Chandler Smith takes express lane to Round 2 with Richmond win

It has been an eventful month for Chandler Smith. Just two weeks after son Chandler Jr. was born, the new father got to punch his ticket to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series‘  Round of 8 by dominating Saturday’s Worldwide Express 250 at Richmond Raceway. It marked his third win of the year.

He and his Toyota allies dominated the race as if to hoping to live up to its previous name ToyotaCare 250, with all 250 laps being led by Tundras. After Smith led the opening lap, pole sitter Ty Majeski cleared him for the lead and held it for the remainder of Stage #1. Smith’s Kyle Busch Motorsports team-mate and defending winner John Hunter Nemechek led a lap between stages before Smith reclaimed it. Nemechek’s 2021 victory also saw a Toyota sweep of the laps led counter.

Smith would not lose the lead at any point for the rest of the race. The 176 total laps led are the most in Smith’s Truck career by a wide margin (his previous best was 71 at Knoxville in 2021) and the third highest in a Richmond Truck race behind Ted Musgrave‘s 199 in 2005 and Jack Sprague‘s 196 in 2001.

“God is so good,” said Smith. “I’m a Daddy now. My wife had such an amazing labour and delivery. We have an amazing and beautiful baby boy at home. Honey, this is for you and Jr., this is for you as well. I can’t wait to get home to you two tonight. The blessings just keep stacking up. I have an incredible group behind me at KBM and an incredible group of partners with ChargeMe, Safelite and everybody. I’m taking this in. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it, but I’ve going to keep taking it in and giving all glory to the Lord.

“Just like I said at Media Day, if the Good Lord wants it to be our championship, then it will and if it’s not, it’s not. I like how everything is going right now for sure.”

Playoff drivers dominated the top ten, with Corey Heim and Taylor Gray breaking up the party by finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. The two part-timers pushed Stewart Friesen to eleventh, while reigning champion Ben Rhodes was the worst finishing playoff contender in a frustrating eighteenth.

“I guess we can run just as bad in Kansas and make it into the next round,” Rhodes commented. “We had a terrible night tonight, but to go win a second championship, that’s not what we needed to do. We have to right the ship and get better.

“Honestly, I’m a little confused on the issues we fought all night. I had some brake issues in practice. We were trying something new and I didn’t like it from the start, from the first laps on the track. But something else was going on tonight, stuff that I’ve never really felt in a race car before. We’ll have to go back and diagnose it and make sure it never happens again. Overall, just have to say thank you to my team. They work their butts off. Not the night we wanted, but we can run this bad again. We need to get wins and run better to contend for this championship.”

The lone race-related caution came on lap 216 when Nick Leitz was turned into the outside wall by playoff drivers Carson Hocevar. Leitz subsequently called him out on Twitter by posting, “That’s one way to stay in the leap lap I guess”.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	250	Running
2	7	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	250	Running
3	1	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	250	Running
4	5	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
5	16	51	Corey Heim	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	250	Running
6	24	17	Taylor Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	250	Running
7	15	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	250	Running
8	9	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	250	Running
9	6	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	250	Running
10	12	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
11	3	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	250	Running
12	18	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
13	11	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	250	Running
14	8	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	250	Running
15	31	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
16	19	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	248	Running
17	10	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	248	Running
18	14	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	248	Running
19	4	62	Layne Riggs	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	248	Running
20	17	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	248	Running
21	21	30	Kaden Honeycutt	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	247	Running
22	26	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
23	25	24	Jack Wood #	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	247	Running
24	27	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
25	28	7	Rajah Caruth	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
26	20	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	247	Running
27	13	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	247	Running
28	22	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	246	Running
29	30	20	Joey Gase*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	246	Running
30	33	44	Chad Chastain	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	246	Running
31	36	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	245	Running
32	32	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	244	Running
33	35	43	Mason Maggio†	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	242	Running
34	23	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	224	Running
35	29	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	223	Running
36	34	33	Nick Leitz	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	209	Accident
DNQ		5	Tyler Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ		46	Brennan Poole	G2G Racing	Toyota
DNQ		90	Justin Carroll	TC Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ		14	Trey Hutchens	Trey Hutchens Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		96	Mason Maggio	Peck Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet