Chandler Smith went from third to sixth and first in a single lap. In the end, it was enough for him to boost his way to a thrilling victory in the Fresh from Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 13.
The 23-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, led twice for eight of 102 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and managed to keep his No. 38 TrophyCatch Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 entry intact amid a stacked filed of all-star competitors, newcomers and familiar names on the grid.
During an overtime shootout, Smith, who captured the second stage victory and restarted in eighth place, navigated his way to third place prior to the start of the final lap. Despite being overtaken by three trucks and dropping to sixth place for half a lap, he received a draft from Ford teammate and pole-sitter Ty Majeski to reel in on the front-runners that consisted of John Hunter Nemechek, Giovanni Ruggiero and Christian Eckes entering the frontstretch.
With Nemechek, Ruggiero and Eckes all fanning out and trying to side-draft against one another to gain the upper advantage, the trio left the inside lane wide enough for Smith and Majeski to make their move. As Majeski continued to draft Smith, Smith had enough room to zip by and secure a thrilling victory at Daytona to start the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Ty Majeski secured the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 176.883 mph in 50.881 seconds. Michael McDowell started alongside Majeski on the front row after the latter clocked in his fastest qualifying lap at 176.682 mph in 50.939 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series season commenced, Michael McDowell received a push from teammate Carson Hocevar on the outside lane. This allowed both McDowell and Hocevar to rocket ahead of Majeski, with both transitioning to the inside lane and assuming command through the first two lanes. As the field fanned out to three-packed lanes from the backstretch to the frontstretch, McDowell cycled through and led the first lap.
During the second lap and as the field continued to jostle amid three-wide action within the pack, Hocevar made a bold move beneath teammate McDowell through the frontstretch. Both McDowell and Hocevar proceeded to duel for the lead in front of the pack over the next two laps before Majeski shoved McDowell ahead of Hocevar exiting the backstretch prior to the fourth lap.
Then on the fifth lap, the event’s first caution flew when Cleetus McFarland, who was racing in 10th place and amid three-wide action, briefly got loose exiting Turns 3 and 4 while racing in front of Giovanni Ruggiero. Despite trying to keep his truck straight, he ended swerving and spinning to the bottom of the track before he hit the inside wall towards the pit road entrance on the driver’s left side at full speed. The damage to the left side of McFarland’s truck was enough to terminate his debut early, though the driver was able to emerge uninjured.
During the event’s first caution period, some including John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Layne Riggs, Taylor Gray, Nick Leitz, Daniel Hemric and Tony Stewart pitted their respective entries while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track.
The next restart on the 10th lap featured Hocevar muscling ahead of teammate McDowell after the former received a strong push from Tanner Gray entering the first two turns. Despite Hocevar gaining a slight advantage through the backstretch, McDowell muscled back alongside Hocevar and barely led the next lap from the outside lane. Amid McDowell’s charge with drafting help from Majeski, Hocevar managed to emerge ahead from the inside lane while the rest of the field fanned out to three-packed lanes.
Through the Lap 15 mark, McDowell retained the lead by a narrow margin over teammate Hocevar while Majeksi, Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Grant Enfinger, Brenden Queen, Jake Garcia, John Hunter Nemechek and Christian Eckes were scored in the top 10, respectively. Behind, Taylor Gray, Tyler Ankrum, Justin Haley, Giovanni Ruggiero, Cole Butcher, Ben Rhodes, Stewart Friesen, Layne Riggs, Daniel Hemric and Andres Perez De Lara occupied the top-20 spots, respectively, while notables that include Tony Stewart, Chandler Smith, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Mini Tyrrell trailed in 22nd, 24th, 26th and 29th, respectively.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Hocevar edged a hard-charging Tanner Gray by his front splitter to capture the first Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Gray and Eckes, the latter of whom had also made a late surge approaching the start/finish line, settled in second and third while Nemechek, McDowell, Honeycutt, Majeski, Taylor Gray, Queen and Enfinger were scored in the top 10, respectively.
Under the event’s first stage break period, a majority of the field led by Tanner Gray and Hocevar pitted while the rest led by Nemechek, including those who pitted during the first caution period, remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 27 as Nemechek and Hemric occupied the front row. At the front, Taylor Gray quickly drafted Nemechek ahead of Hemric from the outside lane entering the first two turns. Nemechek along with Taylor Gray, Ankrum and Nick Leitz powered ahead of Hemric through the backstretch before the rest of the field quickly caught back up to the front-runners. As the field stacked up amid three-wide action, Nemechek led the next lap before he got shuffled back. In the process, Hocevar and Gray battled dead even for the lead in front of the pack.
