Chandler Smith came out on top amid a 12-lap dash to the finish to win the Black’s Tire 200 at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, October 30.
The 24-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, led the final 12 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in third place, notched a pair of third-place results through the event’s first two stage periods and contended towards the front for the event’s entirety. Amid a wave of cautions and late-race restarts throughout the final stage period, Smith had been a key figure to teammate Layne Riggs, whom Smith restarted behind through four restarts and enabled Riggs to battle for and with the lead to maintain his championship hopes.
Following Riggs’ dominant run, Smith then restarted alongside Riggs for the event’s final restart with 12 laps remaining. With a strong launch from the outside lane, Smith managed to motor ahead of Riggs and the field. From there, Smith fended off Ben Rhodes and Riggs to notch his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in Ridgeway, Virginia, and win in his penultimate event with Front Row Motorsports.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Tristan McKee notched his first Truck career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 96.864 mph in 19.549 seconds. Layne Riggs qualified in second place with a lap of 96.775 mph in 19.567 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Gavan Boschele, Brenden Queen and Frankie Muniz dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries. Jake Garcia also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup truck after he wrecked his primary truck during practice earlier on Friday.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Tristan McKee and Layne Riggs dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Riggs, who started on the outside lane, motored his No. 34 BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150 entry ahead of McKee’s No. 77 Zeigler Chevrolet Silverado RST entry through the backstretch. This allowed Riggs to transition in front of McKee to the preferred inside lane prior to entering Turns 3 and 4. With the strong move working to his favor early, Riggs led the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Riggs maintained a steady lead over McKee, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith and Ty Majeski, respectively, while points leader Kaden Honeycutt trailed in sixth place. As Christian Eckes, Tyler Ankrum, Giovanni Ruggiero and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top-10 mark, respectively, Riggs led by seven-tenths of a second at the Lap 10 mark.
Just past the lap 15 mark, Riggs grew his advantage up to nine-tenths of a second over McKee. As Riggs reeled in the tail end of the field, his advantage over McKee was up by more than a second at the Lap 20 mark before it increased by more than two seconds through the Lap 25 mark. By then, McKee retained the runner-up spot over Rhodes, Smith and Majeski while Honeycutt continued to race in sixth place in his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry and in front of Eckes, Ankrum, Ruggiero and Landen Lewis, respectively.
On Lap 36, the event’s first caution flew when Eckes, who was battling Honeycutt for sixth place, made contact with Honeycutt entering the first turn. The contact caused Honeycutt to tap and send the lapped competitor of Frankie Muniz, the latter of whom Honeycutt was attempting to go beneath, for a spin towards the first two turn’s outside wall. At the time of caution, Riggs was leading by more than three seconds over McKee. During the event’s first caution period, some led by Sammy Smith and including Daniel Hemric, Tanner Gray, Conner Jones, Grant Enfinger, Cole Butcher, Jake Garcia and Corey LaJoie pitted while the rest led by Riggs remained on the track.
The event’s next restart on Lap 44 featured the leader Riggs motoring ahead of McKee and the field prior to entering the first two turns. With the field filing suit amid two lanes, McKee fended off Rhodes, Smith and Majeski for the runner-up spot as Riggs led the next lap. Meanwhile, Honeycutt pursued Eckes for sixth place and both Smith and Rhodes battled for third place as Riggs started to motor away from the field.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 50, Riggs cruised to his 12th Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. McKee followed suit in second ahead of Smith, Rhodes and Majeski while Eckes, Honeycutt, Ankrum, Andres Perez De Lara and Ruggiero were scored in the top 10, respectively. With eight of 10 Chase contenders (Riggs, Smith, Rhodes, Majeski, Eckes, Honeycutt, Ankrum and Ruggiero) notching the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Hemric and Enfinger were mired in 13th and 19th, respectively. By then, 26 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, some including Stewart Friesen, Brenden Queen, Tyler Reif, Kasey Kleyn and Tyler Tomassi pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Riggs opted to remain on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 58 as Riggs and McKee occupied the front row. At the start, Riggs, who briefly stepped out of the throttle to receive a shove from teammate Chandler Smith for a strong launch, retained the lead after muscling away from McKee and the field through the first two turns. As Riggs led the next lap and started to motor away from the field, McKee fended off Smith and Rhodes for the runner-up spot before Rhodes nudged, dueled and overtook Smith for third place on Lap 60. Behind, Honeycutt and Eckes dueled for sixth place in front of Perez De Lara, Ankrum and a bevy of competitors while Majeski retained fifth place. With Honeycutt overtaking Eckes for sixth place on Lap 62, Riggs proceeded to lead by more than a second at the Lap 65 mark.
