Chandler Smith backed up his thrilling final-lap victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway from a year ago to rocket away from the competition through a late dominant NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series run in the Faith Fest 250 on Saturday, July 18.
The 24-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, led a race-high 105 of 250-scheduled laps in an event where he started in ninth place and navigated his way to a third-place result at the conclusion of the first stage period. After continuing to battle towards the front for the majority of the second stage period, Smith, who surrendered track position towards the front to pit with most of the field, used his fresh tires to muscle his way up to second place once the second stage period concluded.
Prior to the final stage period, Ty Majeski, who was among a handful of competitors who did not pit to garner stage points and who ultimately won the second stage period, pitted, which allowed Smith to cycle as the leader. For the event’s third and final stage start with 99 laps remaining, Smith motored ahead of Christian Eckes and the field. From there, he never looked back as he lapped a majority of the field and set the bar for the largest margin of victory on a short-track event in the Craftsman Truck Series division. When the checkered flag flew, Smith emerged victorious over teammate Layne Riggs for the first time in five months.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, July 17, Layne Riggs achieved his second consecutive Truck pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 121.608 mph in 18.502 seconds. Carson Hocevar started alongside Riggs on the front row with a fast lap at 121.503 mph in 18.518 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Layne Riggs, who opted to start on the outside lane, quickly lost the lead to Carson Hocevar as Hocevar nearly slid up the track to stall Riggs’ momentum through the first turns. Hocevar retained a steady lead through the backstretch as Riggs tried to reel in and regain the top spot. As Riggs threw himself beneath Hocevar through Turns 3 and 4, they dueled for the lead as Hocevar barely led the first lap.
During the second lap, Corey Heim made a move beneath both Hocevar and Riggs in a three-wide bid for the lead for nearly half a lap. Amid Heim’s challenge, Hocevar, who remained on his preferred outside lane towards the outside lane to gain momentum entering straightaways, rocketed his No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet Silverado RST entry ahead of Heim and Riggs to retain the lead. As Riggs used every inch of the track through the turns and straightaways while trying to challenge Hocevar, Hocevar continued to lead through the Lap 10 mark.
On Lap 13, the event’s first caution flew when newcomer Donovan Strauss, who was driving the No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for Niece Motorsports, spun in the backstretch after he got hit in the rear by Corey LaJoie while racing in the mid-pack region. At the moment of caution, Hocevar was leading ahead of Riggs while Christopher Bell, Heim, Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Chase Elliott, Giovanni Ruggiero, Grant Enfinger and Stewart Friesen were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the next restart on Lap 19, Hocevar gained a strong launch from the outside lane to motor ahead and retain the lead while Riggs barely fended off Bell to retain the runner-up spot. Riggs then dueled against Hocevar through the frontstretch for the next lap after Hocevar went slightly high, but the latter managed to motor back ahead and retain the top spot during the following lap. While both Riggs and Bell reeled in for the lead, Heim and Chandler Smith battled for fourth place in front of Honeycutt and Elliott as Hocevar led at the Lap 25 mark.
Through the Lap 35 mark, Hocevar led by two-tenths of a second over Riggs while third-place Bell trailed by more than a second. Behind, Chandler Smith outdueled Heim for fourth place in front of Honeycutt, Elliott, Ruggiero, Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger while Stewart Friesen, Nick Leitz, Cole Butcher, Andres Perez De Lara, Tanner Gray, Dawson Sutton, Shane van Gisbergen, Landen Lewis, Ben Rhodes and Ty Majeski were mired in the top-20 mark ahead of Daniel Hemric, Tyler Reif, Jake Garcia, Justin Haley and Tyler Ankrum, respectively. Meanwhile, Ryan Newman was mired in 32nd place while newcomer Kasey Kleyn was racing in 27th place behind Brenden Queen.
Ten laps later, Hocevar continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Riggs and by more than two seconds over Bell while Chandler Smith started to reel in on Bell for third place. Another three laps later, Riggs cut his deficit to a tenth of a second as Hocevar was mired in lapped traffic. Riggs then spent the following two laps fiercely battling with Hocevar before the former slid in front of Hocevar entering the frontstretch to lead for the first time on Lap 51. Hocevar then tried to execute a crossover move on Riggs entering the first turn, but Riggs used the outside lane to motor his No. 34 Infinity Ford F-150 entry ahead and start to build a reasonable gap between himself and Hocevar. With the lead to his advantage, Riggs led by four-tenths of a second near the Lap 55 mark and by more than a second at the Lap 60 mark while Hocevar, Chandler Smith, Bell and Heim were racing in the top five, respectively.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Riggs, who led by nine-tenths of a second, won his seventh Truck stage period of the 2026 season. Hocevar followed suit in second ahead of Chandler Smith, Bell and Elliott while Heim, Honeycutt, Eckes, Ruggiero and Enfinger were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names that included Tyler Ankrum, Justin Haley, Brenden Queen, Kasey Kleyn, Corey LaJoie, Donovan Strauss, Mini Tyrrell, Ryan Newman, Frankie Muniz and Luke Baldwin were pinned a lap down. Under the event’s first stage break period, the leaders pitted, and Riggs exited first ahead of Hocevar, Chandler Smith, Elliott and Eckes.