At the Lap 30 mark, Hocevar was leading the outside lane as he had a bevy of competitors, including teammate McDowell, drafting him while Taylor Gray, who had several competitors, including teammate Leitz, drafting him, leading the inside lane. With a majority of the field racing in two-packed lanes, a handful of competitors racing in the mid-pack region were slowly experimenting with forming a third drafting lane. Amid the action, Hocevar retained the lead while Hemric pitted under green after he was black-flagged for needing to have his spoiler bracket fixed.
Then on Lap 35, the caution flew when Jake Garcia, who was racing in the middle of the pack and towards the top-15 mark, got loose, shot up the track and collided into Tony Stewart against the outside wall entering the frontstretch. The rest of the field steered left to avoid the carnage as both Garcia and Stewart limped around the track with damaged trucks. The latter two managed to continue despite being lapped due to repairs made to their respective entries, but Stewart eventually retired in 36th place.
The latest caution was enough for the event’s second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to officially conclude under caution. As a result, Chandler Smith, who navigated his way to the lead on Lap 34, claimed the stage victory. Teammate Layne Riggs, who also drafted his way to the front with teammate Smith, settled in second while Majeski, Taylor Gray, McDowell, Leitz, Eckes, Nemechek, Corey LaJoie and Rhodes were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Chandler Smith pitted while the rest that included Travis Pastrana, Spencer Boyd, Mini Tyrrell, Josh Reaume, Jason Kitzmiller and Frankie Muniz remained on the track. The latter competitors who opted to remain on the track for a lap pitted during the next. As a result and amid the shuffling of the leaderboard following the pit stops, Leitz cycled to the lead.
With 55 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Leitz and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start, Leitz and Majeski dueled in front of the field through the first two turns. As the field scattered and tried to fan out through the backstretch, Majeski muscled ahead from the inside lane and he led the following lap. Shortly after, the field fanned out to four lanes as Leitz was drifting to the rear of the field with no drafting help. Meanwhile, Majeski led a long line of competitors racing towards the inside lane as he had Stenhouse, Riggs, Perez De Lara, Rhodes, Cole Butcher and Ankrum followed suit, respectively.
At the halfway mark with 50 laps remaining, Majeski continued to lead Stenhouse and a stacked field racing amid two-packed lanes. By then, Nemechek, who was leading the outside lane, had Hocevar drafting him as he began to mount a charge against Majeski for the lead. Both Majeski and Nemechek dueled for the lead through the frontstretch during the next lap before Hocevar, who drafted Nemechek from the outside lane, made a bold crossover move beneath Nemechek to storm to the lead through the first two turns the lap after.
Then with 42 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Hocevar spinning at the bottom of the track in Turn 4. Hocevar’s incident started when the leader quickly dropped off the pace as he had a flat left-rear wheel. As Hocevar was wiggling his truck to keep it straight, the rest of the field fanned out to avoid hitting Hocevar, the latter of whom was pinned in the middle lane. Despite keeping his truck straight through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4 with the flat tire, Hocevar then lost control and spun. Despite flattening both of his rear tires, he was dodged by the field and he managed to pit.
During the latest caution period, the entire field led by Nemechek pitted, primarily for fuel. Following the pit stops and as the field cycled through, Haley emerged as the leader.
As the event restarted under green with 37 laps remaining, the top-four competitors that included Haley, Tanner Gray, LaJoie and Rhodes quickly bolted away from the field through the first two turns. The rest of the field, however, quickly formed in a tight pack amid the draft and caught back up to the top-four competitors through Turns 3 and 4. By the time the field cycled back to the fronstretch, Gray led the next lap.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Haley, who was briefly shuffled out of the lead draft but navigated back to the lead five laps earlier, was leading both the event and a parade of competitors racing in single-line formation towards the outside wall. Tanner Gray, Nemechek, Ruggiero and Majeski followed suit in the top five while Queen, Taylor Gray, LaJoie, Ankrum and Enfinger were scored in the top 10. Behind, Eckes, Perez De Lara, McDowell, Dawson Sutton, Riggs, Leitz, Butcher, Friesen, Daniel Dye and Honeycutt occupied the top-20 spots just before Enfinger, who was racing in the top 10, dropped off the pace due to cutting a right-rear tire. Despite the tire carcass coming off of Enfinger’s entry and rolling towards the backstretch’s infield, the event remained under green.
