Chandler Smith: Driver, No. 18 iBUYPOWER Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: SpeedyCash.com 220, Race 9 of 23, 147 Laps –35/35/77; 220.5 Miles
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile quad-oval)
Date/Broadcast: May 20, 2022, at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
Mr. Smith Heads to Texas:
Chandler Smith and the No. 18 team head to Texas Motor Speedway for Friday’s SpeedyCash.com 220 fresh off a hard-earned fourth-place finish at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City on Saturday. The team encountered a fuel pickup issue after finishing fourth in the opening stage and was forced to coast to pit road. The team would get his Tundra TRD Pro re-fired but lost a lap in the process. After getting the “Lucky Dog” at the end of Stage Two, Smith would charge back through the field in the Final Stage to bring home a fourth-place finish.
iBUYPOWER will serve as the primary sponsor on Smith’s No. 18 Tundra TRD Pro at Texas Friday and again at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in October. Since 1999, iBUYPOWER has been delivering on its promise to build the best gaming systems for the most discerning gamers. Friday’s race will be the fifth event for iBUYPOWER sponsoring Smith’s KBM entry since 2019. Smith has finished inside the top five in all four of those races, including a runner-up finish at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in 2019.
Smith has two prior Truck Series starts at Texas with a best result of fifth coming last June. The Toyota Racing Development driver has been stellar on three mile-and-a-half track starts in 2022, winning at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway and finishing fourth at both Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.
After seven races Smith sits fourth in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season point standings, 29 tallies behind reigning series champion Ben Rhodes. Through the first eight events of the season Smith ranks second among Truck Series regulars in average starting position (7.8) and average finish (10.1), fourth in average running position (8.704) and driver rating (100.9) and fifth in laps led (56). He has produced one win, four top-five and five top-10 finishes in his sophomore campaign.
The Georgia driver earned NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year honors in 2021 and finished eighth in the championship standings after producing two victories, one pole, 213 laps led, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes in his first full-time season. He earned his first career Truck Series victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in September and in the series finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway earned his first career pole and swept all three stages en route to his second victory.
In addition to his Truck Series schedule in 2022, Smith is competing in a three-race schedule with Sam Hunt Racing (SHR). Smith finished 38th in his series debut at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway after a mid-race wreck and finished 21st at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. His final race with SHR will come Oct. 22 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
Veteran crew chief Danny Stockman will once again call the shots for Smith and the No. 18 team in 2022. Stockman’s drivers have produced six victories at KBM across his first two seasons, including two with Smith behind the wheel in 2021. The veteran crew chief captured a Truck Series championship with Austin Dillon in 2011 and also won an Xfinity Series championship with Dillon in 2013. Stockman’s drivers have produced one win, four top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.9 across seven Truck Series starts at Texas. He was victorious with KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch in July of 2020. Additionally, his Xfinity Series drivers produced five top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 11 starts.
Chandler Smith, Driver Q&A:
We are halfway through the regular season. Assess your season so far.
“For the most part it has been really, really, good. It’s definitely been a lot better than the first half of the last season we had, which is really big for us. Going into the season we said we had a lot of momentum, we just won Phoenix and we need to start on a high note and keep that trend going all the way to the playoffs. That was our mentality and that is what we’ve been doing for sure. We had a couple of pretty rough races before Kansas, but other than that we’ve been really good every time we’ve showed up at the race track in our Tundra and you can’t ask for more than that, honestly.”
With the success you’ve had already this season on mile-and-a-half tracks are you looking forward to going to Texas?
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like our mile-and-a-half package as a whole and also myself getting the experience that I have at mile-and-a-halves is starting to pay off and starting to show a little bit more as well. Really happy to have iBUYPOWER on the truck this weekend and really looking forward to having our truck just as fast as their gaming PC’s.”
How does Texas compare to the other mile-and-a-half tracks on the Truck Series schedule?
“They all have their similarities for sure. I would say Texas is unique in its own way considering Turns 1 and 2 are completely different than Turns 3 and 4, but you can argue that Kansas and Vegas are the same way. At the end of the day, it’s another mile-and-a-half, there is a lot of on throttle time and that’s the biggest thing about these mile-and-a-halves is there is so much on throttle time and a lot of aerodynamics that go into it. That’s our strong suit and where I feel like I’m starting to excel a little more, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Chandler Smith Career Highlights:
- Across 46 career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts has recorded three wins, 362 laps led, 18 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 14.1.
- Earned NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year honors in 2021 and finished eighth in the championship standings after producing two victories, one pole, 213 laps led, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes in his first full-time season. He earned his first career Truck Series victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in September and in the series finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway earned his first career pole and swept all three stages en route to his second victory.
- Has posted an average finish of 29.5 across two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts in 2022, with a best result of 22nd coming at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
- Has collected nine wins, 10 poles, 1783 laps led, 22 top-five and 29 top-10 finishes en route to an average finish of 5.4 across 34 career ARCA Menards Series starts.
- Has numerous Super Late Model victories across his career, including two marquee wins: the Snowball Derby at 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. (2021) and SpeedFest at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Georgia (2018). Will compete in several Super Late Model events around his Truck Series schedule in 2022.
Chandler Smith’s No. 18 iBUYPOWER Tundra: TRD Pro:
KBM-68: The No. 18 iBUYPOWER team will unload KBM-68 for Friday night’s race at Texas. In its most recent outing, John Hunter Nemechek produced a chassis-best third-place finish with it at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last August.
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected nine wins, three poles, 1050 laps led, 20 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.0 across 56 starts in the Lone Star State.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch’s has four Texas wins for his organization (2010, 2014, 2019 & 2020). John Hunter Nemechek (2021), Greg Biffle (2019), Christopher Bell (2017), William Byron (2016) and Erik Jones (2015) all have one Texas triumph.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (93) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway Corey Heim became the 18th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM. In addition to collecting a series-record seven Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- The No. 18, the number which was on the first Tundra that went to victory lane for KBM in 2010, has 24 career victories.