The second stage period started on Lap 81 as Jake Garcia, who remained on the track on worn tires, and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Garcia was shoved ahead of Riggs by Hocevar from the outside lane. As both Hocevar and Riggs made contact in the backstretch that nearly got Riggs sideways, both the latter and Hocevar dueled fiercely for the runner-up spot in front of Elliott and the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes. Meanwhile, Garcia, who led the next lap, motored ahead and led by six-tenths of a second by Lap 85.
On Lap 98, Hocevar, who spent the previous 14 laps outdueling Riggs before he reeled in on Garcia, reassumed the lead after he used the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4 to then slide in front of Garcia. Hocevar proceeded to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Garcia just past the Lap 100 mark as both Chandler Smith and Riggs reeled in on Garcia for the runner-up spot. Smith proceeded to overtake Garcia for the runner-up spot while Garcia used the outside lane to fend off Riggs for third place. The latter two’s battle allowed Elliott to reel in while Eckes, Friesen, Heim, Ruggerio and Majeski were racing in the top 10, respectively. While Honeycutt was mired in 19th place due to an engine issue, Hocevar led by four-tenths of a second at the Lap 110 mark.
On Lap 118, the caution flew when Luke Baldwin, who was a lap down in 26th place, spun in Turn 4 and made slight rear-end contact with the outside wall. During this caution period, most of the field led by Hocevar pitted while Majeski, Andres Perez De Lara, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Daniel Hemric remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hocevar exited pit road first, and he was followed by Chandler Smith, Friesen, Riggs, Eckes and Elliott. During the pit stops, Nick Leitz and Ryan Newman, the latter of whom received the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap, were penalized for speeding on pit road.
The next restart on Lap 128 featured Majeski motoring his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 entry ahead of Perez De Lara from the inside lane to lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field fanned out while bumping and jostling for spots, Majeski led the next lap while Riggs and Hocevar were mired within the top-10 mark. While trying to navigate his way back to the front amid a stacked competition, Riggs nearly got turned by Hocevar in Turn 3. The contact cost Riggs a handful of spots and he dropped out of the top-10 mark. As the laps in the second stage period concluded, Hocevar, who was mired in 12th place, cut a left-front tire and he both dropped off the pace and lost a lap to the leaders while he was trying to limp his entry around the track.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 140, Majeski won his first Truck stage period of the 2026 season. Chandler Smith, Rhodes, Eckes, Friesen, Hemric, Perez De Lara, Ruggiero, Heim and Elliott were scored in the top 10 while 24 of 36 starters, not including Hocevar, were scored on the lead lap. As soon as the second stage period concluded, Hocevar pitted and lost another lap to the field. During the event’s second stage break period, Majeski led Rhodes, Hemric, Perez De Lara, Honeycutt, Tanner Gray and Enfinger to pit road for service while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track.
With 99 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Chandler Smith and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start, Smith rocketed his No. 38 QuickTie Ford F-150 entry ahead of the field from the outside lane entering the first two turns, As Smith led the next lap over Ruggiero, Eckes, Friesen, Heim and Riggs, a variety of on-track actions that involved shuffling and the field fanning out within the field ensued. Amid the on-track battles, Friesen battled Eckes for third place in front of Heim and Riggs while Landen Lewis battled Bell for seventh place. Shane van Gisbergen, who also cracked the top 10 in the late stages, outdueled teammate Elliott for ninth place and Eckes prevailed in his earlier battle with Friesen for third place. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith led by a second with 90 laps remaining.
Down to the final 80 laps of the event, Chandler Smith was leading by more than two seconds over Ruggiero and by four seconds over Eckes while Friesen and Heim occupied the remaining top-five spots ahead of Lewis, Riggs, van Gisbergen, Bell and Elliott, respectively. Behind, Tyler Reif occupied 11th place in front of Honeycutt, Garcia, Dawson Sutton and Majeski while Cole Butcher, Nick Leitz, Rhodes, Ankrum and Tanner Gray were mired in the top-20 spots over Queen, Hemric, Perez De Lara, Newman and Enfinger, respectively. With 24 of 36 starters scored on the lead lap, Smith slightly extended his lead to nearly three seconds over Ruggiero with 70 laps remaining.
With 60 laps remaining, Chandler Smith continued to extend his late advantage as he was leading by more than four seconds over Ruggiero while Eckes trailed in third place by five seconds. While Riggs and Friesen raced in the top five, van Gisbergen navigated his way into sixth place after he overtook Heim while Lewis, Elliott and Honeycutt trailed in the top 10. Van Gisbergen proceeded to overtake Friesen to move into the top-five mark while Smith added another two seconds to his lead as he remained atop the leaderboard by six seconds over Eckes and Ruggiero with 50 laps remaining.
