Chandler Smith capitalized on a final-lap skirmish involving teammate Layne Riggs and Corey Heim to win the Window World 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday, May 17.
The 22-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, led only the final lap. He started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry. Smith then methodically worked his way up the leaderboard and posted top-five results through the event’s first two stage periods.
Racing upfront throughout the final stage period, Smith was poised to overtake Heim for the lead with five laps remaining. However, a late caution for an incident involving newcomer Brent Crews and Ben Rhodes sent the event into overtime. Despite dropping to third place at the start of an overtime shootout, Smith kept both Heim and teammate Riggs within striking distance. Then after Riggs rubbed and sent Heim for a spin through the first two turns on the final lap, Smith navigated his way to assume the lead. It was Smith’s second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2025 season both under caution and in dramatic fashion.
On-track qualifying initially scheduled to occur on Saturday morning was canceled due to on-track precipitation. The starting lineup was determined by a metric system per the NASCAR rule book. As a result, Corey Heim was awarded the pole position and he shared the front row with Kyle Busch.
Chandler Smith dropped to the rear of the field before the event began due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Corey Heim launched his No. 11 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry ahead through the first two turns from the outside lane. He quickly cycled his way through North Wilkesboro’s backstretch and final pair of turns (Turns 3 and 4). Heim led the first lap while Kyle Busch and rookie Giovanni Ruggerio followed suit.
Over the next four laps, Heim extended his early advantage to more than a second. Meanwhile, teammate Ruggerio overtook Busch through the frontstretch for the runner-up spot. Heim stretched his lead to nearly two seconds at the Lap 10 mark ahead of Ruggiero and Busch. Stewart Friesen, Sammy Smith and Jake Garcia followed suit in the top-six mark. Meanwhile, newcomer Brent Crews occupied seventh place ahead of Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes while Tyler Ankrum, Daniel Hemric, Kaden Honeycutt, Rajah Caruth and Matt Crafton occupied the top-15 spots ahead of Luke Baldwin, Tanner Gray, Matt Mills, Layne Riggs and Dawson Sutton.
Through the first 20-scheduled laps, Heim’s advantage grew to more than two seconds over teammate Ruggiero. Friesen, who overtook Busch for third place on Lap 11, trailed by more than three seconds. Meanwhile, Busch trailed by more than four seconds in fourth place ahead of teammate Sammy Smith. Garcia, Crews, Enfinger, Majeski and Rhodes followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
Fifteen laps later, Heim continued to extend his advantage, leading by more than four seconds over Ruggerio. The latter started to have Friesen closing in for third place. Despite being mired in lapped traffic, including teammate Toni Breidinger, Heim added another second to his advantage. He led by more than five seconds just past the Lap 40 mark.
On Lap 46, the event’s first caution flew when Tyler Tomassi stalled his entry below the track in Turn 2. During the caution period, some led by Heim and including Sammy Smith, Busch, Crews, Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski, Layne Riggs, Tyler Ankrum, Rhodes, Honeycutt, Tanner Gray, Caruth, Crafton, Baldwin, Conner Jones and Dawson Sutton pitted while the rest led by Ruggerio remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart on Lap 54 featured Friesen getting loose and sliding up the track. He nearly made contact with the leader Ruggiero entering the first two turns. With all the front-runners managing to keep their respective trucks racing straight, Ruggiero retained the lead. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes, Friesen maintained second place. Meanwhile, Heim, who restarted in the top 10, carved his way up to fourth place. He pursued Jake Garcia for more while Ruggiero led at the Lap 60 mark.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Ruggiero, who maintained the lead over the previous 10 laps, notched his first Truck stage career victory. Heim executed a final lap, final corner pass on Freisen for second place. Garcia, Chandler Smith, Riggs, Ankrum, Daniel Hemric, Enfinger and Kyle Busch followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Ruggiero and those who did not pit during the previous caution period pitted. The rest, led by Heim and those who pitted during the previous caution, remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 80 as Heim and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Heim briefly muscled ahead of Riggs from the outside lane through the frontstretch before Riggs slid up the track from the inside lane and made contact with Heim. With Heim nearly getting into the outside wall and the field fanning out while stacked up in multiple lanes, Enfinger capitalized on the wild start by moving into the lead. Behind, Crews muscled up to the runner-up spot and Heim dropped to third place while Enfinger led the following lap. Enfinger proceeded to lead just past the Lap 85 mark over Crews and Heim while Riggs was back in seventh place.
