In A Nutshell
In one of the wildest last laps you’ll ever see, Chandler Smith took advantage of the top five refusing to work together to sneak underneath everyone and scoring an improbable victory in the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
It’s the eighth win of Smith’s career and his first at Daytona. In a star-studded field that included several Cup Series drivers, it was a Truck Series regular who prevailed in unlikely fashion to start the 2026 season with a bang.
The Top Truckers at Daytona International Speedway
Winner, Stage 2 Winner: Chandler Smith
Polesitter: Ty Majeski
Stage 1 Winner: Carson Hocevar
Most Laps Led (20 of 102): Justin Haley, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar
Fastest Lap: Daniel Hemric (46.479 seconds, 193.636 mph)
Top Storylines of the Race
- The race produced one of the largest entry lists in a while — 44 trucks vying for 36 spots. In the end, seven ended up going home. Those drivers were Norm Benning, Toni Breidinger, Bryan Dauzat, Greg Van Alst, Timmy Hill, Tyler Tomassi and Justin Carroll. Mini Tyrrell would have been the eighth driver, but a manufacturers’ provisional designed to benefit NASCAR’s newest manufacturer, Ram, gave him a spot in the field, expanding the field to 37 trucks.
- Several driver spoke to Frontstretch about what their 2026 plans may look like:
- Carroll will attempt EchoPark Speedway next week and will likely be at Darlington Raceway as well. Carroll said he expects to have a similar schedule to last season, but is taking it month by month.
- Niece Motorsports confirmed its Nos. 42 and 45 trucks will run full-time with a rotation of drivers alongside the No. 44 of Andres Perez.
- FDNY Racing (which failed to qualify for Daytona) said it will attempt Talladega Superspeedway in the fall.
- Despite not having a truck running full-time this season, Young’s Motorsports owner Tyler Young said he still has the equipment and plans to attempt races this year that are still to be determined.
- Kaulig Racing announced that its No. 25 will be occupied by its Cup Series driver Ty Dillon next week at EchoPark. The No. 25 is Kaulig’s Free Agent Program truck, and the team will not announce the driver of the truck for the next race until the week leading up to that race. The only exceptions are Tony Stewart, who ran Daytona (finishing 36th) and Carson Ferguson, who will run Martinsville Speedway after finishing runner-up in the Ram: Race for the Seat television series.
The Winning Move
As the field roared toward the white flag, Michael McDowell and Kris Wright crashed. NASCAR held the yellow flag and instead threw the white as the two drivers were able to get away without needing a caution.
However, the crash, along with a flat tire from Tanner Gray, broke up the large pack, allowing drivers to get massive runs on others. Such was the case with the leaders, when John Hunter Nemechek shot around the outside in turns 1 and 2 with a massive push from Christian Eckes. Gio Ruggiero came up to block for TRICON Garage teammate Kaden Honeycutt, but Nemechek ended up getting the No. 17 sideways onto the apron as they roared into turn 3.
Eckes pushed Nemechek underneath Honeycutt for the lead into turns three, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. picked up Ruggiero as he merged back on track. Ruggiero forced his way underneath Eckes coming off of turn 4, and it looked like Nemechek had the win all but sealed heading toward the checkered flag.
However, Ruggiero kept his momentum and shot to the outside of the No. 62, nearly crashing with Eckes in the process. As both Eckes and Ruggiero closed on Nemechek, he came up to block both of them. Meanwhile, Smith, who had entered turn 3 in sixth position, worked with Ford teammate Ty Majeski through the final one-third of the lap.
As Nemechek faded high to block Ruggiero and Eckes, he left the bottom lane wide open for Smith and Majeski, who sneaked through on the bottom in a four-wide move coming to the line in which Smith easily came out the winner.
Ruggiero squeezed out second over Eckes at the line, while Majeski finished fourth. Nemechek, who hit was in the lead 200 feet before the finish line, ended up fifth.
Championship Rundown
As a reminder, the playoffs are no more, so this win does not lock Smith into the playoffs.
But it gives him a pretty dang good start to the season.
Thanks to NASCAR not only reverting back to the Chase system of old, but retooling the points a little bit to reward the winner even more, Smith begins the season with a 19-point lead over Eckes.
As the season goes on though, the position to watch for the playoff cut line will still be 10th, as the Truck Series Chase field will still consist of just 10 drivers. Not that it matters right now, but Ben Rhodes holds that final spot by two points over Perez.
But it’s only race one and a long season is ahead. Things can (and will) change dramatically.
Rookie Report
Rookie of the Race: Not bad for your Truck Series debut, right? Despite winning back-to-back then-Nationwide Series titles in 2011 and 2012 and having four Cup Series wins, including a Daytona 500, Friday night marked Stenhouse’s Truck Series debut. Driving the No. 45 for Niece Motorsports, Stenhouse, a proven superspeedway contender, had a quiet but solid night, bringing his Chevrolet home in sixth in his debut race.