As the event reached its final 40-lap mark, Chandler Smith stabilized his lead to six seconds over both Riggs and Eckes while fourth-place Ruggiero and fifth-place van Gisbergen both trailed by seven seconds. Over the next 10 laps, Riggs shaved off a second of teammate Smith’s advantage, but the latter, who was mired in heavy lapped traffic, maintained the top spot.
Down to the final 20 laps, Chandler Smith, who continued to be mired in lapped traffic, increased his lead to seven seconds over teammate Riggs while van Gisbergen marched his way into third place. By then, van Gisbergen, who marched his way up into third place, trailed the lead by eight seconds, and Eckes also trailed in fourth place by eight seconds while Ruggiero trailed by 11 seconds in the fifth and final top-five spot. With only 14 competitors scoring on the lead lap, Smith led by nearly eight seconds with less than 15 laps remaining, and he maintained the advantage with 10 laps remaining. Smith proceeded to add another second and increase his lead to nine seconds over Riggs with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chandler Smith remained in the lead by more than eight seconds over Riggs. While being surrounded in lapped traffic, Smith had no further competition lurking behind him and he cycled his way around North Carolina’s North Wilkesboro Speedway smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by 8.479 seconds over Riggs.
With the victory, Chandler Smith, who won for the first time since this year’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in mid-February, notched his ninth career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division in his 102nd start, the sixth victory of the 2026 season for both Front Row Motorsports and Ford, and his fifth on a short track venue. Smith also set the record for the largest margin of victory in a Truck Series short-track event at 8.479 seconds, and he became the first competitor to repeat as a Truck winner at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
“God’s good in the mountains, but man, he’s good in the valleys too, and we’ve been in the valleys the past few weekends,” Smith said on the fronstretch on FS1. “We’ve had good speed, but not good finishes. I just wanna give all the glory and praise to the one that comes from the source of this. If it wasn’t for God, I wouldn’t have this great group of men and women behind me at Front Row Motorsports. Great partners with QuickTie Products. Everybody from the top down that supported this program. I’m slapped. It was hot. We’re ready to rip [for the Chase].”
Riggs, who led 25 laps compared to teammate Chandler Smith’s 105, settled in second place for his fifth top-two result this season. Ironically, this year marks a second consecutive year where both Smith and Riggs of Front Row Motorsports finished first and second in the Truck event at North Wilkesboro.
“Part of me wanted to have a restart, but part of me knew if that happened, there was probably going to be some carnage,” Riggs said. “I was very happy just finishing the race there. Congratulations to Chandler; he did a great job. Those guys had a great race. I think we could’ve contended at the end. I really fought fire-off speed and then [the] short run at the end of Stage 2, I lost it, lost it again to start the final stage, just really took that long run to get going. The cards just didn’t fall our way today.”
Shane van Gisbergen tied his career-best result by finishing in third place in his fourth Truck career start. Christian Eckes and Landen Lewis finished in the top five, respectively, with Lewis achieving his third consecutive top-five result. Giovanni Ruggiero, Chase Elliott, Stewart Friesen, Corey Heim and Ty Majeski completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, Kaden Honeycutt, who won a pair of zMAX CARS Tour events at North Wilkesboro on Friday, settled in 11th place while Christopher Bell finished in 15th place in his fifth Truck start of this season. In addition, Ryan Newman finished in 24th place while driving Kaulig Racing’s No. 25 ‘Free Agent’ RAM 1500 entry and Carson Hocevar, who never rallied from his cut tire incident prior to the second stage’s conclusion, ended up two laps down in 27th place.
This event featured seven lead changes for six different leaders, and four cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 10 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 15th event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Layne Riggs leads the regular-season standings by 59 points over Kaden Honeycutt, 126 over teammate Chandler Smith, 157 over Christian Eckes and 173 over Giovanni Ruggiero.
Results:
- Chandler Smith, 105 laps led
- Layne Riggs, 25 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Christian Eckes
- Landen Lewis
- Giovanni Ruggiero
- Chase Elliott, one lap led
- Stewart Friesen
- Corey Heim
- Ty Majeski, 23 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Kaden Honeycutt, one lap down
- Tyler Reif, one lap down
- Jake Garcia, one lap down, 22 laps led
- Ben Rhodes, one lap down
- Christopher Bell, one lap down
- Dawson Sutton, one lap down
- Nick Leitz, one lap down
- Tanner Gray, one lap down
- Tyler Ankrum, one lap down
- Daniel Hemric, one lap down
- Brenden Queen, one lap down
- Cole Butcher, one lap down
- Andres Perez De Lara, two laps down
- Ryan Newman, two laps down
- Grant Enfinger, two laps down
- Justin Haley, two laps down
- Carson Hocevar, two laps down, 74 laps led
- Mini Tyrrell, two laps down
- Corey LaJoie, three laps down
- Kris Wright, three laps down
- Clayton Green, four laps down
- Frankie Muniz, four laps down
- Luke Baldwin, five laps down
- Nathan Nicholson – OUT, Accident
- Kasey Kleyn – OUT, Electrical
- Donovan Strauss – OUT, Overheating
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, July 24, and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM.
