Chandler Smith dominates in Richmond Truck playoff win
Chandler Smith cruised to a dominating victory in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and picked up his first win in the playoffs.
Smith dominated from nearly start to finish, leading 176 of the 250 laps, including the final 175 and spent most of the time holding off his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate John Hunter Nemechek.
Smith beat Nemechek by 2.790 seconds to claim the victory, his third of the 2022 season.
With the win, Smith automatically advances to the next round of the playoffs regardless of how he finishes in the series’ next race at Kansas Speedway.
“Dude, God is so good. I’m a daddy now. My wife had such an amazing labor and delivery with an amazing beautiful baby boy at home. Honey, this is for you. Junior, this is for you as well,” Smith said.
“The blessings just keep stacking up. I have an incredible group behind me at KBM. I’m taking this in. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it but I’m going to soak it in.”
Pole-winner Ty Majeski finished third, Grant Enfinger was fourth and Corey Heim rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Taylor Gray, Matt Crafton, Christian Eckes, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap trucks all pit with Smith first off pit road. Friesen was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.
On the restart on Lap 151, Smith continued to lead the way followed by Nemechek and Enfinger.
With 60 laps remaining in the race, Smith maintained a 1.5-second lead over Nemechek but all trucks still needed to pit for fuel to make it to the finish.
With 40 to go, Nemechek had closed considerably on Smith thanks to lapped traffic while Majeski had moved back into third.
On Lap 215, Hocevar got into Nick Leitz and both wrecked into the outside wall to bring out a caution.
All the lead-lap trucks pit with Smith again the first off pit road. On the restart on Lap 223, Smith was followed by Nemechek and Majeski.
Stage 2
After dominating from the start, Smith easily held off Nemechek to claim the Stage 2 win.
Enfinger was third, Majeski fourth and Taylor Gray rounded out the top-five.
Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, all the lead-lap trucks elected to pit with Smith the first off pit road. Majeski hit his team’s jackman on his pit stop but he was not injured.
On the restart on Lap 82, Smith was followed by Nemechek and Majeski.
With 40 laps remaining in the stage, Smith maintained a 1.5-second lead over Nemechek while Majeski remained in third.
With 10 laps to go, Smith had expanded his lead over Nemechek to almost 3 seconds as Enfinger moved into third. Majeski ran fourth and Taylor Gray moved into fifth.
Stage 1
Majeski easily held off Nemechek and cruised to the Stage 1 win, his third stage victory of the 2022 season.
Smith was third, Stewart Friesen fourth and Enfinger rounded out the top-five.
Majeski started on the pole but Chandler Smith edged ahead to lead Lap 1. Majeski powered back around him to grab the lead on Lap 2.
With 30 laps remaining in the stage, Majeski had built a nearly 4-second lead over Smith as Nemechek ran third.
After 60 of 70 laps, Majeski’s lead over Smith had expanded to more than five seconds as Nemechek began running down Smith for the second position.
On Lap 65, Nemechek finally worked his way around Smith to move into second, 5.4 seconds behind Majeski.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Laps Led | Retirement | Points | Bonus | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 18 | Chandler Smith | Toyota | 250 | 1:56'56.215 | 176 | ||||||
2 | 4 | John Hunter Nemechek | Toyota | 250 | 1:56'59.005 | 2.790 | 2.790 | 1 | ||||
3 | 66 | Ty Majeski | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'00.087 | 3.872 | 1.082 | 73 | ||||
4 | 23 | Grant Enfinger | Chevrolet | 250 | 1:57'03.316 | 7.101 | 3.229 | |||||
5 | 51 | Corey Heim | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'03.718 | 7.503 | 0.402 | |||||
6 | 17 | Taylor Gray | Ford | 250 | 1:57'04.085 | 7.870 | 0.367 | |||||
7 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'05.181 | 8.966 | 1.096 | |||||
8 | 98 | Christian Eckes | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'08.601 | 12.386 | 3.420 | |||||
9 | 38 | Zane Smith | Ford | 250 | 1:57'08.887 | 12.672 | 0.286 | |||||
10 | 42 | Carson Hocevar | Chevrolet | 250 | 1:57'09.069 | 12.854 | 0.182 | |||||
11 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'10.026 | 13.811 | 0.957 | |||||
12 | 19 | Derek Kraus | Chevrolet | 250 | 1:57'10.688 | 14.473 | 0.662 | |||||
13 | 16 | Tyler Ankrum | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'11.499 | 15.284 | 0.811 | |||||
14 | 61 | Chase Purdy | Toyota | 250 | 1:57'21.326 | 25.111 | 9.827 | |||||
15 | 32 | Bret Holmes | Chevrolet | 249 | 1:57'17.737 | 1 Lap | 1 Lap | |||||
16 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Ford | 248 | 1:57'11.934 | 2 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
17 | 25 | Matt DiBenedetto | Chevrolet | 248 | 1:57'13.662 | 2 Laps | 1.728 | |||||
18 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | Toyota | 248 | 1:57'14.858 | 2 Laps | 1.196 | |||||
19 | 62 | Layne Riggs | Toyota | 248 | 1:57'19.711 | 2 Laps | 4.853 | |||||
20 | 35 | Jake Garcia | Chevrolet | 248 | 1:57'21.541 | 2 Laps | 1.830 | |||||
21 | 30 | Kaden Honeycutt | Toyota | 247 | 1:57'12.223 | 3 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
22 | 02 | Kaz Grala | Chevrolet | 247 | 1:57'16.750 | 3 Laps | 4.527 | |||||
23 | 24 | Jack Wood | Chevrolet | 247 | 1:57'17.133 | 3 Laps | 0.383 | |||||
24 | 45 | Alan Lawless | Chevrolet | 247 | 1:57'18.408 | 3 Laps | 1.275 | |||||
25 | 7 | Rajah Caruth | Chevrolet | 247 | 1:57'19.213 | 3 Laps | 0.805 | |||||
26 | 1 | Hailie Deegan | Ford | 247 | 1:57'20.065 | 3 Laps | 0.852 | |||||
27 | 22 | Austin Wayne Self | Chevrolet | 247 | 1:57'20.972 | 3 Laps | 0.907 | |||||
28 | 91 | Colby Howard | Chevrolet | 246 | 1:56'57.314 | 4 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
29 | 20 | Joey Gase | Chevrolet | 246 | 1:57'02.369 | 4 Laps | 5.055 | |||||
30 | 44 | Chad Chastain | Chevrolet | 246 | 1:57'07.670 | 4 Laps | 5.301 | |||||
31 | 56 | Timmy Hill | Toyota | 245 | 1:57'05.665 | 5 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
32 | 12 | Spencer Boyd | Chevrolet | 244 | 1:56'57.886 | 6 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
33 | 43 | Mason Maggio | Chevrolet | 242 | 1:57'14.973 | 8 Laps | 2 Laps | |||||
34 | 9 | Blaine Perkins | Chevrolet | 224 | 1:57'15.866 | 26 Laps | 18 Laps | |||||
35 | 40 | Dean Thompson | Chevrolet | 223 | 1:57'10.768 | 27 Laps | 1 Lap | |||||
36 | 33 | Nick Leitz | Toyota | 209 | 1:38'16.601 | 41 Laps | 14 Laps |
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