Sammy Smith earns first NASCAR Truck win in wild Talladega finish

Smith swept past Ty Majeski in the final seconds to score his first Truck victory as four trucks fought for second at the line

Sammy Smith pushed Ty Majeski by Kaden Honeycutt, and then swept by to claim victory in Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. 

Driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, it is Smith's first Truck win in his 11th career start. He also has three victories in the NASCAR O'Reilly Series. Next year, he will become a full-time driver in Trucks with TRICON Garage.

"Yeah, just a great team, honestly," said Smith. "Brian Pattie (crew chief) and the whole No. 7 Spire crew. Michael Fisher (spotter) did a great job up on the spotter stand. The truck was fast. I felt like we did a good job putting ourselves there in a good spot. Obviously, we lost track position, but man, thanks to Spectrum and everyone for coming on board -- Spire for giving me this opportunity.

"I'm looking forward to racing trucks next year. I just want to win races, and that's what I want to do. Thank you, everybody."

 

Tyler Ankrum ultimately placed second in a four-wide photo finish behind Smith, with Austin Green third, Ty Majeski fourth, and Honeycutt fifth.

Landen Lewis, Brenden Queen, Layne Riggs, Spencer Boyd, and Corey Heim filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Honeycutt leaves Talladega with a slightly larger championship lead, now 43 points clear of Riggs in the title hunt.

Stages 1 & 2

After some early shuffling, Austin Green took control of the race. Behind Green, Justin Haley abruptly slowed with a flat tire but somehow everyone managed to check up in time to avoid an accident.

Soon after, Christian Eckes got into the frontstretch wall with a flat tire, and this quickly became a theme of the race with constant tire issues.

With just over three laps to go in the stage, Stewart Friesen cut a tire in the middle of the pack and there was nowhere to go, with Friesen getting turned down into Kris Wright. Both trucks then snapped up the track, colliding with Corey LaJoie and Tony Stewart in an eight-truck pileup. No one was injured in then heavy crash.

Cleetus McFarland was a late arrival to the wreck, spinning onto the apron and slamming the inside wall. He was "pissed" after yet another early exit in his second career Truck Series start.

 

Stage 1 ended under caution with Gio Ruggiero winning over Honeycutt, Green, Heim, Riggs, Rhodes, Tan. Gray, