taylor Gray while Rajah Caruth and Matt DiBenedetto were running in the top 15.

    Five laps later, Zane Smith stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Heim while Friesen, Riggs and Rhodes remained in the top five. By then, Nemchek moved up to sixth following a fierce battle against Enfinger, who fell back to seventh and was being pressured by Matt Crafton for more. Chandler Smith and Majeski were back in ninth and 11th, respectively.

    Another 10 laps later, Zane Smith extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Heim followed by Friesen and a side-by-side battle for fourth place between Riggs and Nemechek. While Zane Smith remained as the top-running title contender with the race lead, his title rivals that included Rhodes, Chandler Smith and Majeski were back in seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Zane Smith struck first early in his championship bid by capturing his ninth stage victory of the 2022 season. Heim settled in second followed by Friesen, Nemechek and Crafton while Rhodes, Enfinger, Chandler Smith, Eckes and Riggs were scored in the top 10. By then, Majeski was scored in 11th after getting edged by Riggs at the start/finish line.

    Under the stage break, the field led by Zane Smith pitted for fresh tires, fuel and adjustments. Following the pit stops, Heim exited first followed by teammate Nemechek, Zane Smith, teammate Chandler Smith, Enfinger, Majeski and Crafton. Following the pit stops, trouble struck for Eckes, who initially exited ninth but limped back to his pit stall with the left-front tire on his No. 98 CMR Toyota Tundra TRD Pro locked up and igniting sparks around the circuit.

    The second stage started on Lap 53 as teammates Heim and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start and as the field fanned out through the dogleg, Heim retained the lead ahead of teammates Nemechek and Chandler Smith followed by Zane Smith. During the following lap, however, Nemechek assumed the lead in his No. 4 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Tundra TRD Pro followed by Heim, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith as the field behind continued to jostle for positions. By then, Carson Hocevar was assessed a pass-through penalty for a restart violation.

    By Lap 60, Nemechek was leading by a second over title contender Zane Smith followed by Chandler Smith, Heim and Majeski while Friesen, Enfinger, Crafton, Taylor Gray and Rhodes were in the top 10.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 75, Nemechek retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Zane Smith followed by Chandler Smith, Heim and Friesen while Majeski, Crafton, Enfinger, Taylor Gray and Rhodes were scored in the top 10 ahead of Caruth, Tyler Ankrum, Riggs, DiBenedetto, Tanner Gray and Eckes. By then, 22 of 35 competitors were scored on the lead lap.

    Nearly five laps later, the battle for the lead ignited between Nemechek and Zane Smith as Smith tried to overtake Nemechek through the backstretch. Nemechek, however, retained the top spot through Turns 3 and 4 and continued to lead ahead of a hard-charging Smith.

    Then with four laps remaining in the second stage and following his late battle against Nemechek, Zane Smith emerged out in front with the lead despite Nemechek fighting back through every turn and straightaway. Despite being drawn against Nemechek during the following three laps, Zane Smith was able to fend off Nemechek as he went on to capture his series-leading 10th stage victory of the 2022 season and second of the night on Lap 90 as he struck yet again in his bid to claim his first NASCAR championship. Nemechek settled in second while Chandler Smith, Heim, Majeski, Crafton, Enfinger, Friesen, Taylor Gray and Rhodes were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the field led by Zane Smith returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek exited with the top spot followed by Chandler Smith, Heim, Zane Smith, Majeski and Rhodes. In the midst of the pit stops, DiBenedetto was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 52 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Nemechek and Chandler Smith occupied the front row. At the start and as the field fanned out through the dogleg again, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of teammate Nemechek, Zane Smith and Heim. Then the caution quickly returned when Eckes spun and backed his truck against the Turn 1 outside wall after getting hit by Tyler Ankrum entering the turn and in the midst of the field fanning out to multiple lanes.

    When the race restarted with 45 laps remaining, Chandler Smith briefly retained the lead ahead of the field through the dogleg and the first two turns until teammate Nemechek challenged and overtook Smith on the outside lane for the top spot. The caution, however, quickly returned once again due to a multi-truck wreck in Turn 1 that involved Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Riggs and Kraus.

    During the following restart with 39 laps remaining, Zane Smith, who restarted on the inside lane behind Nemechek, used the dogleg to his advantage as he launched a three-wide challenge and drew himself in a bid for the lead alongside Chandler Smith. He then managed to overtake and clear Chandler Smith for the lead exiting the backstretch and entering Turn 3 while Nemechek settled in third. 

    With 30 laps remaining, Zane Smith was leading both the race and the championship by seven-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith’s No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra TRD Pro while Nemechek, Enfinger and Majeski and Rhodes were in the top six ahead of Heim, Crafton, Kaden Honeycutt and Ankrum.

    Ten laps later, Zane Smith continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while Nemechek, Enfinger and Majeski remained in the top five on the track. Meanwhile, the fourth and final Playoff competitor, Rhodes, was back in seventh behind Heim.

    Then another four laps later, the caution flew when Hailie Deegan cut a left-tire tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3 as her final race with David Gilliland Racing came to a late end. During the caution period, Friesen and Hocevar remained on the track while the rest led by Zane Smith pitted. Following the pit stops, Rhodes exited pit road first after opting for a two-tire pit strategy followed by DiBenedetto, Honeycutt and the Gray brothers, all of whom opted for just two fresh tires. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith was the first competitor to exit pit road with four fresh tires in sixth place followed by Majeski, Nemechek and Zane Smith.

    With the race restarting with 10 laps remaining, the field fanned out as Friesen retained the lead ahead of Rhodes and Hocevar. As both Zane and Chandler Smith were trying to carve their way back towards the front, teammates Rhodes and Majeski battled for second and for the title, with the former trying to overtake Friesen for the race lead. 

    With seven laps remaining, Rhodes overtook Friesen for the lead on two fresh tires entering the backstretch as he commenced his late charge to defend his series title. By then, however, Zane Smith carved his way back into the runner-up spot while both Majeski and Chandler Smith were were trying to overtake Friesen to maintain their title hopes.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, the final four title contenders were first through fourth on the track, with Rhodes leading ahead of Zane Smith, Majeksi and Chandler Smith. 

    Then during the following lap, Majeski’s championship hopes evaporated after the Wisconsin native made contact with Zane Smith entering the backstretch while battling for the runner-up spot, which caused Majeski’s No. 66 Road Ranger Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to get loose as he spun and made light contact against the inside wall. Majeski’s incident was also enough to send the event into overtime as the event exceeded past its scheduled distance.

    During the first overtime attempt, Zane Smith, who opted to restart behind Rhodes on the inside lane, used the dogleg to his advantage as he managed to overtake both Chandler Smith and Rhodes through the first two turns to reassume the lead. Chandler Smith then crossed over to Zane’s Ford on the inside lane as he tried to stall Zane’s run while drawing even with Zane through the backstretch. Chandler, however, slightly slid up the track through Turn 3, which allowed Zane Smith to pull ahead while Rhodes rejoined the battle for the lead and the championship.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Zane Smith was out in front by a mere margin over Chandler Smith and Rhodes. Through the first two turns, Zane Smith pulled ahead followed by a hard-charging Rhodes while Chandler Smith fell back to third. With Rhodes setting up a final attempt on Zane Smith for the victory and the title, he then got to Zane’s rear bumper in an attempt to bump and move him up the track to overtake him. The bump, however, was not enough to stall Smith’s momentum as the Californian managed to remain ahead of Rhodes and beat him to the finish line by two-tenths of a second to win the finale and clinch his first series championship.

