All evening long, Chandler Smith was nothing but courteous to his championship-contending teammate Layne Riggs… but when it came time for the pay window to open in the Black’s Tire 200 at Martinsville, Smith was determined to be first in line.
The driver of the No. 38 QuickTie Products Ford F-150 for Front Row Motorsports managed to power around the outside of Riggs on the race’s final restart, with 13 laps remaining, and take over the top spot, pacing the field for the remainder of the event.
While Smith began to drive away from his fellow Ford Racing manufacturer teammates, Riggs also would eventually surrender the second position to Ben Rhodes in the No. 99 Bommarito Ford F-150. Riggs would settle in third place.
“God is good. The faith has been tested, especially since the start of the Chase and it’s been literally every single week something, but our faith never wavered though,” said Chandler Smith, driver of the No. 38 Ford F-150. “I’m just very grateful and I’m very humbled for tonight. I just know that that’s from the Lord. Everybody on this No. 38 QuickTie Products Ford F-150, we had a solid truck tonight, especially when it counted. We’ve got one more race left and we’ll try to end that with a band with these Front Row Motorsports fellas
Just a couple of rows behind the highly-contested battle for a position on the hypothetically NASCAR podium, championship points leader Kaden Honeycutt would run into a small issue – getting a shot from Tristan McKee and going way up the racetrack in Turn 1, losing more than 10 spots, and several points in a tight points fight.
Luckily for Honeycutt, though, Riggs didn’t get to celebrate in Victory Lane.
Behind Riggs, who finished third-place, was Ty Majeski, who finished fourth in the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150. Ford Racing secured the top-four positions in the running order, the first time they’ve done that since St. Petersburg earlier this season.
Tristan McKee, who became the youngest polesitter in NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series history earlier on Friday afternoon, finished in fifth.
Andres Perez De Lara recorded a career-best sixth-place finish in the No. 44 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Niece Motorsports, with Tyler Ankrum, Gio Ruggiero, William Sawalich, and Christian Eckes rounding out the top-10.
Kaden Honeycutt, who got booted to the outside on the race’s final restart, finished 14th. Leaving Martinsville and heading to the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Honeycutt holds a 20-point lead over Layne Riggs.
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will take place next Friday, November 6 at 7:30 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
