After Grant Enfinger snapped a 40-race winless drought last week at the twist and turns of the Lime Rock Road Course, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returned to its roots today to take on the recently renovated North Wilkesboro Speedway for some old-fashioned, mid-day short track racing. The earlier portions of the race were dominated by Carson Hocevar and points leader Layne Riggs. Of course, that was before a tire issue at the end of Stage 2 riddled Hocevar to limping around the track, costing him two laps and his chance to win.
Meanwhile, Riggs experienced some issues in the closing laps of Stage 2, radioing his crew that he needed extreme changes made to his 34 truck if he wanted to be in contention to win. Those changes were made and Riggs found himself in the 2nd position late. But taking advantage of the misfortunes of the two leaders was the quiet third place runner, Chandler Smith, who took the race lead to begin the final stage. As the field took the Craftsman 20 to go, Smith continued to lead over Riggs at 7.5 seconds. If Riggs wanted to be back in contention for the win, a caution would need to come out.
Unfortunately for his teammate, that caution never came. Chandler Smith went on to score his second win of the season after winning the season-opening Daytona race in a thriller 4-wide finish. This race was decidedly less thrilling as he scored the victory at over ten seconds over Layne Riggs. It marks Front Row Motorsports 6th win of the season and Smith’s 9th career Truck Series victory.
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