    With his accomplishment, Zane Smith, who ended up as the championship runner-up during the previous two seasons while competing for GMS Racing, became the 20th different competitor to win the Truck Series championship along with becoming the first Ford competitor to win a Truck title since Matt Crafton made the last accomplishment in 2019. He also recorded the first NASCAR drivers’ and owners’ championships to Front Row Motorsports in the team’s third season in the series with crew chief Chris Lawson also achieving his first NASCAR Truck title. With the champion Zane Smith winning the finale, this marks the third time since the series’ Playoff elimination-style format was incepted in 2016 where the championship-winning competitor won the finale.

    “Oh my god,” Smith, who will be remaining in the Truck Series with Front Row Motorsports for 2023, said on FS1. “Third time’s a charm. I wanted this [championship] more than anyone in the world. I don’t care what anyone says. Thank you, all you race fans. My whole team, man. I was crying that whole lap. My fiancé, McCall, stuck to me with all the brutal times. I’ve wanted this championship for so long. I’ve wanted this moment all my whole life. Thank you, everyone. That’s all I got. I wasn’t gonna let it go down like that. I was either wrecked or I was winning this [championship]. There was no other option. Last year and the year before, we showed so much speed and should’ve won a lot more races than we did, but [team owner] Bob Jenkins is the only reason why I’m here right now. Without him, none of this would be possible. When I came [to Front Row Motorsports], all I cared about was the guys that were on this team and I had seen their work ethics. I’d seen the effort they put in and I know they wanted it as bad as I do. I didn’t care what the trucks looked like. All I knew was their work ethic was there and we could make a championship out of this team.”

    While Smith celebrated a championship on the championship stage, Rhodes was left disappointed with his runner-up result both in the event and in the final standings as he came one position shy of defending his series crown.

    “Two tires versus four. That was the name of the game,” Rhodes said. “We didn’t have the pace all night that we needed to be up there and compete, so it was a great heads-up call by my crew chief. Ultimately, we just didn’t need that last caution. I think we could’ve held [the field] off for the final few laps. I was giving [Zane Smith] all the dirty air he could handle. I think we were gonna be fine until that caution just got us. I did what I could on the restart to try to get a jump, but with two tires versus four, I just didn’t have the grip I needed. I tried to hold him off the best I could. [I] Threw a move on him at the very end and just didn’t have enough grip to make it stick. All in all, I am proud of my Kubota Toyota Tundra team, ThorSport Racing. We didn’t have the pace, but we got up there. That’s what matters at the end. We just got to go back, do our homework. Second is not fun. I’m gonna mope my way all the way back to Kentucky…I’d like to not be coming to clutch all the time.”

    With Zane Smith and Rhodes finishing first and second both on the track and in the final standings, Chandler Smith ended up in third place while Majeski, who settled in 20th place during the finale, ended up in fourth place in the final standings. Despite ending up in third place in his final event with Kyle Busch Motorsports, Chandler Smith remained optimistic approaching next season as he will be moving up to the Xfinity Series to drive for Kaulig Racing.

    “It just wasn’t meant to be,” Smith said. “We were mistake free. The pit crew was on top of it. [We] Gained positions every time on pit road. Had a shot at the end. I’m at peace with that because at the end of the day, it’s all part of the bigger plan. It was fun racing with [Zane Smith]. I appreciate the opportunity [from] Safelite,[Kyle Busch Motorsports], Toyota Racing Development’s given me for the past six-plus years. It sucks that it’s ending, but onwards to bigger and better things over at Kaulig Racing. Really looking forward to starting next year already.”

    Like Smith, Ty Majeski, who clinched his spot for the Championship 4 on the strength of Playoff victories at Bristol Motor Speedway and at Talladega Superspeedway, remained positive over his attempted run for the title as he looks ahead to next season.

    “I was being aggressive there,” Majeski said. “We wanted to bring a championship home for Duke and Rhonda [Thorson] and everybody at ThorSport [Racing]. I thought the best opportunity there for us was to try to wiggle [Smith] a little bit and try to get underneath him and try to set up the race between Ben [Rhodes] and I. I was just trying to be aggressive underneath him and lost it off of [Turn] 2. All you can ask for is the chance to win the championship with five to go and we had that tonight, and it just didn’t pan out. I’m proud of our season and proud of what we accomplished as a 66 bunch. [Crew chief] Joe [Shear Jr.] and the team have been great to work with. It just stings to be that close and see it in front of you and just come up a little bit short. We will come back next year and come back stronger.”

    John Hunter Nemechek finished fourth in the finale and fifth in the final standings in his second and final campaign with Kyle Busch Motorsports while Friesen wrapped up the season in fifth place on the track and in sixth place in the standings. Enfinger, Heim, Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10 on the track.

    With his seventh-place result, Heim clinched the 2022 Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year title. With 12 victories to this season, Toyota was awarded their 13th manufacturer’s title in the Truck circuit.

    The 2022 NASCAR Truck Series season marks the 14th and final season under title sponsorship from Camping World as Craftsman Tools will be filling in the role and returning as a title sponsor for the series since 2008.

    There were 15 lead changes for seven different leaders. The finale featured five cautions for 42 laps.

    Results.

    1. Zane Smith, 77 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Ben Rhodes, eight laps led

    3. Chandler Smith, nine laps led

    4. John Hunter Nemechek, 44 laps led

    5. Stewart Friesen, six laps led

    6. Grant Enfinger

    7. Corey Heim, five laps led

    8. Tanner Gray

    9. Kaden Honeycutt

    10. Carson Hocevar 

    11. Derek Kraus

    12. Matt Crafton

    13. Layne Riggs, five laps led

    14. Tyler Ankrum

    15. Colby Howard

    16. Jake Garcia

    17. Taylor Gray

    18. Lawlesss Alan

    19. Chase Purdy

    20. Ty Majeski 

    21. Dean Thompson

    22. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

    23. Tyler Hill, two laps down

    24. Austin Wayne Self, two laps down

    25. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    26. Chris Hacker, two laps down

    27. Timmy Hill, two laps down

    28. Johnny Sauter, two laps down

    29. Jack Wood, three laps down

    30. Christian Eckes, three laps down

    31. Hailie Deegan – OUT, Accident

    32. Rajah Caruth – OUT, Accident

    33. Spencer Boyd – OUT, Too slow

    34. Keith McGee – OUT, Dvp

    35. Armami Williams – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Championship finalists

    Final standings

    1. Zane Smith 

    2. Ben Rhodes

    3. Chandler Smith

    4. Ty Majeski

    5. John Hunter Nemechek

    6. Stewart Friesen

    7. Grant Enfinger

    8. Christian Eckess

    9. Matt Crafton

    10. Carson Hocevar

    The NASCAR Truck Series competitors and teams enter an off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2023, to commence a new season of racing.

