Chandler Smith dominates in Richmond Truck playoff win

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.

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY SIX LAPS LED.

Burn it down, @CSmithDrive 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/AAHQP8LeVO

— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) August 14, 2022

“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.

Right in front of the leader! 😳 pic.twitter.com/YTreZmd9eo

— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) August 14, 2022

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.

Pit crews are capital T, TOUGH!

@ThorSportRacing pic.twitter.com/zgUUeIdbRa

— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) August 14, 2022

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