With 27 laps remaining, Riggs, who was racing within the top-15 mark, dropped off the pace due to cutting a left-front tire and smacking the outside wall. Riggs’ incident was a result of making contact with Ankrum as the field got bunched up while trying to navigate past the lapped competitor of Jason White. A few laps earlier, Jason Kitzmiller dropped off the pace to the track’s apron. Amid both actions, the event continued to occur under green-flag conditions as Haley led Tanner Gray, Nemechek, Ruggiero and Majeski, respectively.
With 21 remaining, the caution flew when Hocevar spun for a second time, this latest time occurred through the frontstretch due to cutting a left-rear tire. During the caution, some including Eckes, Ankrum, LaJoie, Clay Greenfield, Dawson Sutton, Spencer Boyd, Rhodes, Pastrana and Muniz pitted while the rest led by Haley remained on the track.
The next restart with 16 laps remaining featured Tanner Gray gaining a slight advantage over Haley with drafting help from Nemechek through the first two turns and the backstretch while the field behind fanned out to three lanes. As the on-track intensity began to crescendo and the field getting stacked up towards the front, Gray maintained the lead over Nemechek and Ruggiero while Haley and Taylor Gray followed suit during the next lap.
Then, with 13 laps remaining, Hocevar spun for a third time entering the frontstretch after he was tagged by Cole Butcher. Amid his spin through the apron, Hocevar managed to limp his truck to pit road and the event remained under green flag conditions. By then, Tanner Gray continued to lead Nemechek, Ruggiero, Haley, Taylor Gray and the rest of the field. As Eckes aggressively navigated his way towards the front, he drew even with Tanner Gray for the lead with 10 laps remaining.
With five laps remaining, McDowell, who returned atop the leaderboard two laps earlier, was leading in front of Honeycutt, Heim and the rest of the field that had repeatedly shuffled the leaderboard over the previous five laps. Shortly after, the caution flew when Taylor Gray, Sutton and Boyd all spun to the bottom of the track in Turn 4, an incident that started when Gray got sideways in front of of Majeski and came across the path of both Sutton and Boyd while Mini Tyrrell smacked the outside wall while avoiding the carnage.
During the caution period and with fuel concerns intensifying, select names that included teammates Queen and Daniel Dye along with Josh Reaume pitted while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track.
When the event restarted in overtime, McDowell and Honeycutt dueled exiting the frontstretch as Honeycutt received a push from teammate Ruggiero to boost ahead of McDowell from the outside lane through the first two turns. Then, Honeycutt and Ruggiero became separated through the backstretch. This allowed McDowell to receive a bump from Nemechek and reel in Honeycutt before Ruggiero charged right back to the rear bumper of Honeycutt through Turns 3 and 4. In the latter two turns, McDowell was overtaken by Nemechek and slipped sideways after bumping into Nemechek. He then spun to the bottom of the track, exiting Turn 4. Kris Wright also spun while swerving to avoid McDowell, but the event remained under green flag conditions.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Honeycutt remained in the lead ahead of Ruggiero, Chandler Smith and the rest of the field that was trying to mount a final-lap charge to the front. Through the first two turns and the first half of the backstretch, Nemechek and Eckes drafted past Smith as they reeled in on Ruggiero and Honeycutt. Nemechek then nearly turned Ruggiero, but the latter managed to keep his truck straight despite going off the track. In the process, Nemechek and Eckes bolted past Honeycutt and Ruggiero as Nemechek led entering Turns 3 and 4.
Then, entering the frontstretch, Ruggiero got beneath Eckes. He reeled in on Nemechek’s rear bumper as Smith, Stenhouse and Majeski were in a tight six-truck battle for the lead. Ruggiero feigned a move beneath Nemechek before he steered to the right to draw even with Nemechek. Eckes also went to the right of Ruggiero as the latter two, with Nemechek, went three wide approaching the finish line. It was at that moment when Smith received a draft from Majeski to go beneath and overtake Nemechek, Ruggiero and Eckes to win the event.