     

  • Ty Majeski wins Homestead for second Truck Series victory

    Ty Majeski wins Homestead for second Truck Series victory

    A month after locking himself into the Championship 4 round with his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ty Majeski doubled down with additional momentum after claiming a late dominant victory in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 22.

    The 28-year-old Majeski from Seymour, Wisconsin, led two times for a race-high 67 of 134-scheduled laps, including the final 33, and beat runner-up Zane Smith by more than four seconds to claim the second Truck Series victory of his career at Miami. By winning two of three Round of 8 events during the Playoffs and automatically transferring to the Championship 4 round, Majeski will square off against Zane Smith, Chandler Smith and reigning series champion Ben Rhodes for this year’s Truck Series championship that will be determined at Phoenix Raceway in early November.

    With on-track qualifying that was scheduled for Friday being canceled due to rain, the starting lineup was determined through a metric system from NASCAR’s rulebook. As a result, Ryan Preece was initially awarded the pole position for the main event. Preece, however, dropped to the rear of the field along with Lawless Alan and Nick Leitz due to unapproved adjustments. With that, Playoff competitor Ben Rhodes led the field to the start alongside Matt DiBenedetto.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Rhodes launched ahead of DiBenedetto, who spun the tires at the start, before Chandler Smith drew himself alongside Rhodes in his early bid for the lead through the first two turns. Following an early side-by-side battle with Chandler Smith, Rhodes pulled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as he led the first lap while the field behind fanned out and jostled early for positions.

    Through the first five laps of the event, Rhodes was leading ahead of Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Zane Smith and Stewart Friesen while Tyler Ankrum, Matt DiBenedetto, John Hunter Nemechek, Parker Kligerman and Matt Crafton were running in the top 10. By then, Ty Majeski was in 12th, Corey Heim was back in 16th and Grant Enfinger was vying for 17th.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Rhodes’ No. 99 Kubota Toyota Tundra TRD Pro continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith’s No. 18 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro followed by Zane Smith, Friesen and Eckes. By then, all 36 starters were on the lead lap. In addition, the remaining eight Playoff contenders were running in the top 11.

    A few laps later, Nemechek, who made contact with the outside wall in Turn 3 on the third lap, got into the wall again in the third turn before hitting the wall hard in Turn 1 after losing a tire. The incident prompted Nemechek, who came into the event five laps behind the top-four cutline to make the championship finale, to make an unscheduled pit stop under green and fall out of the lead lap category. Nemechek would eventually make multiple trips to pit road for repairs to his No. 4 Gearwrench Toyota Tundra TRD Pro as his title hopes took an early serious hit.

    By Lap 20, Rhodes remained as the leader by more than a second over Chandler Smith followed by Zane Smith, Friesen and Majeski while Eckes was back in sixth. 

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Rhodes, who came into Miami three points above the top-four cutline, captured his ninth stage victory of the 2022 season. Zane Smith settled in second followed by Friesen, Majeski, Enfinger, Eckes, Chandler Smith, Crafton, Parker Kligerman and Preece.

    Under the stage break, the leaders led by Rhodes pitted and Zane Smith emerged with the lead over the field. Following the pit stops, Parker Kligerman was penalized for speeding on pit road along with Matt Crafton, whose pit crew jumped over the pit stall too soon. In addition, Blaine Perkins was penalized due to crew member interference.

    The second stage started on Lap 36 as Zane Smith and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Rhodes used the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed past Zane Smith and Enfinger with a three-wide move to reassume the lead through the backstretch. Enfinger, however, fought back during the following lap as he drew his No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST alongside Rhodes while Zane Smith tried to close back in on the two leaders. Behind, Preece and Majeski battled for fourth while Heim occupied sixth place.

    By the Lap 40 mark, a side-by-side battle for the lead commenced between Rhodes and Zane Smith, with Rhodes using the outside lane to his advantage while Smith tried to use the inside lane to pull ahead of Rhodes. During the following lap, Smith managed to pull his No. 38 Speed Ford F-150 in front of Rhodes entering Turn 4 and fend off a crossover move by Rhodes to claim the outside lane and the lead. Not long after, Preece battled and overtook Rhodes for second followed by Majeski while Enfinger remained in fifth.

    Ten laps later on Lap 50, Zane Smith was leading by more than a second over Majeski followed by Preece, Rhodes and Eckes while Enfinger, Friesen, Heim, Chandler Smith and Colby Howard occupied the top 10. With seven of eight Playoff competitors running in the top 10 on the track, Nemechek was the lone Playoff competitor running in the back of the pack as he was mired in 36th, dead last, while scored two laps down.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Zane Smith, who came into Miami 18 points above the top-four cutline, captured his eighth stage victory of the 2022 season. Majeski trailed in second place by more than a second while Preece, Friesen, Rhodes, Eckes, Enfinger, Howard, Heim and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, Nemechek was pinned three laps behind in 36th place.

    Under the stage break, the leader led by Zane Smith pitted and Preece exited with the lead followed by Majeski, Eckes, Zane Smith and Heim. During the pit stops, Rhodes suffered a slow pit stop as he exited pit road in 15th place. Following the pit stops, Kaden Honeycutt was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    With 68 laps remaining, the final stage started as Preece and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out engines the first turn, Majeski muscled ahead with the lead on the inside lane followed by Preece and Zane Smith while Eckes and Enfinger battled for fourth in front of Heim and the field.

    Eight laps later and with 60 laps remaining, Majeski was leading by a tenth of a second over Zane Smith followed by a heated four-truck battle for third place between Eckes, Heim, Enfinger and Preece. Friesen, meanwhile, was in seventh while Derek Kraus, Chandler Smith and Rhodes were scored in the top 10. By then, Nemechek was still pinned multiple laps down in 36th place, dead last.

    Then with 55 laps remaining, Enfinger’s championship hopes took a serious hit after he made an unscheduled pit stop under green to address a flat right-front tire due to making contact with the outside wall. After pitting for four fresh tires, Enfinger, who came into Miami in a “must-win” situation, lost a lap to the leaders.

    Back on the track with 50 laps remaining, Majeski retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Zane Smith followed by Heim, Eckes and Friesen while Preece, Chandler Smith, Crafton, Rhodes and Kraus occupied the top 10. With Enfinger mired in 31st, Nemechek was back in 36th, dead last, as both Playoff competitors were in jeopardy of not transferring to the finale.

    With 40 laps remaining, pit stops under green commenced as Preece pitted followed by Bret Holmes. Rhodes also pitted along with Kligerman, Chase Purdy, Hailie Deegan, Friesen and a wave of competitors.

    With 32 laps remaining and with the cycle of green flag pit stops complete, Majeski reassumed the lead followed by a hard-charging Zane Smith while Preece was in third. By then, Friesen was back in fourth as he was contending for a transfer spot to the finale against Rhodes, who was in eighth and held sole possession of the fourth and final transfer spot to the finale by a single point.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Majeski continued to lead by more than a second over Zane Smith and more than 10 seconds over third-place Preece. Meanwhile, Friesen was in fourth in front of Heim and Eckes while Rhodes was trying to fend off Chandler Smith for seventh place and for a spot in the finale. By then, Enfinger rallied to 11th while Nemechek was mired in 32nd palace, four laps down.

