Chandler Smith wins Vegas with last-lap pass

From 2011 to 2013, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was dubbed the Smith’s 350 as part of Smith’s Food & Drug Store’s sponsorship that had taken place since 2006. While it is now known as the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200, Friday’s race still ended with a battle of the Smiths as Chandler Smith chased down Zane Smith and overtook him on the final lap to win. A Smith 1–2 finish was subsequently denied when Zane was disqualified for lug nut violations.

Kyle Busch Motorsports entries swept the podium in qualifying with John Hunter Nemechek leading boss Kyle Busch and Chandler Smith. Busch, a Cup Series driver making his first of five annual allowed Truck starts and an obvious favourite regardless of race he runs, led early before the Smiths passed him. The stage ended under caution when a five-abreast situation on the frontstretch ended with Zane clipping Colby Howard and shooting him into Matt Crafton, spinning him up the track into Chase Purdy and Hailie Deegan. Ben Rhodes led at the time of the crash and won the stage ahead of Chandler, Tanner Gray, Jack Wood, Carson Hocevar, Crafton, Busch, Nemechek, Ty Majeski, and Ryan Preece.

Two-time Truck champion Todd Bodine, who was making his first series start since 2013, was responsible for the lone caution of Stage #2 when he spun on lap 56 to set up a two-lap run to the finish. Although Carson Hocevar and Busch led much of the segment’s laps, Rhodes came out on top again with Busch, Majeski, Nemechek, Gray, Chandler, Crafton, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, and Derek Kraus in tow.

Perhaps as expected from the Truck Series in recent times, the final stage exploded in chaos as six cautions for wrecks occurred beginning with Wood spinning while racing Chase Purdy on lap 73. Bodine hit the wall and suffered damage on lap 91, though he was able to continue racing. Hocevar’s night ended as the race reached 100 circuits following a spin through the frontstretch grass. Rhodes, despite winning the first two stages, was knocked on lap 105 out after being sandwiched between former ThorSport Racing team-mate Grant Enfinger and current colleague Majeski, causing him to go around into the outside wall. Kris Wright spun on lap 120. The final yellow flag waved with eight laps remaining for Eckes being turned into the wall while trying to block Busch. Amid the wrecking, Nemechek, Busch, and Chandler Smith led the bulk of the laps.

Eckes’ accident resulted in the green flag waving with three laps remaining. Zane Smith led the first two laps as Chandler gave chase. Chandler found a run on the backstretch and cleared his surname brethren for the lead in turn three and pulled away to win his third career race.

The final restart saw Chandler cut across Busch as retaliation for his employer doing the same at the previous green flag. He told FOX Sports, “I was like, ‘Alright Kyle, I see how it’s going to be, we’re not going to help each other.’ So I kept that in the back of my head. We were in contention there at the very end and I stuck it three-wide and was able to clear Kyle and get around Zane. It was all being in the right places at the right times.”

Although Zane would have had a dream start to his Front Row Motorsports tenure after winning the season opener at Daytona two weeks prior followed by a runner-up finish, this went up in flames when he failed post-race inspection for a lug nut infraction. In particular, his lug shape did not conform to part I-4 as outlined in Section 14.16.1 of the NASCAR Rulebook. Besides being the first disqualification of 2022, he was ironically the first disqualified Truck driver since Chandler at Watkins Glen last season. Zane is also the sixth Truck disqualification since NASCAR implemented the hard rule in 2019.

In indirect response to the news, Zane retweeted a post from SiriusXM NASCAR radio host and Motor Racing Network announcer Dave Moody that remarked, “If I had the ability to eliminate one thing from our world, I would eliminate Vladimir Putin. Lug nuts would be a close second.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
2	2	51	Kyle Busch*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
3	17	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	134	Running
4	5	17	Ryan Preece*	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	134	Running
5	8	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	134	Running
6	15	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	134	Running
7	7	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
8	32	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
9	18	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
10	10	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
11	29	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
12	21	30	Tate Fogleman	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
13	12	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
14	19	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
15	27	20	Matt Mills*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
16	14	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
17	16	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
18	28	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
19	26	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
20	36	33	Loris Hezemans	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	134	Running
21	23	62	Todd Bodine	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	134	Running
22	33	46	Matt Jaskol	G2G Racing	Toyota	134	Running
23	11	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
24	13	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
25	1	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
26	34	3	Jordan Anderson	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	133	Accident
27	35	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Accident
28	9	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	126	Accident
29	31	43	Thad Moffitt	Reaume Brothers Racing with GMS Racing	Chevrolet	114	Running
30	25	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Engine
31	4	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	103	Accident
32	24	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	71	Accident
33	20	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	44	Accident
34	22	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	28	Accident
35	30	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	21	DVP
36	6	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	134	Running (DSQ)
DNQ		47	Matt Jaskol	G2G Racing	Toyota