Through the Lap 70 mark, Riggs continued to lead by more than a second over McKee while Rhodes, who was dealing with braking issues, maintained third place over Smith and Majeski. Riggs proceeded to lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds at the Lap 75 mark before the latter’s advantage increased up by more than two seconds on Lap 80. By then, Honeycutt trailed Riggs by six seconds in sixth place. Honeycutt continued to trail Riggs by more than six seconds in sixth place by Lap 90 as Riggs, who was lapping competitors, led by more than two seconds, with McKee, Rhodes, Smith and Majeski pursuing in the top five, respectively.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 100, the event’s halfway mark, Riggs sped his way to his 13th Truck stage victory of the 2026 season and second of Friday night’s event. McKee trailed by in the runner-up spot by more than two seconds and the latter was followed by Smith, Rhodes and Majeski while Honeycutt, Eckes, Ankrum, Perez De Lara and Garcia were scored in the top 10, respectively. With seven of 10 Chasers (Riggs, Smith, Rhodes, Majeski, Honeycutt, Majeski, Eckes and Ankrum) notching the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Hemric, Ruggiero and Enfinger were scored in 11th, 14th and 15th, respectively. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
The event’s second stage break period was extensive due to the on-track safety workers cleaning fluid that came out of Conner Jones’ entry when Jones pitted and took his entry behind the wall when it was smoking during the closing laps of the first stage period. When pit road became accessible for the field, nearly the entire field led by Riggs pitted while a handful that included Sammy Smith, Friesen and Timmy Hill remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Riggs exited pit road first while McKee, Cole Butcher, Honeycutt, Rhodes, Chandler Smith, Eckes, Perez De Lara, Ankrum and Majeski followed suit, respectively. Smith and Hill eventually pitted while Friesen, who last pitted during the first stage’s break period, remained on the track with the lead.
With 86 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Friesen and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for a full lap before Riggs, who restarted on the outside lane and had fresher tire than Friesen, managed to lead the next lap. Riggs then cleared Friesen through the fronstretch and started to motor away while Honeycutt was battling Butcher and Rhodes for fourth place.
The caution then returned with 83 laps remaining when Hemric tapped and sent Tyler Reif for a spin entering the third turn. Reif’s incident ignited a chain reaction as Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley, Brenden Queen and Corey LaJoie collided against one another through the third turn while a handful of competitors, including Landen Lewis and Kasey Kleyn, both of whom made contact, hopped the curb to avoid Reif’s spin. Amid the carnage, Monty Tipton sustained the heaviest damage to the front of his entry and Queen sustained heavy left-front damage while Tanner Gray also sustained rear end damage.
The latest incident placed the event in a red flag period for seven minutes and 32 seconds to have the carnage and spilled fluid cleared and cleaned. Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, some including Queen, Lewis, LaJoie, Garcia, Carson Ferguson, Gavin Boschele, Spencer Boyd, Josh Reaume, Frankie Muniz, Tyler Tomassi, Justin Carroll and Haley pitted while the rest led by Riggs remained on the track. By then, Haley joined Sammy Smith and Conner Jones behind the wall.
When the event restarted with 75 laps remaining, Riggs and McKee fiercely dueled for the lead for a full lap as McKee, who restarted on the outside lane, managed to motor ahead of Riggs and lead the next lap. As McKee led through the backstretch, Honeycutt launched his attack on Riggs for the runner-up spot. Amid a brief charge through the frontstretch, Riggs motored ahead and fended off Honeycutt for the runner-up spot through the first two turns for the next lap. Meanwhile, McKee continued to lead before the caution returned with 71 laps remaining when Kasey Kleyn spun through the first two turns after he got hit by Landen Lewis.
