Chandler Smith Puts On Clinic At Bristol, Wins 1st Truck Race of Season

Chandler Smith put on a show for the fans at “The Last Great Colosseum,” leading a race-high 127 laps to claim the victory. (Photo Credit: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Chandler Smith drove to a dominant victory at Bristol Motor Speedway during Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Weather Guard Truck Race, claiming his first win of the season, holding off a late charge from NASCAR Cup Series standout Kyle Larson.

At Lap 237 of 250, Smith had a crucial moment on the restart, beating Corey Heim to the line as chaos unfolded from a stack-up caused by Bayley Currey’s transmission issues, which created trouble behind the leaders.

The driver of the No. 38 Ford F-150 led the race, completing a race-high 127 of the 250 scheduled laps. This victory marked his sixth career win in the Truck Series and his first since returning to the series after spending the previous two seasons competing in Xfinity with Kaulig Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.

Daniel Hemric opened the 250-lap sprint on the pole position, leading the opening 8 laps of the race before Smith swiped the lead away from the defending race winner.

The first caution of the race came out early in Stage 1 after Connor Mosack went for a spin after making contact with Tanner Gray entering Turn 4.

Ty Majeski brought out the second caution of the event in Stage 1 after making contact as he attempted to navigate around the lap truck of Frankie Muniz, making contact with Majeski, causing damage to both Stewart Friesen and Brandon Jones. The crash forced Majeski to retire from the race, marking his first DNF in the last 20 races.

Despite the two cautions early on in the event, Smith put the rest of the field on cruise control, leading all the way until the end of the stage, picking up his first of the season.

Chandler Smith leading over the rest of the Truck Series field during Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

Currey took the lead from Smith on Lap 122 with fewer than 10 laps remaining in Stage 2 over Smith, ultimately securing his first career stage victory in Truck Series competition.

Rajah Caruth slid past Currey on the restart, taking the lead for the first time on the day as 120 laps remained on the scoreboard, as Smith fell back to fifth.

Caruth continued to fend off Currey and Heim all the way until Lap 221 before Heim swung into the action, using the high side to his advantage to take the lead away with under 30 laps to go as Smith followed Heim, moving back to second place.

The final caution came out in the race for mist surrounding the 0.533-mile oval facility, setting up for the most crucial restart of the race.

As the final restart took place, Currey’s incredible run came to a disappointing halt, as he suffered transmission issues which allowed for Smith and Larson to break away for the top 2 spots.

Smith surged ahead to nearly a second lead over Larson as he crossed the white flag, securing his first Truck Series victory of 2025 on a tense night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I’m more excited for this team than I am for myself.” Said an enthusiastic Smith in a post-race interview with FS1.

This group came together, we hired my crew chief like three weeks before Daytona, just take that in for a second, this group just got assembled literally in January.  My life has been really, really crazy here recently, and there were a lot of unknowns about my future going into this season, and we kind of had our backs against the wall about putting a group together last-minute.”

Larson, who was attempting another attempt at sweeping the weekend in all three NASCAR national touring series, had to settle for the runner-up finish.

Heim, who led 16 laps and was in the mix for the victory had to settle for third place in Friday night’s race.

“I’m used to having a lot of grip here on restarts, and I’ve always kind of done first-gear restarts here and always gotten out of the box good.” Said Heim.

“Can’t complain with a top three. Couple stage points along the way, had some issues in Stage 1, so got a little behind there. But I guess not a bad day. I thought we were pretty tight throughout the race, just getting behind there early. ”

Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top 5 finishers.

Smith’s teammate and defending Bristol winner Layne Riggs settled for a sixth-place finish, followed by Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt, Caruth, and Gio Ruggiero, capping off the top 10 finishers when the dust settled.

The Truck Series ventures out to Rockingham Speedway for the first time in 12 years next Friday afternoon on April 18, which will mark the final of three races for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Triple Truck Challenge.

Stage 1 Results
1. Chandler Smith
2. Ben Rhodes
3. Tyler Ankrum
4. Layne Riggs
5. Daniel Hemric
6. Kyle Larson
7. Matt Crafton
8. Corey Day
9. Jake Garcia
10. Gio Ruggiero

Stage 2 Results
1. Bayley Currey
2. Chandler Smith
3. Kaden Honeycutt
4. Corey Heim
5. Tanner Gray
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Matt Crafton
8. Jake Garcia
9. Ben Rhodes
10. Corey Day

Weather Guard Truck Race NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Results