A Friday night in Bristol saw Chandler Smith able to claim his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of 2025.
Smith, who returned to the Truck Series this year after two seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, scored his second victory at the Tennessee track, holding off Kyle Larson and Corey Heim on a late restart.
Nice work on the burnout, @CSmith_Racing. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/pK1OwKGxw9
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 12, 2025
“I’m more excited for this team than I am for myself.” Smith said post-race. “This group came together, we hired my crew chief like three weeks before Daytona.
“Take that in for a second, this group just got assembled literally in January. The good lord works in mysterious ways, 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 just putting a group together last minute.”
NASCAR Cup Series regular Larson rallied from a speeding penalty to finish second with Spire Motorsports.
“We fell back on that long run in the second stage (as) I got super tight.” Larson said. “Then I speed on pit road I think that next stop.
“Honestly I think that helped us because we were still kind of buried for the next caution and we pitted so we had a little bit of an advantage to get towards the front. I thought it would’ve been more of an advantage than it was, but still I think it was a benefit to our race.”
Heim finished third, with Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes rounding out the top five.
Smith quickly took the lead from pole sitter Daniel Hemric in the early laps, quickly establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with.
The first caution for incident came on lap 17 when Connor Mosack spun underneath Tanner Gray, and another caution followed late in stage one for a four-truck incident that saw Majeski run into Frankie Muniz entering turn 3. Muniz slid up the track, collecting the trucks of Majeski, Stewart Friesen and Brandon Jones.
Big trouble involving Ty Majeski and Frankie Muniz early tonight in Bristol. Here's what happened:#NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/nGXdFP8Ce0
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 12, 2025
The caution set up a three-lap shootout to end stage one, with Smith collecting his first stage win of 2025.
Smith built a gap at the beginning of stage two before a caution came after Rajah Caruth was hit by Kaden Honeycutt on the frontstretch.
Smith pulled away after the restart before catching lapped traffic, allowing Currey to close in. Currey navigated the lapped traffic, passing Smith on the outside to win the second stage, the first stage victory of his career.
Caruth, who stayed out after the stage caution, claimed the top spot at the start of stage three and pulled away from Currey. Currey started to close the gap before a caution came when Toni Breidinger backed into the outside wall after contact with Friesen.
The No. 5 goes around and backs into the wall. pic.twitter.com/b6u7483BwR
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) April 12, 2025
Caruth maintained the top spot as Heim made his way up to second, passing Currey. The top three of Caruth, Heim and Currey pulled away from the rest of the field as they caught lapped traffic.
Smith was able to close into the top three as Heim took the lead from Caruth with under 30 laps to go. Heim and Smith battled for the lead before a caution came from a sprinkle of rain.
As the race restarted, Currey suffered a transmission issue and slowed coming off turn 2, which prompted a caution. Smith was scored the leader ahead of Heim and was able to hold off a charging Larson on the restart for the victory.
Truck Bristol Results
The Truck Series makes its return to Rockingham Speedway on Friday, April 18, at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