    Six laps later, Friesen overtook Preece for third place and drew himself into a tie for the fourth and final transfer spot to the finale over Rhodes, who remained in seventh but owned the tie-breaker for recording the best finish during the Round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway with a second-place result.

    With 10 laps remaining, Majeski retained the lead by nearly three seconds over Zane Smith. Behind, Friesen remained in third place, trailing the leaders by more than 14 seconds, while Rhodes was locked in a battle with teammate Crafton for seventh place, a spot Rhodes needs to retain to transfer to the finale. Eckes, meanwhile, was running in sixth, but eight points below the top-four cutline.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Majeski stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over Zane Smith while Rhodes, who briefly lost seventh place to Crafton, retained his spot on the track in front of his ThorSport Racing teammate and with a spot to the finale on the line. A few laps later, Rhodes managed to track and overtake teammate Eckes for sixth place, which placed Rhodes in a one-point advantage over Friesen, who remained in third place, in the standings.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski remained as the leader by more than four seconds over Zane Smith. With no challenges lurking behind or in front of him, Majeski was able to navigate his way around Homestead for a final time as he cycled back to the finish line and claimed his second checkered flag in the series.

    The victory, which was enough for Toyota to secure the manufacturer’s title for the 13th time overall, gave Majeski and his No. 66 ThorSport Racing Toyota Tundra TRD Pro team additional momentum approaching the championship finale at Phoenix Raceway in November, where the Wisconsin native will contend for his first Truck Series title.

    “Man, this is awesome,” Majeski said on FS1. “This place is so hard to read and practice. Nobody has any grip, right? I didn’t know really what we had, but man, this No. 66 Road Ranger Toyota Tundra TRD Pro was bad to the bone today. Man, just thank you to Joe Shear, my crew chief. We’ve been working great this year together. Just so thankful that we’re able to make the most of this thing. We’re gonna go chase a championship [in] two weeks. [There’s gonna be] A lot of sim time, a lot of simulator just like the rest of the year. We’ve been working really hard on Phoenix ever since we won Bristol. We’re bringing that truck back. I feel really good about what we have so far. Keep fine-tuning [the truck]. If it’s anywhere near this [Homestead truck] today, we’ll be pretty good.”

    Zane Smith settled in second place for the fifth time this season, which was more than for him to transfer to the Championship 4 finale for a third consecutive season as he will contend for his first Truck Series championship.

    “Another really good [Front Row Motorsports] Ford,” Zane Smith said. “Man, I really wanted to get that [win]. Just hats off to my whole team. They’ve put in a lot of hours the past couple of weeks. [I] Just really wanted this one for them, but we get to go fight for another championship, which is really cool. One more left. That’s all that matters. I pretty much figured out every way to lose one, so third time’s a charm, hopefully. We’ve been fast all year. Regardless of what happens at Phoenix, it’s just an outstanding year.”

    Friesen came home in third place, trailing the leaders by more than 13 seconds, but missed the top-four cutline by a single point over Rhodes, who finished sixth in front of teammates Eckes and Crafton. As a result, Rhodes will join teammate Majeski, Zane Smith and 10th-place finisher Chandler Smith as the four competitors to transfer to the Championship 4 finale and contend for the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. 

    “Every spot matters,” Rhodes said. “We got in by one point from what I understand. I’m just really, really happy [that] we had a good showing for this Kubota Toyota Tundra. Man, I wished [the race] was easier. It seemed harder than it should have. Just glad that we can defend the title. It’s been an up-and-down season. We aren’t the best on mile-and-a-halfs, but we made leaps and bounds here. We were able to get the first stage win, be fifth in the second [stage] and when we had that bad pit stop and went back to 15th, I was sweating bullets. I knew I had a lot of work to do. I just didn’t know it was gonna be that tough. We just got to be consistent. We’re working on that. So far, so good. I’m thrilled with the last two races, Now, we’ve turned everything around and made it back in.”

    “We, overall, just missed it today,” Chandler Smith said. “With that being said, we are all focused on going to run for a championship. I’m really happy with that. Being here with my Satellite [Kyle Busch Motorsports] group. This is awesome to be able to have the opportunity to go and run for a championship. I may never be able to do this in my career again, so really, really, thankful for the opportunity. Just super blessed right now. I’m feeling humbled.”

    Friesen, meanwhile, joins seventh-place finisher Eckes, 14th-place finisher Enfinger and 35th-place finisher Nemechek as the four competitors who have been eliminated from Playoff contention.

    “I didn’t have a teammate to lay over and give me an extra point like they were doing in the back,” Friesen said. “I’m so proud of our race team. That’s the best truck we’ve ever had here. Just a beautiful race car today. It was so fun to drive. We nailed it. We just lost a couple of spots in the pits and the front two could fire off a little bit better and get gone. That was it. I was praying for a caution. It didn’t happen, but I’m proud of our race team. I’m excited to move forward and keep building our race team. That’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna keep building over the winter.”

    “[I] Just made a mistake on my end,” Nemechek said. “I got dirtied up behind [Friesen] early on in stage in and hit the fence and just trying to make up time and was pushing the issue probably a little too hard. Ultimately pushed it a little too hard, hit the fence again and had the right front go flat. Came in, pitted and ended up not clearing tires good enough and had another tire go down and had to pit again. Then had to play pit strategy and after that, it was just damage control. It’s on me. It’s just frustrating for myself for sure to not advance to the final four, but still have a couple races left to go out and try to win.”

    In addition to the driver’s championship battle, the final four title contenders (Majeski, Chandler Smith, Zane Smith and Rhodes) will contend for this year’s owners’ championship.

    There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured two cautions for 10 laps. All 36 starters finished the race while 10 finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Ty Majeski, 67 laps led

    2. Zane Smith, 26 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    3. Stewart Friesen

    4. Ryan Preece, two laps led

    5. Corey Heim

    6. Ben Rhodes, 37 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    7. Christian Eckes

    8. Matt Crafton

    9. Parker Kligerman

    10. Chandler Smith

    11. Tyler Ankrum, one lap down

    12. Carson Hocevar, one lap down

    13. Colby Howard, one lap down

    14. Grant Enfinger, one lap down

    15. Derek Kraus, one lap down

    16. Chase Purdy, one lap down

    17. Hailie Deegan, one lap down

    18. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    19. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

    20. Timmy Hill, one lap down, two laps led

    21. Max Gutierrez, one lap down

    22. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    23. Dean Thompson, two laps down

    24. Brennan Poole, two laps down

    25. Tanner Gray, two laps down

    26. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

    27. Kaden Honeycutt, two laps down

    28. Nick Leitz, three laps down

    29. Tyler Hill, three laps down

    30. Chad Chastain, three laps down

    31. Jack Wood, four laps down

    32. Mason Maggio, five laps down

    33. Bret Holmes, five laps down

    34. Lawless Alan, five laps down

    35. John Hunter Nemechek, six laps down

    36. Spencer Boyd, 10 laps down

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings.

