Chandler Smith did not repeat his dominant victory from last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) for the TSport 200 on Friday, July 24. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, capped off an event where he ran up front the entire time to finish fourth.
Smith rolled off the starting grid on the front row alongside his Front Row Motorsports teammate, Layne Riggs, in second place. At the drop of the green flag, the former quickly lost the runner-up spot to Christian Eckes, but maintained third place through the first 21 laps. Ultimately, Smith, who lost third place to Kaden Honeycutt just past Lap 20 before he regained it just past Lap 30, settled in third place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 60.
The start of the second stage period on Lap 71 generated an opportunity for Smith, who used the inside lane to overtake Riggs and lead two laps in his No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford F-150 entry before he was quickly overtaken by his Front Row Motorsports teammate by Lap 74. As Smith tried to keep pace with Riggs, he lost the runner-up spot to Connor Mosack and settled in third place for a second consecutive stage period as the second stage concluded on Lap 120.
For the event’s final restart with 70 laps remaining, Smith followed suit of Riggs as the former managed to retain the runner-up spot. Following a two-truck incident that drew a red flag period of more than seven minutes with 64 laps remaining, the event’s eventual final restart with 56 laps remaining generated a new challenge for Smith as he lost the runner-up spot to Mosack.
For the event’s remainder, Smith would lose third place to Ty Majeski, but he maintained fourth place when the checkered flag flew. With the result, Smith notched his eighth top-five result of the 2026 season and his career-best result at Lucas Oil IRP. His previous best result was sixth place from a year ago. Smith’s fourth-place result kept him in third place in the 2026 driver standings as he trails Layne Riggs by 152 points.
Amid the fourth-place result, Smith joins teammate Layne Riggs, Kaden Honeycutt, Christian Eckes and Giovanni Ruggiero as five competitors who have officially clinched their berths to this year’s Chase with two regular-season events remaining on the schedule. Overall, Smith, who was disappointed with the loss, was also pleased with the strong performance at Lucas Oil IRP by running upfront the entire event and capping it off with a stellar result as he looks ahead to this year’s Chase and pursuit for his first series championship.
“It was a solid night, overall, in the grand scheme of things,” Smith said. “We ran inside the top five, top three all night. Just struggled with overall capability compared to [Riggs]. Nevertheless, proud of those guys. What a great performance and great truck they had. Also, a tip of the cap to my group, the No. 38 team for what we had last year and how we struggled really bad to this year, being inside the top five all day, run inside the top three a majority part of the race. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Chandler Smith’s 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season resumes on August 14 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, an event in which he won in 2022 while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
