The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had its season opener Friday night at the famed Daytona International Speedway in the Fresh from Florida 250 for the first race of the season. It was a relatively calm day by Daytona standards with no big wrecks, but the action was still intense from the get-go.
We saw a thrilling three-wide finish for the win, settled by .044 seconds as Chandler Smith and the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team scored the win.
In this column, we’ll take a look at other key storylines that broke out from the first race of the season.
Limited Amount Of Cautions
In recent years, the Daytona Truck Series race has been one of the wildest races in Speedweeks’ memory, often seeing numerous wrecks taking out a lot of good contenders in the event. However, this time around, there was no big wrecks as most of the race stayed green throughout the 100-lapper.
There were only six cautions for 31 laps. The biggest accident occurred late in the race as five trucks were involved in a wreck off Turn 4. Otherwise, the remaining five cautions involved either one truck spinning or a two-truck accident. Despite this, we saw some great racing near the end that saw a close finish when the checkered flag flew.
Christian Eckes Grabs Top Five Result In Return To Trucks
For the first time in two years, the Middletown, New York native returned to a Truck seat full-time with Bill McAnally, with whom he previously competed in 2024. Eckes had two starts last year in the Truck Series, but they were for the late team owner Shigeaki Hattori at Richmond and Loudon.
He spent the majority of 2025 full-time for Kaulig Racing competing in the O’Reilly Series. As the Kaulig O’Reilly team shut down to focus on their truck program, Eckes also moved back to trucks and will drive the No. 91 this season instead of the No. 19 as he did in 2024.
He had a banner night Friday night finishing third in Stage 1 and seventh in Stage 2. He found himself in position to potentially steal the victory coming to the finish line, but ultimately got pushed up by the No. 17 of Gio Ruggiero. Still, Eckes placed fourth in the final results.
Unfortunate Ending For Carson Hocevar
The Cup Series regular, Carson Hocevar who made a name for himself in the Truck Series a few years ago made his first truck start of the season with Spire Motorsports, his first of 13 races in 2026. The Michigan native had a strong showing early and made things exciting by providing some bold moves throughout the race, even winning the first stage.
Unfortunately, things began going a bit south afterwards as the engine began shutting off while Hocevar was leading in the second stage and then had a flat left-rear tire that saw him spin off Turn 4 and bringing out the yellow with 40 laps to go. Hocevar spun again late in the race with less than 20 to go when he was already three laps down.
The night ended for the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team as they were relegated to a 35th place finish and out of the race with suspension issues.
Star Studded Field
The Daytona Truck Series race saw a star studded field Friday night. It included Travis Pastrana, and YouTube Star Cleetus McFarland, better known as Garrett Mitchell, NASCAR Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart. Corey LaJoie and Michael McDowell also raced in the event.
It was Mitchell’s first Truck Series start for Niece Motorsports, but he wrecked on Lap 6 after getting loose off Turn 4.
Stewart made his first Truck Series start since 2005 at Dover Motor Speedway. He stayed in contention, but was ultimately caught up in a wreck with Jake Garcia a few laps shy from halfway. Stewart wound up 36th in the running order.
Meanwhile, Pastrana was also making his first start in a long while, since the Daytona 2023 season opener. He was relatively quiet in the race and finished 15th. LaJoie finished 34th with engine issues and McDowell, 24th, one lap down.
The next NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race is scheduled for Saturday, February 21 at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. It is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on FS1 with radio coverage provided by MRN Radio.