By Lap 90, Enfinger was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Crews as the latter maintained the spot ahead of teammate Heim. Behind, Ankrum and Caruth were in the top five ahead of Riggs, Busch, Sammy Smith, Rhodes and Chandler Smith, respectively, while Luke Baldwin, Kaden Honeycutt, Conner Jones, Garcia and Ruggiero followed suit in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Enfinger extended his lead to more than a second over Crews and Heim. Ankrum and Riggs were also racing in the top five. Enfinger added another second to his advantage as he led by two seconds by Lap 110 over both Heim and Crews. By then, Ankrum retained fourth place while Chandler Smith overtook teammate Riggs to move into fifth place.
At the halfway mark on Lap 125, Enfinger maintained his lead by more than a second over Heim. Chandler Smith, Ankrum and Riggs were racing in the top five ahead of Crews, Busch, Caruth, Rhodes and Sammy Smith, respectively. By then, Friesen, Baldwin, Honeycutt, Garcia and Ruggiero occupied the top-15 spots ahead of Hemric, Jones, Matt Crafton, Majeski and Tanner Gray while Connor Mosack, Toni Breidinger, Jack Wood, Patrick Emerling and Matt Mills trailed in the top-25 mark.
Then on Lap 137, the caution flew when Conner Jones, who was driving the No. 44 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for Niece Motorsports and was scored in the top-20 mark, blew a right-front tire and hit the outside wall in Turn 2. Jones’ incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 140 to officially conclude under caution. As a result, Enfinger cruised to his second Truck stage victory of the 2025 season. Heim, who was challenging Enfinger for the lead prior to the caution, settled in second place ahead of Chandler Smith, Ankrum, Riggs, Busch, Caruth, Crews, Rhodes and Sammy Smith, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Enfinger returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Enfinger edged Heim off of pit road first. Chandler Smith, Busch and Riggs followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Busch was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
With 101 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Enfinger and Heim occupied the front row. Enfinger used the outside lane to launch ahead of Heim and the field through the first two turns. Heim fought back from the inside lane. Chandler Smith then ran into the rear of Enfinger through Turns 3 and 4, which shot the latter up the track and allowed Heim to rocket ahead and reassume the lead. Smith would also move into the runner-up spot before he pursued Heim for the lead. With less than 100 laps remaining, Smith drew his No. 38 QuickTie Ford F-150 entry even with Heim. They battled side-by-side for the lead before he settled behind Heim and kept close pursuit of the latter with nearly 95 laps remaining.
With 90 laps remaining, Heim maintained the lead by a tenth of a second over Chandler Smith. Riggs, who moved up to third place, trailed by more than a second. Behind, Friesen, Ruggiero and Ankrum occupied the top-six spots while Enfinger dropped to seventh place in front of Crews, Garcia and Baldwin.
Fifteen laps later, Heim retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith. Riggs, Friesen and Ruggiero continued to pursue in the top five. With the leaders navigating through lapped traffic, Heim would slightly increase his lead to nine-tenths of a second over Smith with 60 laps remaining while Riggs, Friesen and Ruggiero trailed by as far back as five seconds.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Heim’s lead increased to nearly two seconds over Chandler Smith while Riggs trailed in third place by more than three seconds. Behind, Ruggerio and Friesen trailed in the top five by more than six seconds while Ankrum and Enfinger, both of whom were racing in seventh and eighth, respectively, trailed by nine seconds. As Garcia and Rhodes occupied the remaining top-10 spots, Heim led by more than two seconds with nearly 40 laps remaining.
During a caution period which started with 39 laps remaining when Tyler Tomassi lost a right-front tire and made contact with the Turn 1 outside wall, some led by Chandler Smith pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Heim remained on the track.
The start of the next restart with 32 laps remaining featured Heim fending off Riggs through the first two turns to maintain the lead. As Chandler Smith pursued in third place, Heim led the following lap and he proceeded to lead with less than 25 laps remaining while the field behind jostled for late positions.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Heim maintained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while Riggs trailed in third place by more than a second. Behind, Ankrum and Crews trailed in the top five ahead of Ruggiero, Enfinger, Rhodes, Hemric and Caruth while Smith started to close in on Heim for the lead.
With 10 laps remaining, Heim continued to lead by half a second over Chandler Smith while third-place Riggs continued to trail by more than a second. Smith would slightly cut his deficit down to three-tenths of a second over the next five laps, but Heim kept the top spot during the span.