Editor’s Note: As in years past, the rookie report list will consist of all drivers running for the Rookie of the Year, as well as any driver who competes in the race that has 10 career Truck Series starts or less. Rookie of the Year drivers will be denoted with an asterisk next to their name.)
No. 4 — Garrett Mitchell (37th)
No. 5 — Nick Leitz (11th)
No. 7 — Michael McDowell (24th)
No. 12 — Brenden Queen* (seventh)
No. 13 — Cole Butcher* (14th)
No. 14 — Mini Tyrrell* (19th)
No. 35 — Greg Van Alst (DNQ)
No. 42 — Travis Pastrana (15th)
No. 45 — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (sixth)
No. 69 — Tyler Tomassi (DNQ)
No. 97 — Jason Kitzmiller (30th)
One Big Takeaway From This Race
Let’s face it, as impressive as the win was, there was no way Smith should have even had the chance to win the race.
The only reason he even had the opportunity (aside from huge pushes from Majeski) was because nobody worked with anybody.
One storyline that hasn’t seemingly been discussed was that Toyota quietly imploded on itself in the final lap (kinda like it did in the Cup Series late last year). Exiting turn 2, Toyota had the top three spots until nobody decided to work with Honeycutt and he faded out of contention.
Ruggiero and Nemechek still had a chance to cement a Toyota victory … until Nemechek nearly wrecked the No. 17 on the back half of the backstretch. At that point, Ruggiero said plans changed.
”Probably would have pushed John Hunter to the win there, but he almost wrecked me twice,” Ruggiero told FOX Sports 1 before calling out Toyota’s bad teamwork.
”I think overall as a group, we need to do better as Toyotas,” he said. “I thought me and Tanner and Taylor [Gray] worked together really well, but everybody else just seemed like they were out there on their own.”
It’s another learning experience for Toyota, who once again had a win nearly on lock before giving it away to another manufacturer by not blocking the driver sneaking by on the bottom.
Just like the Cup guys at Kansas last season.
Talkin’ Truckers
Majeski (fourth) breaks down what he saw at the finish:
Halmar Friesen Racing teammates Nemechek (fifth) and Stewart Friesen (10th) give their takes on the chaotic ending and top-10 results:
Travis Pastrana (15th) says he had fun in his NASCAR return:
Frankie Muniz (16th) excited to beat some of the big names that were in the field:
Tyrrell (19th) brings home a solid top 20 in his NASCAR debut:
McDowell (24th) led the most laps, but a pit penalty and a spin took him out of contention:
Stewart (36th) crashed out early in his return to NASCAR after a 10-year absence:
Garrett Mitchell, known by fans as Cleetus McFarland, finished last after crashing early on lap 6:
Paint Scheme of the Race
There’s no other proper way to start the season than with a tribute to Greg Biffle.
Several teams across all three of NASCAR’s premier series are honoring Biffle after he was killed in a plane crash in Statesville, N.C., on Dec. 18.
All four of Niece Motorsports’ trucks ran special number fonts akin to the font of Biffle’s No. 16 font when he drove for Roush Racing from 2003-2016.
Mitchell, Pastrana and Stenhouse were also close friends and/or teammates with Biffle.
And although he didn’t qualify, Benning also got in on the tribute to Biffle, utilizing his Roush number font as well as a special decal on the decklid, much like Mitchell and others had.
The motorsports world misses you everyday, Biff.
Next Stop
They say the devil went down to Georgia, but not this week.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season heads to EchoPark Speedway next Saturday, Feb. 21, as part of a doubleheader with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Kyle Busch is the two-time defending winner of the race.
Coverage for the Fr8 208 begins at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21. Television coverage can be found on FOX Sports 1.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
I watched (part of) my first NASCAR event since 2016 because Tony Stewart came back. The constant focus on the stages, even early in the event, was a big annoyance. When Tony was out, so was I. Can’t imagine what It’s like for longer events.
SPEED showed a replay of the Truck event on Saturday night. The ending reminded me of Ron Bouchard’s win at Talladega when the Red Sea parted for him to allow him to nip DW and Bobby Labonte at the line.
Here is Talladega!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBc5SdaAu8
So newcomer Mini Tyrell has shown himself (according to race announcers ) to be the greatest race car driver of all time. Is he locked in to a Cup team or will the bidding start soon? If he is as good as they say, I would assume he could sign for $100M, maybe as high as $250M per year. Not bad for a racer whose only qualification is that he was able to move out of his moms house and into a house on a reality show and he survived.