    1. Ty Majeski – Advanced

    2. Zane Smith – Advanced

    3. Chandler Smith – Advanced

    4. Ben Rhodes – Advanced

    5. Stewart Friesen – Eliminated

    6. Christian Eckes – Eliminated

    7. Grant Enfinger – Eliminated

    8. John Hunter Nemechek – Eliminated

    The 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway on November 4, where a champion will be crowned. The finale is scheduled to occur at 10 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • DiBenedetto survives overtime finish for first Truck career victory at Talladega

    DiBenedetto survives overtime finish for first Truck career victory at Talladega

    A timely caution amid a major wreck during the finish of an overtime attempt generated a new winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as Matt DiBenedetto was awarded his first career win in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 1.

    The 31-year-old DiBenedetto from Grass Valley, California, placed himself in prime position of contending for the win as he was running in the top five during the final lap of the first and only overtime attempt that was caused when Carson Hocevar intentionally spun to draw a caution with four laps remaining. Approaching the frontstretch and the finish line, DiBenedetto went three-wide on Playoff contender Ben Rhodes and Bret Holmes as he launched his bid for the win.  Despite getting forced below the double yellow line by Rhodes as Rhodes wrecked along with a host of other competitors, DiBenedetto managed to cross the finish line sideways in the runner-up spot after being edged by Holmes. Following an extensive review of the finish, however, DiBenedetto was deemed the winner due to being out in front at the moment of caution prior to taking the checkered flag and completing the race, thus claiming his first NASCAR national touring series career victory.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek claimed his seventh pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.767 mph in 53.567 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 177.732 mph in 53.879 seconds.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Nemechek jumped ahead with an early advantage as the field stacked up in two tight-packed lanes through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Nemechek retained the lead ahead of teammate Chandler Smith while Zane Smith started to challenge on the outside lane. Despite Zane Smith gaining a run through the frontstretch, Nemechek moved up to block him as he went on to lead the first lap.

    A lap later, a side-by-side battle for the lead between Zane Smith and Nemechek occurred while the field behind started to fan out to three lanes.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by a hair over Zane Smith followed by Ty Majeski, Chandler Smith, Carson Hocevar, Colby Howard, Matt Crafton, Corey Heim, Jordan Anderson and Christian Eckes.

    By Lap 10 and with the field settling into two tight-packed lanes within the draft, Nemechek continued to lead ahead of Zane Smith, Hocevar and Crafton while Chandler Smith and Jordan Anderson battled for fifth. By then, half of the remaining eight Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 with Eckes in eighth. Behind, Ben Rhodes was in 12th, Stewart Friesen was in 17th, Grant Enfinger was back in 23rd and Ty Majeski settled in 27th.

    Then with two laps remaining in the first stage, the first caution of the event flew when the No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado RST piloted by Anderson, which was running in fifth place, went up in smoke and flames at full speed. With the truck up in flames, Anderson, who was trying to keep his truck below the apron with reduced speed, managed to avoid contact with the field as he then steered his flaming truck towards the inside wall in Turn 2 before escaping it. He would then be airlifted to a local hospital to be further evaluated with burns.

    The caution for Anderson was enough for the first stage to conclude on Lap 20 as Nemechek secured his seventh stage victory of the 2022 season. Zane Smith settled in second followed by Hocevar, Chandler Smith, Tanner Gray, Colby Howard, Rhodes, Heim, Tyler Ankrum and Eckes. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Friesen, Enfinger and Majeski were scored in the top 20.

    Under the stage break, the leaders led by Nemechek pitted, most for fuel, as Chandler Smith exited first followed by teammate Nemechek, Friesen, Rhodes, Heim and Eckes.

    The second stage started on Lap 26 and at the start, Chandler Smith and Rhodes dueled for the lead in front of Nemechek as the field stacked up entering Turn 2. Then as Rhodes gained another strong run on the outside lane to overtake Chandler Smith for the lead, the caution returned when Colby Howard spun in the middle of the pack and towards the backstretch after cutting a left-rear tire.

    When the race restarted on Lap 31, a tight side-by-side battle for the lead ignited between Rhodes and Chandler Smith through the first two turns before Nemechek gave teammate Chandler Smith a small draft to lead through the backstretch. Rhodes, however, fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Eckes as the field battled in a tight side-by-side pack.

    During the following lap, the caution flew when Lawless Alan blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3. With debris flying out of Alan’s wrecked truck, Bryan Dauzat and Hocevar also received damage. This caution provided mixed strategy amongst the field as some pitted while others remained on the track.

    With two laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Rhodes and Chandler Smith dueled for the lead in front of the pack and they remained dead even for the lead when they returned to the frontstretch and started the final lap of the second stage.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 40, Chandler Smith received a draft from teammate Nemechek to surge ahead of Rhodes and capture his sixth stage victory of the 2022 season. Teammate Nemechek settled in second while Friesen, Rhodes, Enfinger, Eckes, Ankrum, Heim, Zane Smith and Majeski were scored in the top 10. By then, all of the eight Playoff contenders cracked the top 10 and had scored at least one stage point.

    Following the second stage’s conclusion, Zane Smith nursed his No. 38 Love’s Travel Stop Ford F-150 into his pit stall after he cut a right-rear tire and damaged the right-rear fender of his truck. Once pit road became accessible for the field, some led by Nemechek pitted, mainly for fuel, while names like Chase Purdy, Bret Holmes, Johnny Sauter, Matt DiBenedtto, Hailie Deegan and Clay Greenfield remained on the track. Prior to the restart, names like Nemechek and Chandler Smith pitted again to top off on fuel and for damage repair.

    With 49 laps remaining, the final stage started as Chase Purdy and Bret Holmes occupied the front row. At the start, Holmes cleared the field and assumed the lead on the outside lane followed by Matt DiBenedetto as the field started to fan out to three lanes through the backstretch.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 47, Holmes was leading ahead of DiBenedetto, Purdy, Johnny Sauter and Derek Kraus while Jack Wood, Enfinger, Eckes, Blaine Perkins and Carson Hocevar were scored in the top 10. By then, Eckes was the lone Playoff contender running in the top 10 while the remaining seven were mired inside the top 30.

    With less than 40 laps remaining, Eckes made his way to the top of the field followed by Holmes, Hocevar, DiBenedetto and Sauter while Ryan Preece, Kraus, Purdy, Wood and Enfinger were in the top 10. With two of eight Playoff contenders running in the top 10, Rhodes and Majeski were in the top 20 while Friesen, Nemechek, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith were mired back from 25th to 28th, respectively.

    Then nearing the final 30 laps of the event and with most of the front-runners veering to pit road for service under green, the caution flew when Hailie Deegan, who entered pit road too fast, hit her tire carrier and caused a tire to roll out of her pit box and onto the infield grass, which prompted the tire carrier to bolt to the infield grass and retrieve the tire. Following the pit stops, additional names like Friesen, Sauter and Purdy were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    Down to the final 26 laps of the event, the race proceeded under green as Eckes and Hocevar occupied the front row. At the start, Hocevar was drafted into the lead followed by Enfinger before Eckes fought back on the outside lane through the backstretch. Soon after, Eckes and Hocevar engaged in a tight side-by-side battle for the lead in front of the pack running tight through two drafting lanes.

