Twice in the closing laps at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday, Sammy Smith thought his race was over. He won it by 0.091 seconds, his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in his 11th start.
Smith restarted beside Layne Riggs on the front row for overtime, the extra laps NASCAR adds so a race ends at full speed. Ty Majeski of ThorSport Racing led at the white flag, and Smith passed him on the last lap in the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports as nine trucks crashed behind them. Austin Green, Smith's Spire teammate, finished third in his first Truck Series start; Smith said Green pushed him at the end.
"I thought I was wrecked there," Smith said. Then, coming off the last turn: "I thought it was over again."
That morning, TRICON Garage had announced that Smith will drive its No. 15 Toyota full time in the series next season. "It really hasn't been a great three years for me," he said after the race. "This is a time and moment where I need it the most to be able to win races."
The win doesn't touch the title. Smith runs for points in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he drives for JR Motorsports, so Friday earned him no Truck Series driver points. Kaden Honeycutt of TRICON finished fifth and leads the Chase, the series' championship playoff, by 43 points over Riggs of Front Row Motorsports, up from 39, according to NASCAR's unofficial standings. Two races are left.
Talladega also cut the Chase to five. Under NASCAR's rules, any driver more than 153 points behind the leader after Talladega is eliminated from championship contention. Still in: Honeycutt, Riggs, Majeski, Chandler Smith of Front Row and Christian Eckes of McAnally Hilgemann Racing, the last three between 141 and 144 points back. Out: Giovanni Ruggiero of TRICON, Daniel Hemric and Tyler Ankrum of McAnally Hilgemann, Ben Rhodes of ThorSport and Grant Enfinger of CR7 Motorsports. Ankrum finished second and was eliminated anyway; like Enfinger, he scored no points in either stage, the segments that pay points before the finish.
Riggs, who has seven wins this season to Honeycutt's four, finished eighth. He said in a team statement that he and Majeski "were going to get side-by-side for the win" until it looked as if Majeski "pushed me out and shoved me to the third lane," though he wasn't sure that was what happened. "We're going to have to go dominate the next two races," he said.
Enfinger had a right rear tire go flat while he was leading on lap 38. The lap-79 crash that sent the race to overtime started when Honeycutt bumped his TRICON teammate Thomas Annunziata into the outside wall, according to NASCAR's lap notes, and Enfinger hit Annunziata's truck. Enfinger finished 24th. Early in the race, Hemric was caught in a nine-truck crash that brought out a red flag; he finished 35th. Tony Stewart, the three-time Cup Series champion, and YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland were also out in that crash. Ruggiero won the first stage and finished 25th, 29 laps down.
The Chase goes next to Martinsville Speedway on Friday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. ET on FS1, and ends at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 6.
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