Then with five laps remaining, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime when Rhodes bumped and sent Crews for a spin in Turn 2 as the latter was having a stellar run in sixth place during his Truck Series debut. At the moment of caution, Heim, who had Chandler Smith bumping and challenging him for the lead from his inside lane in Turn 3, had managed to retain the top spot over Smith.
The start of the first overtime attempt featured Heim using his preferred outside-starting lane to muscle ahead of Chandler Smith entering Turn 1. Behind, however, Riggs, who restarted behind Heim, boosted his No. 34 UNC Charlotte Ford F-150 entry into the runner-up spot over Smith. Riggs proceeded to pursue Heim for the lead entering Turn 3 while Smith and the rest of the field pursued.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim, who got sideways entering Turn 4, remained in the lead by a narrow margin over both Riggs and Chandler Smith. Then as Riggs made his move beneath Heim for the lead through Turn 1, he slipped up the track and made contact with Heim. The contact sent Heim spinning in Turn 2 as Smith capitalized on the dust-up to overtake and fend off Riggs with the lead through Turns 3 and 4. With the caution flying along with the checkered flag and the event being ruled official, Smith, who was leading at the moment of caution, was able to cruise back to the frontstretch victorious for a second time of the 2025 season.
With the victory, Smith, who became the fifth competitor overall to win a Truck race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, notched his seventh career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division and his first since he won at Bristol Motor Speedway in April. The victory was the 12th overall in the Truck division for Front Row Motorsports and the second of the year for the Ford nameplate.
“We fought and clawed today,” Smith said on the frontstretch on FS1. “For us to come from the back to mid-pack twice says a lot of how good this Ford F-150 was today. That last restart, I did everything but the right thing. My teammate, Layne Riggs, executed perfectly and we came out on the right end of the stick. Happy we could bring one home for Front Row Motorsports. Second win for QuickTie Products and second win for this new No. 38 team.”
Teammate Layne Riggs settled in second place following his final-lap skirmish with Heim while Heim, who led a race-high 162 laps, dropped to 17th place in the final leaderboard. In the aftermath of the contact, Heim confronted Riggs and exchanged brief harsh words with the latter before walking away.
“[Riggs] tried to [wreck Hocevar] for the win,” Heim said. “Mission accomplished for him, I guess, this week and it cost him [the win] too. Brutal. We’ve given up so many [wins] this year after pretty much dominating most of this race. [Chandler Smith] was the only other guy that was rightfully good. I felt like he probably deserved to win if anybody, not [Riggs]. Just disappointed.”
“I had a huge run, I went [to the] bottom [lane] and I didn’t fence him,” Riggs said. “I slid him up the track and gave him one lane there. We’re in North Wilkesboro and on the last lap for a Truck win, I feel like I didn’t really do anything wrong there. He continued, “I think that roles reversed, it was hard racing all day. I felt like everybody came out of there alive and we had a good finish. I really only care about my team.”
Tyler Ankrum, Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger finished in the top five while Ty Majeski, rookie Giovanni Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt, Kyle Busch and Sammy Smith completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were seven lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 42 laps. In addition, 17 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 10th event of the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series season, Corey Heim leads the regular-season standings by 47 points over Chandler Smith, 87 over Daniel Hemric, 93 over Tyler Ankrum and 111 over Grant Enfinger.
Results:
1. Chandler Smith, one lap led
2. Layne Riggs
3. Tyler Ankrum
4. Daniel Hemric
5. Grant Enfinger, 68 laps led, Stage 2 winner
6. Ty Majeski
7. Giovanni Ruggiero, 24 laps led, Stage 1 winner
8. Kaden Honeycutt
9. Kyle Busch
10. Sammy Smith
11. Tanner Gray
12. Jake Garcia
13. Luke Baldwin
14. Stewart Friesen
15. Rajah Caruth
16. Connor Mosack
17. Corey Heim, 162 laps led
18. Matt Crafton, one lap down
19. Patrick Emerling, one lap down
20. Jack Wood, one lap down
21. Toni Breidinger, one lap down
22. Brent Crews, one lap down
23. Ben Rhodes, one lap down
24. Andres Perez de Lara, two laps down
25. Matt Mills, two laps down
26. Dawson Sutton, two laps down
27. Conner Jones, four laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, four laps down
29. Frankie Muniz, seven laps down
30. Jayson Alexander, 13 laps down
31. Tyler Tomassi – OUT, Suspension
32. Ryan Roulette – OUT, Brakes
33. Derek White – OUT, Too Slow
34. Norm Benning – OUT, Vibration
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, May 23, and air at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