For the next restart with 65 laps remaining, McKee fended off Riggs and Honeycutt to retain the lead for a full lap for a second consecutive restart. Behind, Riggs managed to motor ahead of Honeycutt to retain the runner-up spot while Chandler Smith, Riggs’ teammate, fiercely battled for third place in front of Rhodes. Seconds later, the caution returned when a multi-truck accident that included Butcher, Hemric, William Sawalich, Friesen, Timmy Hill and Lewis all wrecked through the first two turns, though all competitors managed to quickly straighten their respective entries.
The next restart with 54 laps remaining only lasted half a lap when Timmy Hill got sideways after he got bumped by Tanner Gray entering the backstretch. Gray’s contact caused Hill to snap back to the right and in front of Butcher while Friesen was T-boned in the rear by Justin Carroll as Carson Furgeson, Boschele and Josh Reaume were also swept in the carnage. At the moment of caution, McKee retained the lead over Riggs, Honeycutt, Smith and Rhodes, respectively, as the event was placed in a second red flag period, this latest one being for two minutes and 10 seconds.
When the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under caution, the event’s next restart under green with 46 laps remaining featured Riggs, who notched a stronger launch from the outside lane with teammate Smith behind, dueling McKee for half a lap. Riggs then managed to drive his Ford hard entering the third turn, clear McKee and lead the next lap. As Riggs led, McKee retained second place while Honeycutt was mired in fourth place behind Smith. Smith then started to intimidate and bump McKee for the runner-up spot before the latter two dueled for the spot with 43 laps remaining. For the next lap, Majeski overtook Honeycutt for fourth place as Rhodes followed suit for fifth place. With Honeycutt mired in sixth place, Smith and McKee continued to bump and battle for the runner-up spot as Riggs, who led by more than a second, was leading with 40 laps remaining.
Following a caution that flew with 36 laps remaining due to Kris Wright bumping and sending Butcher into Kleyn for a spin through the first two turns, the next restart with 30 laps remaining featured Riggs, who was pushed by Smith from the inside lane, clearing McKee through the first two turns. As Riggs led the next lap, teammate Smith battled McKee for the runner-up spot in front of Rhodes and Majeski while Perez De Lara battled and overtook Honeycutt for sixth place. As Smith and McKee continued to fiercely battle for the runner-up spot in front of Rhodes and Majeski, Riggs stretched his late lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds with 25 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Honeycutt was strapped in seventh place in front of Ankrum and teammate Ruggiero while Riggs stabilized his lead with 20 laps remaining.
Seconds later, with 20 laps remaining, the caution returned due to Reif and Furgeson wrecking on the backstretch. Reif would then be penalized two laps for intentionally wrecking Furgeson. This set the event for a 12-lap shootout as Front Row Motorsports’ Riggs and Smith occupied the front row in front of McKee, Rhodes, Majeski and Honeycutt.
For the start of the 12-lap shootout, Smith gained a strong start from the outside lane as both he and teammate Riggs dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith motored his No. 38 QuickTie Ford F-150 entry ahead and in front of Riggs through the backstretch. As Smith cycled back to the frontstretch to lead the next lap, Riggs nearly got loose and briefly lost pace, which allowed Rhodes to overtake Riggs for the runner-up spot. Then entering the first turn, McKee made contact with Honeycutt while battling for fourth place. The contact caused Honeycutt to go wide as he dropped out of the top-10 mark. With Honeycutt mired within the top-15 mark and Riggs settling in third place, Smith led by three-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.
As the laps dwindled, Smith maintained a late, steady advantage that stood at three-tenths of a second over Rhodes while Riggs trailed by six-tenths of a second in third place. As Riggs tried but was unable to reel in his deficit, Honeycutt was mired in 14th place in front of Honeycutt while Smith led by four-tenths of a second with five laps remaining. Smith’s advantage would then slightly grow up to half a second over the next four laps.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Smith remained in the lead by half a second over Rhodes and a second over Riggs. With the latter two unable to reel in their deficits, Smith smoothly cycled around Martinsville for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch victorious and with the checkered flag by half a second over Rhodes.
With the victory, Chandler Smith, who previously won at North Wilkesboro Speedway in mid-July, notched his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the 2026 season, the 10th of his career and his first at Martinsville Speedway. Smith’s Martinsville victory was also the 10th of this season for Ford and the ninth for Front Row Motorsports.
