Rookie Chandler Smith leads Truck Daytona practice in Toyota domination

For the first time since 21 February 2020 in Las Vegas, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series held a practice. On Thursday, before the Cup Series‘ Bluegreen Vacations Duel, the Trucks ran their only practice session a day before the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. 18-year-old rookie Chandler Smith and his fellow Toyota Tundras nearly swept the top ten as they comprised all but one of the spots.

Smith, who signed with Kyle Busch Motorsports for the full season, led Austin Hill with a lap time of 47.458 and speed of 189.641 mph, the former being just .007 faster. The ThorSport Racing quartet, who had switched to Toyota before the season after three years with Ford, all had spots in the top ten with Johnny Sauter leading in third. Smith’s KBM team-mates Drew Dollar and John Hunter Nemechek—both also new to the team—were fourth and fifth, respectively. Stewart Friesen and his single-truck team were seventh.

David Gilliland owner/driver of David Gilliland Racing and preparing for his first Truck race since 2019, broke up the Toyota party as his Ford was ninth fastest. For the Chevrolet drivers, all four Niece Motorsports members led with the eleventh- through fourteenth-fastest times with Ryan Truex topping them. Defending champion Sheldon Creed was twenty-fifth.

The Toyota practice domination continues Speedweeks’ trend for the Japanese manufacturer. In Tuesday’s Cup Series practice, Toyotas occupied the top five with Bubba Wallace—a former KBM driver—leading the way. The results being clumped by manufacturer in both series comes with little surprise as drivers often use the session to practice drafting with their team-mates.

The practice also saw Jordan Anderson, Clay Greenfield, and Tate Fogleman stall their trucks, which resulted in red flags. Other technical difficulties included Friesen heading to the garage after losing a cylinder and an electrical fire in Spencer Boyd‘s truck. Tim Viens was the only driver to not set a practice time.

Qualifying for Friday night’s NextEra Energy 250 will take place in the afternoon.

Practice results

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Laps
1	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	47.458	189.641	12
2	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	47.465	189.613	7
3	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	47.477	189.565	10
4	51	Drew Dollar	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	47.482	189.546	5
5	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	47.499	189.478	15
6	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	47.501	189.470	8
7	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	47.505	189.454	10
8	98	Grant Enfinger	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	47.509	189.438	10
9	17	David Gilliland	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	47.603	189.064	17
10	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	47.649	188.881	6
11	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.653	188.865	8
12	45	Brett Moffitt	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.661	188.834	19
13	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.665	188.818	14
14	44	James Buescher	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.679	188.762	19
15	28	Bryan Dauzat	FDNY Racing	Chevrolet	47.845	188.107	19
16	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	48.064	187.250	18
17	24	Raphaël Lessard	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	48.123	187.021	8
18	11	Spencer Davis	Spencer Davis Motorsports	Toyota	48.151	186.912	10
19	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	48.169	186.842	10
20	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	48.173	186.827	15
21	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	48.180	186.800	12
22	04	Cory Roper	Roper Racing	Ford	48.339	186.185	12
23	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	48.570	185.300	12
24	20	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.879	184.128	5
25	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	49.058	183.456	5
26	96	Todd Peck	Peck Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.198	182.934	6
27	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota	49.246	182.756	8
28	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	49.353	182.360	8
29	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.412	182.142	10
30	6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet	49.415	182.131	12
31	56	Gus Dean	Hill Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.521	181.741	2
32	3	Jordan Anderson*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	49.796	180.737	4
33	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.939	180.220	5
34	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Racing	Toyota	50.001	179.996	5
35	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50.012	179.957	4
36	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet	50.155	179.444	4
37	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.272	179.026	5
38	9	Codie Rohrbaugh	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.277	179.008	3
39	25	Timothy Peters	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	50.331	178.816	8
40	8	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports	Ford	50.385	178.625	5
41	34	Jesse Iwuji	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	51.006	176.450	3
42	41	Dawson Cram	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet	51.007	176.446	4
43	33	Jason White	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	51.062	176.256	8
44	49	Ray Ciccarelli	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet	51.204	175.768	8
45	68	Clay Greenfield	Clay Greenfield Motorsports	Toyota	52.570	171.200	2