    Five laps later, the caution returned when Colby Howard spun in front of Nemechek in Turn 4, though he managed to straighten his truck and not sustain any significant damage nor collect others.

    With 18 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Eckes received a push from teammate Rhodes on the outside lane to remain as the leader by a mere margin before Hocevar fought back on the inside lane with drafting help from Preece. 

    Three laps later, the caution flew when Playoff contender Grant Enfinger, who was starting to fall off the pace in Turn 3, was bumped by Austin Wayne Self as both slipped sideways and pounded the outside wall. In the process, Sauter and Tanner Gray were collected as all four sustained significant damage to their respective trucks.

    During the following restart with 10 laps remaining, Hocevar received drafting help from Preece to lead the inside lane while teammates Eckes and Rhodes fought back on the outside lane. As the field returned to the frontstretch, the front-runners were mired in a tight pack between two lanes as Eckes and Hocevar remained dead even for the lead.

    Then with five laps remaining of the event, Hocevar, who was battling Eckes for the lead, dropped his truck below the apron and was falling off the pace after cutting a tire. Then with the race remaining under green while the lead pack zipped by, Hocevar remained on the track below the apron and looped his truck around past the start/finish line. This prompted NASCAR to draw the caution as Eckes was ahead followed by teammate Rhodes, DiBenedetto, Bret Holmes and Preece. In addition, NASCAR issued a one-lap penalty to Hocevar for intentionally causing a caution as the field was sent into overtime.

    During the start of overtime, teammates Eckes and Rhodes battled for the lead through the first two turns. Then through the second turn and the backstretch, Rhodes received drafting help from Holmes to briefly pull away with the lead before the rest of the front-runners caught up to them through Turns 3 and 4. By then, Holmes navigated his way into the lead as DiBenedetto and Rhodes dueled for the lead.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Holmes was leading ahead of Rhodes, DiBenedetto, Eckes and Preece. Through the backstretch, Rhodes was drafted into the lead by Eckes before both ThorSport Racing teammates dueled for the lead in front of the pack. 

    Then entering Turn 4, Rhodes started to pull ahead of Eckes when Heim got bumped as he wrecked his No. 51 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro into the outside wall. With Heim coming back across the track and collecting more competitors, Holmes and DiBenedetto went three-wide on Rhodes approaching the start/finish line. While Holmes remained on the outside lane, DiBenedetto made contact with Rhodes as he was shoved below the double yellow line. The contact got Rhodes sideways as nearly the entire field wrecked while crossing the finish line. Back at the front, however, Holmes edged DiBenedetto by 0.002 seconds to score what appeared to have been his first NASCAR national touring series career victory.

    Following an extensive review of the final lap incident, the battle for the win and who was out in front at the moment of caution, NASCAR determined that the caution was displayed before Holmes crossed the finish line to complete the race and that DiBenedetto was out in front when the caution was displayed, thus being declared the official winner.

    With the victory, DiBenedetto, who has made 248 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, achieved his first career victory in his 338th career start across NASCAR’s top three national touring series and in his 21st career start in the Camping World Truck Series. The victory was also the first for Rackley-W.A.R. Racing, a team that debuted in 2021. 

    DiBenedetto’s victory marks the seventh consecutive season where the Truck Series Playoff event has been won by a non-Playoff contender with the streak spanning to the series’ Playoff inception in 2016. He also became the sixth different competitor to record a first Truck career victory at Talladega.

    “Oh man, it’s such a long time coming!” DiBenedetto said on FS1. “Praise God. I’m so thankful. [My fans] have bared with me through so much in me being a reckless human being sometimes just through life. This one’s life-changing. I’m out of breath. I think I was more nervous waiting and hearing what would happen. My spotter, Doug Campbell, is awesome. We worked together so good. I think in the Cup Series, we led on like the white flag twice here or something at Talladega. So, I owe a lot to him. At the end there, we were just really committed to staying on the bottom [lane] and pushing. This [truck], it pushed well, so I was just committed to staying there and pushing whoever was in front of me. I’m so thankful. So thankful! This is amazing. This team deserves it.” 

    Once the final finishing order was displayed, Rhodes was awarded the runner-up spot despite ending up with a wrecked truck while Holmes was shuffled back to a career-best third place.

    “It’s tough to lose something that close,” Holmes said. “We lost an ARCA race that close, I don’t know, probably lost it closer today. I want to win here so bad, I can’t stand it. I have so many people here from my hometown, friends, and family. Growing up and racing at the dirt track across the road, it just would mean the world for me to win here. It seems like the last couple years in ARCA we’ve been right there, the Truck races we’ve been right there. It’s just super tough, hate we couldn’t pull it off for everybody. Wish the race ended at the finish line because I feel like we would’ve had it…It’s tough to lose that one, for sure.”

    Preece ended up fourth while Eckes completed the top five. Deegan notched a career-best sixth place despite being involved in the final lap accident while Purdy, Colby Howard, Parker Kligerman and Tyler Ankrum completed the top 10 on the track.

    Notably, Playoff contenders Chandler Smith, Zane Smith, Friesen, Majeski, Nemechek and Enfinger finished 14th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, 24th and 29th, respectively.

    There were 25 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 36 laps.

    Results.

    1. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led

    2. Ben Rhodes, two laps led

    3. Bret Holmes, six laps led

    4. Ryan Preece

    5. Christian Eckes, 25 laps led

    6. Hailie Deegan

    7. Chase Purdy, six laps led

    8. Colby Howard

    9. Parker Kligerman

    10. Tyler Ankrum

    11. Kaden Honeycutt

    12. Clay Greenfield

    13. Derek Kraus, three laps led

    14. Chandler Smith, 17 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    15. Timmy Hill

    16. Parker Retzlaff

    17. Zane Smith, one lap led

    18. Kaz Grala

    19. Jack Wood

    20. Stewart Friesen

    21. Bayley Currey

    22. Matt Crafton, one lap led

    23. Ty Majeski, one lap led

    24. John Hunter Nemechek, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    25. Johnny Sauter

    26. Corey Heim – OUT, Accident

    27. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

    28. Carson Hocevar, one lap down, 12 laps led

    29. Grant Enfinger, one lap down

    30. Austin Wayne Self – OUT, Accident

    31. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident

    32. Jennifer Jo Cobb – OUT, Clutch

    33. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident

    34. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident

    35. Bryan Dauzat – OUT, Dvp

    36. Jordan Anderson – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Ty Majeski – Advanced

    2. Chandler Smith +30

    3. Zane Smith +18

    4. Ben Rhodes +3

    5. Christian Eckes -3

    6. Stewart Friesen -3

    7. John Hunter Nemechek -5

    8. Grant Enfinger -29

    With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season nearing its conclusion, the Playoff’s Round of 8 will next continue at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 22, where the Championship Round field will be set. The event’s coverage is scheduled to commence at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Ty Majeski clinches Championship 4 finale spot with first Truck career victory at Bristol

    Ty Majeski clinches Championship 4 finale spot with first Truck career victory at Bristol

    Ty Majeski became the first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoff contender to secure a spot for the Championship 4 Round finale at Phoenix Raceway after scoring his first career victory in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, September 15.