Smith’s Martinsville victory was a bittersweet one as he will make his final start with Front Row Motorsports for next weekend’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway before he goes full-time racing with Richard Childress Racing in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division in 2027. Despite being mathematically eliminated from the championship battle, Smith retains third place in the driver’s standings by 25 points over Ty Majeski.
“All praise and glory to the Lord,” Smith said on FS1. “I mean, we’ve been through a very rough patch since the Chase started and we’ve kept our heads down. We stayed faithful. Man, I’m truly humbled right now for this experience. Martinsville has been one on my bucket list that went for quite a while and I struggled here for a while. Then when I went to Joe Gibbs Racing, we had some really fast cars there. Then came here and had some really fast trucks and tonight, the car just felt exactly how they needed it to be. We got one more race to do with [Front Row Motorsports]. It’s very bittersweet, but man, I’m very happy that we can deliver a clock to [team owner] Bob Jenkins.”
Amid Smith’s celebration, Layne Riggs, who led a race-high 156 laps and swept the event’s first two stages, capped off his dominant run in third place while Kaden Honeycutt ended up in 14th place. Prior to Martinsville, Honeycutt had a 43-point advantage over Riggs. After Martinsville, the former leads the latter by 20 points looking ahead to next weekend’s season-finale event at Homestead, where both competitors control their own destiny to contend for their first championship.
“[I was] Just too free to fire off on restarts when the rubber got picked up…just could not get going on that last restart,” Riggs said. “I feel Iike I prepped my tires, did the best I could. I just didn’t have the clean air like those other runs. We’re still in the [championship] shot. We gained more than we were down. I’m happy about that. I wanted a [Martinsville] clock so bad. I wanted to get my own grandfather clock. I wasn’t able to do it, but the way it looks, I think it’s gonna be either me or [Honeycutt] wins at Homestead. It looks like a winner take all like usual, but it’s just only two of us.”
“I got bailed out there, especially with Chandler [Smith] winning that race,” Honeycutt said. “I’m really surprised he went and did that. Twenty points [with the championship lead], but definitely not comfortable in the slightest bit. We got to go win Homestead next week and just focus on winning. I think that’s all we can do…Not concerned for next week. We’re not done yet. We got one more [race] to go and if we can go win out on top, it’d be much nicer.”
Ty Majeski and Tristan McKee finished in the top five while Andres Perez De Lara, Tyler Ankrum, Giovanni Ruggiero, William Sawalich and Christian Eckes completed the top 10 in the final running order at Martinsville.
The penultimate Craftsman Truck Series Chase event of the 2026 season at Martinsville saw seven lead changes among four leaders, and nine cautions over 67 laps. In addition, 22 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
- Chandler Smith, 12 laps led
- Ben Rhodes
- Layne Riggs, 156 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
- Ty Majeski
- Tristan McKee, 29 laps led
- Andres Perez De Lara
- Tyler Ankrum
- Giovanni Ruggiero
- William Sawalich
- Christian Eckes
- Grant Enfinger
- Brenden Queen
- Jake Garcia
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Daniel Hemric
- Kasey Kleyn
- Mini Tyrrell
- Tanner Gray
- Landen Lewis
- Corey LaJoie
- Kris Wright
- Cole Butcher
- Spencer Boyd, one lap down
- Gavan Goschele, two laps down
- Frankie Muniq, two laps down
- Josh Reaume, two laps down
- Tyler Reif, two laps down
- Tyler Tomassi, four laps down
- Carson Ferguson – OUT, Accident
- Stewart Friesen – OUT, Accident, three laps led
- Timmy Hill – OUT, Accident
- Justin Carroll – OUT, Accident
- Sammy Smith – OUT, Suspension
- Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
- Monty Tipton – OUT, Accident
- Conner Jones – OUT, Rear Gear
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
After the sixth Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Kaden Honeycutt continues to lead the standings by only 20 points over Layne Riggs. The rest of the 10-Truck Chase field is displayed below, with the remaining Chasers starting with third-place Chandler Smith being mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
Chase Standings:
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Layne Riggs -20
- Chandler Smith -103
- Ty Majeski -128
- Christian Eckes -140
- Giovanni Ruggiero -179
- Ben Rhodes -186
- Daniel Hemric -204
- Tyler Ankrum -210
- Grant Enfinger -225
The 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is scheduled to conclude next Friday, November 6, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, where a champion will be crowned. The finale’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
