Zane Smith takes rain-shortened NASCAR Truck win at Daytona

Smith was leading the race when NASCAR threw a caution on Lap 69 for rain. The race was finally red-flagged after 79 of 100 laps and Smith declared the winner.

Smith grabbed the lead on a restart on Lap 65 when he went low on then-leader Corey LaJoie, who fell into the middle lane and dropped back in the field.

Tanner Gray moved into second at that point and the two were battling for the lead when the final caution came out.

Christian Eckes finished third, Colby Howard fourth and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum, Corey Heim, Matt Crafton and Chase Elliott.

Travis Pastrana finished 13th in a career-best result for him.

"It's huge. The past couple times I've actually been to Daytona I've gotten to visit Victory Lane. To do that for a third time is awesome." Smith said. "I tried to play that race as smart as possible. When it was getting really aggressive, I'd get out of it.

"I knew these patches of rain were a thing but I didn't think it would stick around for this long. I just wanted to be there after Stage 2 was over. You never know what's going to happen."

Smith isn't done at Daytona yet. He will compete in Sunday's Daytona 500, driving a third car for Front Row Motorsports.

"I'll be out there Sunday," he said. "It's exactly how we started last year, so it's looking good."

Stage 3

Following the caution between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead-lap trucks elected to pit with Crafton first off pit road.

On the restart on Lap 48, LaJoie led the way followed by Zane Smith, Heim, Matt DiBenedetto and Crafton.

Eckes, who restarted eighth, moved back into the lead on Lap 49. LaJoie got a shove into the top spot on Lap 50.

With 45 laps remaining, LaJoie continued to run out front, successfully blocking the advances of Zane Smith and Ankrum.

Rajah Caruth got loose in Turn 3 on Lap 58 while running three-wide to trigger a multi-truck wreck and bring out a caution. DiBenedetto, Friesen, Grant Enfinger and Daniel Dye were all involved.

Most of the lead-lap trucks elected to pit but LaJoie stayed out and in the lead. The race returned to green on Lap 65.

LaJoie fell into the middle lane and immediately dropped back on the restart, which sent Zane Smith into the lead.

NASCAR was forced to display a caution again on Lap 69 as it began raining once again. NASCAR ended up halting the race after completing 73 laps.

After about an hour, NASCAR was primed to restart the race and it even briefly returned to caution but the rain picked up again and it was halted against after 79 laps.

Stage 2

Stewart Friesen wrecked while leading the race on the last lap which brought out a caution and allowed Ankrum to claim the Stage 2 win.

Purdy ended up second, Crafton third, Nick Sanchez fourth and Eckes fifth.

Following the caution between Stages 1 and 2, the majority of the field pit but Ankrum stayed out and inherited the lead.

On the restart on Lap 26, Ankrum was followed by Friesen, Howard and Parker Kligerman. Friesen got a shove into the lead shortly after the restart.

Ankrum reclaimed the lead on Lap 27.

On Lap 29, Clay Greenfield and Gray got together entering Turn 1 which triggered a multi-truck incident that also collected Hailie Deegan, Daniel Dye, DiBenedetto, Dean Thompson and Bret Holmes.

The race was halted for nearly 12 minutes to allow crews to clear the track of debris. Several trucks pit during the caution. The race resumed on Lap 36 with Ankrum still in command.

Howard moved into the lead on Lap 37 but he got shuffled back as Friesen moved out front.

Stage 1

Eckes lost, then regained the lead in the final lap and a half, holding off Crafton to take the Stage 1 win.

DiBenedetto was third, Deegan fourth and Sanchez rounded out the top-five.

Sanchez, who started on the pole, got off to a slow start which allowed Majeski to lead Lap 1 but Eckes got a shove to the point on Lap 2.

The race was placed under caution on Lap 3 for light rain. A handful of trucks elected to pit and Derek Kraus was penalized for having a crew member over the wall too soon. The race resumed on Lap 7 with Eckes out front.

Just after the race restarted, NASCAR threw the caution again as rain started in Turns 3 and 4.

After a brief delay, the race returned to green on Lap 11.

On Lap 13, Crafton got a push past Eckes to take the lead for the first time in the race.

With five laps remaining in the stage, Eckes returned to the lead followed by DiBenedetto and Sanchez.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led	Retirement	Points
1	38	Zane Smith	Ford	79	2:05'58.264			17		40
2	15	Tanner Gray	Toyota	79	2:05'58.774	0.510	0.510			38
3	19	Christian Eckes	Chevrolet	79	2:05'59.018	0.754	0.244	19		50
4	9	Colby Howard	Chevrolet	79	2:05'59.343	1.079	0.325	2		33
5	23	Grant Enfinger	Chevrolet	79	2:06'00.008	1.744	0.665			36
6	98	Ty Majeski	Ford	79	2:06'00.262	1.998	0.254	2		41
7	16	Tyler Ankrum	Toyota	79	2:06'01.029	2.765	0.767	15		40
8	11	Corey Heim	Toyota	79	2:06'01.618	3.354	0.589			29
9	88	Matt Crafton	Ford	79	2:06'02.066	3.802	0.448	2		45
10	35	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	79	2:06'02.437	4.173	0.371
11	99	Ben Rhodes	Ford	79	2:06'02.857	4.593	0.420			30
12	42	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	79	2:06'03.372	5.108	0.515			30
13	41	Travis Pastrana	Chevrolet	79	2:06'04.217	5.953	0.845
14	17	Sammy Smith	Toyota	79	2:06'04.624	6.360	0.407
15	1	Jason White	Toyota	79	2:06'05.487	7.223	0.863			22
16	56	Timmy Hill	Toyota	79	2:06'05.835	7.571	0.348			21
17	4	Chase Purdy	Chevrolet	79	2:06'06.239	7.975	0.404	1		29
18	20	Derek Kraus	Chevrolet	79	2:06'07.238	8.974	0.999			19
19	22	Josh Reaume	Chevrolet	79	2:06'07.976	9.712	0.738			18
20	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Chevrolet	79	2:06'09.226	10.962	1.250			25
21	34	Jason White	Ford	79	2:06'10.120	11.856	0.894			16
22	02	Kris Wright	Chevrolet	79	2:06'11.201	12.937	1.081			15
23	7	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	79	2:06'12.410	14.146	1.209	19
24	33	Mason Massey	Ford	79	2:06'12.925	14.661	0.515			13
25	30	Chris Hacker	Toyota	79	2:06'13.420	15.156	0.495			12
26	2	Nicholas Sanchez	Chevrolet	79	2:06'15.309	17.045	1.889			24
27	51	Jack Wood	Chevrolet	79	2:06'16.234	17.970	0.925			14
28	52	Stewart Friesen	Toyota	74	2:06'14.238	5 Laps	5 Laps	2		9
29	24	Rajah Caruth	Chevrolet	57	1:23'31.621	22 Laps	17 Laps		Accident	8
30	43	Daniel Dye	Chevrolet	57	1:23'31.806	22 Laps	0.185		Accident	7
31	32	Bret Holmes	Chevrolet	49	1:17'30.127	30 Laps	8 Laps		Brakes	6
32	75	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	45	1:10'57.435	34 Laps	4 Laps		DVP
33	97	Codie Rohrbaugh	Chevrolet	39	59'00.889	40 Laps	6 Laps		Accident	4
34	84	Clay Greenfield	Toyota	28	37'44.124	51 Laps	11 Laps		Accident	3
35	13	Hailie Deegan	Ford	28	37'44.313	51 Laps	0.189		Accident	9
36	5	Dean Thompson	Toyota	28	37'44.444	51 Laps	0.131		Accident	1