    The 28-year-old Majeski from Seymour, Wisconsin, made his first appearance as the leader during a restart with 45 laps remaining after he overtook Playoff rival Zane Smith for the top spot. Despite enduring a final late-race restart with 12 laps remaining, he capitalized on the restart, holding off Smith to claim his first career victory within NASCAR’s top three national touring series. He also earned a one-way ticket to the finale, where he will contend for the 2022 Truck Series championship.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Thursday, Derek Kraus claimed his second pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 125.264 in 15.276 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 125.584 mph in 15.279 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Playoff contenders Zane Smith, Blaine Perkins, Chris Hacker and Josh Reaume dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks. In addition, Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek started at the rear of the field in a backup truck after wrecking his primary truck during Thursday’s lone practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Kraus launched ahead with an early advantage on the outside lane. With the field jostling early for positions, Kraus led the first lap ahead of Chandler Smith, Grant Enfinger and Stewart Friesen, who slipped in Turn 3 before slipping again in Turn 1 as he lost fourth to Ty Majeski before settling in front of rookie Corey Heim.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Kraus was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith followed by Enfinger, Majeski and Friesen while Heim, Christian Eckes, Matt DiBenedetto, Carson Hocevar and Bayley Currey were in the top 10. Tyler Ankrum was in 11th ahead of Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Rajah Caruth and rookie Dean Thompson while John Hunter Nemechek and Zane Smith were mired back in 27th and 28th.

    Ten laps later on Lap 20, Kraus continued to lead by exactly half a second over Chandler Smith while Enfinger, Majeski and Friesen settled in the top five. Meanwhile, Zane Smith and Nemechek remained mired in 27th and 28th, respectively, as Kraus started to navigate his way through lapped traffic.

    Eight laps later, Chandler Smith, winner of last year’s Truck event at Bristol, moved his No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra TRD Pro into the lead over Kraus’ No. 19 Incredible Bank Chevrolet Silverado RST in Turn 3. Behind, Enfinger was locked in a battle with Majeski and Friesen for third place while Heim, Eckes, DiBenedetto, Hocevar and Currey remained in the top 10. Two laps earlier, Spencer Boyd made contact with the outside wall in Turn 3, though the race remained under green.

    Another nine laps later, however, the first caution of the event flew when Josh Reaume, who was lapped but racing in front of a handful of Playoff contenders, got loose underneath Blaine Perkins in between Turns 1 and 2, slipped and backed his truck into the outside wall in Turn 2. As Reaume’s truck slid below the apron, he was hit by a sliding Rajah Caruth, who tried to avoid hitting Reaume, as both trucks sustained significant damage. 

    During the caution period, names like Zane Smith, Nemechek, Jesse Little, Dean Thompson, Tanner Gray, Lawless Alan, Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Parker Kligerman, Tyler Ankrum, Timmy Hill and Connor Mosack pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track. Following gate pit stops, Zane Smith pitted his No. 38 Speedco Ford F-150 for a second time to have his adjustments from his previous pit stop re-adjusted.

    With eight laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead after starting on the outside lane while Friesen overtook Kraus for the runner-up spot. Behind, DiBenedetto and Enfinger battled for fourth in front of Majeski, Heim, Eckes, Currey and Hocevar.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 55, Chandler Smith captured his fourth stage victory of the 2022 season. Friesen settled in second, trailing Smith by four-tenths of a second, while Kraus, DiBenedetto, Enfinger, Majeski, Eckes, Heim, Currey and Matt Crafton were scored in the top 10. By then, Ben Rhodes was in 11th, Nemechek was back in 21st and Zane Smith was all the way back in 28th.

    Under the stage break, names like Enfinger, DiBenedetto, Heim, Thompson, Hailie Deegan, Currey, rookie Jack Wood, Austin Wayne Self, Jake Garcia, Colby Howard, Timmy Hill, Leland Honeyman Jr. and Jesse Little pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith, who has yet to pit, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Wood was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage started on Lap 65 as Chandler Smith and Friesen occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead with another strong start on the outside lane while Kraus reassumed the runner-up spot as Friesen, who spun the tires at the front, fell back to third in front of ThorSport Racing’s Rhodes, Majeski and Eckes.

    By Lap 75, Chandler Smith was leading by half a second over Kraus while Friesen, Majeski, Eckes, Rhodes, Chase Purdy, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray and Nemechek were in the top 10. By then, Zane Smith was in 14th and Enfinger was in 17th.

    Ten laps later, the caution returned when Connor Mosack spun underneath Jesse Little in Turn 2. By then, DiBenedetto had pitted under green. During the caution period, names like Kraus, Deegan, Crafton, Enfinger, Majeski, Tyler Ankrum, Heim, Carson Hocevar, Austin Wayne Self and Bayley Currey pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hocevar was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 91, Chandler Smith rocketed with the lead while Friesen and Eckes battled for the runner-up spot in front of Rhodes and Taylor Gray. Shortly after, Friesen retained the runner-up spot ahead of Eckes as Rhodes and Taylor Gray also remained in the top five. Behind, Chase Purdy was up in sixth place while Tanner Gray, Nemechek, Zane Smith and Kaden Honeycutt were in the top 10.  

    At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Chandler Smith retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Friesen while Eckes, Rhodes and Gray remained in the top five. By then, six of the eight remaining Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10 while Majeski and Enfinger were scored inside the top 15.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 110, Chandler Smith captured his fifth stage victory of the 2022 season and swept both stages of the night at Bristol. Friesen settled in second while Eckes, Rhodes, Taylor Gray, Purdy, Tanner Gray, Nemechek, Kaden Honeycutt and Zane Smith were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Chandler Smith, who peeled off to pit road for the first time of the night as part of a one-stop strategy, pitted while the rest led by Zane Smith remained on the track.

    With 79 laps remaining, the final stage started as Zane Smith and Kligerman occupied the front row. At the start, Zane Smith and Kligerman briefly duked for the lead as Smith prevailed on the inside lane to retain the lead. Shortly after, Majeski moved his No. 66 Road Ranger Toyota Tundra TRD Pro into the runner-up spot while Kligerman, who got shuffled and mired on the outside lane, was locked in a heated battle with Kraus for third place. Then a few laps later in Turn 4, Kraus and Kligerman made contact and slid up the track in Turn 1, which allowed Enfinger to overtake both for third place before Kligerman retained fourth ahead of Kraus, Hailie Deegan and Crafton.

    With less than 70 laps remaining, Zane Smith was out in front by three-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Enfinger, Kligerman, Kraus, Deegan, Crafton, Heim, Ankrum and Hocevar. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith was mired back in 12th behind Dean Thompson and in front of Friesen and Eckes, Nemechek was back in 17th and Rhodes was scored back in 20th. By then, Taylor Gray and Colby Howard made contact with one another while battling in the top 20, but the race proceeded under green.

