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