With the victory, Chandler Smith became the 23rd competitor overall to win a Truck race at Daytona International Speedway. The Georgian also achieved his eighth career win in the Truck division, his first since he won at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May 2025 and his third driving the No. 38 Ford F-150 entry for Front Row Motorsports.
Smith’s first victory at Daytona marked the 16th Truck career victory for Front Row Motorsports and the organization’s third in the series at Daytona. In addition, the Ford nameplate racked up its ninth win at Daytona.
The victory served as a redemptive moment for Smith, who did not qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Daytona 500 for a third time in four years. Nevertheless, an elated Smith, who is setting his sights on campaigning for this year’s Truck Series championship, celebrated with his pit crew on the frontstretch.
“I was surprised [Nemechek] didn’t block [my run],” Smith said on FS1. “The seas literally just parted and [Majeski] stayed committed to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ty Majeski. [I] Definitely got to owe you one on that one.”
“[I’m] Super, super grateful for everybody on this No. 38 Ford F-150 group,” Smith added. “We made some changes on the off season. I felt like last year, everybody for the most part, knows how this No. 38 group came together last year, but we built on it and made this group so much better for this year. I’m so excited for 2026.”
Behind Chandler Smith, Giovanni Ruggiero settled in second place for a second consecutive year at Daytona. Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski finished third and fourth, respectively, while John Hunter Nemechek fell back to fifth place. All of the top-five finishers were separated by 0.069 seconds.
“[The battle] was tight there at the end of the race,” Ruggiero said. “Everybody’s just trying to do whatever it takes to win, and that’s what I did for myself and my team. Probably would’ve pushed John Hunter [Nemechek] to the win there, but he almost wrecked me twice. I think overall as a group, we need to do better as Toyotas. I thought me and Tanner [Gray] and Taylor [Gray] worked together really well. Everybody else, it seemed like they were out there on their own. I definitely think we learned some things going into the next superspeedway [event].”
“I’m pretty frustrated with myself, “Nemechek said. “It’s just hard to cover all the lanes there. I should’ve got to the middle and block [Ruggiero] a little bit faster than I did. [I] Didn’t anticipate [the result] quite like I probably should have off of Turn 4. Overall, a really fun race. I’m just dejected we didn’t come home with the checkered flag.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in sixth place in his Truck Series debut while rookie Brenden Queen, Kaden Honeycutt, Tyler Ankrum and Stewart Friesen completed the top 10 in the final running order.
The 2026 season opener at Daytona featured 32 lead changes for 12 different leaders, and six cautions for 31 laps. In addition, 23 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the first event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Chandler Smith leads the standings by 19 points over Christian Eckes, 20 over Ty Majeski, 30 over Giovanni Ruggiero and 31 over Kaden Honeycutt.
Results:
1. Chandler Smith, eight laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Giovanni Ruggiero
3. Christian Eckes, one lap led
4. Ty Majeski, five laps led
5. John Hunter Nemechek, 10 laps led
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. Brenden Queen
8. Kaden Honeycutt, one lap led
9. Tyler Ankrum
10. Stewart Friesen
11. Nick Leitz, three laps led
12. Ben Rhodes
13. Andres Perez De Lara
14. Cole Butcher
15. Travis Pastrana, one lap led
16. Frankie Muniz
17. Daniel Dye
18. Clay Greenfield
19. Mini Tyrrell
20. Josh Reaume
21. Spencer Boyd
22. Justin Haley, 20 laps led
23. Tanner Gray, 11 laps led
24. Michael McDowell, one lap down, 20 laps led
25. Kris Wright, one lap down
26. Daniel Hemric, one lap down
27. Dawson Sutton, one lap down
28. Taylor Gray, one lap down
29. Grant Enfinger, two laps down
30. Jason Kitzmiller, two laps down
31. Layne Riggs, four laps down, two laps led
32. Jake Garcia, four laps down
33. Jason White, four laps down
34. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Engine
35. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Suspension, Stage 1 winner, 20 laps led
36. Tony Stewart – OUT, Accident
37. Cleetus McFarland – OUT, Accident
With the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season underway, the next event on the schedule is EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, for the Fr8 Racing 208. The event is set for Saturday, February 21 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