    Then with 50 laps remaining, the caution flew when Chris Hacker spun in between Turns 3 and 4 before coming to a rest below the apron after he got hit by the No. 98 CMR Construction & Roofing Toyota Tundra TRD Pro piloted by Playoff contender Eckes.

    During the following restart with 44 laps remaining, Majeski received a strong start on the outside lane as he assumed the lead for the first time over Zane Smith while Kligerman battled and overtook Enfinger for third place while the field behind jostled for late positions.

    With 35 laps remaining, Majeski was leading by more than a second over Zane Smith followed by Kligerman, Enfinger and Kraus while Crafton, Friesen, Chandler Smith, Tyler Ankrum and Deegan were in the top 10.

    Down to the final 22 laps of the event, the caution returned when Tanner Gray made contact with Dean Thompson in Turn 3 that sent Thompson’s No. 40 WorldWide Express Chevrolet Silverado RST slipping below the apron and into the outside wall as he sustained significant rear-end damage. By then, Majeski had stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Zane Smith while Kligerman, Enfinger, Kraus, Crafton, Friesen, Chandler Smith, Ankrum and Deegan remained in the top 10. Meanwhile, Eckes was in 11th, Nemechek was back in 14th and Rhodes was mired in 17th.

    During the following restart with 12 laps remaining, Majeski rocketed away with the lead on the outside lane while Zane Smith, who spun the tires on the inside lane, was left in a side-by-side battle with Kligerman for the runner-up spot. Smith, however, was able to clear Kligerman during the following lap as he reassumed second place while Enfinger moved up to fourth in front of Kraus and Friesen.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Majeski continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Zane Smith and eight-tenths of a second over third-place Kligerman while everyone else behind jostled again for late positions.

    With five laps remaining, Majeski stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Zane Smith while Kligerman settled in third ahead of Enfinger and Crafton. By then, Chandler Smith, who dominated the first half of the event, was mired in ninth while Kraus, Friesen and Eckes were in sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Majeski remained as the leader by more than a second over Zane Smith. With Smith unable to close back the deficit, Majeski was able to navigate his way around Bristol for a final circuit as he cycled back to the frontstretch and claim his first checkered flag in the series.

    With the victory, Majeski, who claimed his first Truck career win in his 40th series start, became the 120th different competitor to record a victory in the Truck Series as this marked the third consecutive season where the Truck Series Playoff event at Bristol featured a first-time winner. He also recorded the second victory of the season for ThorSport Racing and the 11th for Toyota as he joined Corey Heim as the only competitors to achieve their first Truck wins this season.

    By clinching a spot for the Championship Round finale at Phoenix Raceway in November, Majeski will contend for his first NASCAR national touring series championship in his first full-time season in the Truck circuit and without having to place his focus towards the upcoming Round of 8 events at Talladega Superspeedway and at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October. Prior to his first victory, he had achieved three poles, three stage victories, eight top-five results, 13 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 9.8 through the previous 19 scheduled events of 2022.

    “Man, this is unbelievable,” Majeski said on FS1. “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this. [Owners] Duke, Rhonda Thorson, Allison [Thorson], thank you for this opportunity. Just so proud to be here. We came guns blazing for this race, took our best truck. [Crew chief] Joe [Shear Jr.] was aggressive on pit strategy. [It] Got us out front. We were able to get it done. This is so cool. My career’s been so up and down. There’s been a lot of people to help me get to this point. It’s so cool. I know my late model guys are watching back at the shop. They’re the big reason why I’m here. My parents, my fiancé. This is just so damn cool. Man, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

    Meanwhile, Zane Smith rallied from starting at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his truck to finish in the runner-up spot for his seventh top-two finish of the season. The result was enough for Smith to leave Bristol in third place in the Playoff standings and 21 points above the top-four cutline to the finale.

    “A good salvage of the night,” Smith said. “We worked on our Speedco Ford. The only chance we got, and I felt like went the right direction. I wished I could’ve done a few things different there. Obviously, take the top [lane]. [The] Top [lane] always launches better here. I was so bad if I was outside of the PJ1 [TrackBite] or wherever it is. I didn’t want to get freight-trained on the top. I tried matching [Majeski]. I did the first time and the second time, he just got me. He was just ultimately better than us, but [it was a] never give up kind of a night. That’s what it takes to get in the Final Four.”

    Parker Kligerman emerged as the highest non-Playoff contender of the night after finishing in third place for his fourth top-five result of the season while Enfinger and Crafton finished in the top five.

    “We qualified 28th legitimately on speed,” Kligerman said. “I think we just kind of stole a third-place finish, but I’m proud of everyone at Henderson Motorsports. We have now, I believe, at least I have finished in every position within the top five except for first at this racetrack. I wanna win here so bad, and I can see it. I can taste it. I feel like I can touch it, whether it’s dirt or concrete. We just can’t quite get there. Tonight, though, we got to be really proud because I think after practice and qualifying, I was legitimately worried that we were gonna be a lap down within 15 laps and be riding around this place. [Crew chief] Chris Carrier and everyone stuck it through. We found ourselves in the top five…We just didn’t have enough.”

    Pole-sitter Kraus, Friesen, Eckes, Chandler Smith and Corey Heim completed the top 10 on the track. Nemechek and Rhodes were the two Playoff contenders to finish outside of the top 10 in 12th and 18th, respectively. 

    There were three lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 49 laps.

    Results.

    1. Ty Majeski, 45 laps led

    2. Zane Smith, 39 laps led

    3. Parker Kligerman

    4. Grant Enfinger

    5. Matt Crafton

    6. Derek Kraus, 27 laps led

    7. Stewart Friesen

    8. Christian Eckes

    9. Chandler Smith, 89 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    10. Corey Heim

    11. Tyler Ankrum

    12. John Hunter Nemechek

    13. Kaden Honeycutt

    14. Hailie Deegan

    15. Bayley Currey

    16. Taylor Gray

    17. Tanner Gray

    18. Ben Rhodes 

    19. Carson Hocevar

    20. Austin Wayne Self

    21. Jack Wood

    22. Jake Garcia

    23. Lawless Alan

    24. Colby Howard

    25. Jesse Little

    26. Timmy Hill 

    27. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

    28. Blaine Perkins, three laps down

    29. Leland Honeyman Jr., five laps down

    30. Chase Purdy, seven laps down

    31. Connor Mosack, eight laps down

    32. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident

    33. Chris Hacker – OUT, Suspension

    34. Rajah Caruth – OUT, Accident

    35. Josh Reaume – OUT, Accident

    36. Spencer Boyd – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Ty Majeski – Advanced

    2. Chandler Smith +24

    3. Zane Smith +21

    4. Stewart Frisen. +9

    5. John Hunter Nemechek -9

    6. Christian Eckes -13

    7. Grant Enfinger -15

    8. Ben Rhodes -18

    The second Round of 8 event of the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs will occur at Talladega Superspeedway on October 1 with the event’s coverage to commence at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1.