In a remarkable turn of events, Chandler Smith has found his way back to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, holding off Cup Series star Kyle Larson to win Friday’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The victory marks a significant milestone for the 22 year old from Talking Rock, Georgia, who faced career uncertainty after losing his NASCAR Xfinity Series seat at Joe Gibbs Racing during the off-season. Smith’s last minute deal with Front Row Motorsports has quickly paid dividends with this impressive win.

“I’m more excited for this team than I am for myself,” Smith told Josh Sims in his post-race interview. “This group came together, we hired my crew chief like three weeks before Daytona, just take that in for a second, this group just got assembled literally in January.”

The hastily assembled team has clearly gelled quickly, delivering Front Row Motorsports its 11th career victory in the Truck Series and giving crew chief Jon Leonard his second ever win. Smith didn’t mince words about the challenges he faced in the off-season: “My life has been really, really crazy here recently and there was a lot of unknowns about my future going into this season and we kind of had our backs against the wall about putting a group together last minute, but holy shit, I wouldn’t want any other group than I got behind me.”

Kyle Larson, in his second attempt in four weeks to sweep a NASCAR tripleheader weekend, finished second after being unable to catch Smith during the final green flag run. This adds another strong showing to Larson’s versatile racing resume, though he fell just short of the victory.

Corey Heim came home third after leading 16 laps late in the race. His hopes for a third victory this season were hampered by what many viewed as a questionable caution flag from NASCAR Race Control, which forced him to restart second rather than maintain his lead. Despite this setback, Heim recorded his fifth top five finish of the season in the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

Tyler Ankrum delivered another solid performance for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing with a fourth place finish, while two time series champion Ben Rhodes rounded out the top five.

Layne Riggs showed impressive resilience by rebounding from being lapped during the long green flag run that concluded the second stage to finish sixth. Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt, Rajah Caruth, and Gio Ruggiero completed the top ten.

The race also featured a career highlight for Bayley Currey, who led 14 laps in the No. 44 Chevrolet Silverado for Niece Motorsports before transmission issues derailed his promising run while competing in the top five.

In the championship standings, Corey Heim maintains his lead with an 18 point advantage over the race winner Chandler Smith. Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum, and Daniel Hemric currently hold positions three through five in the points battle.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continues next Friday, April 18, with the Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway. Coverage begins at 5:00 PM ET on FS1, NASCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Image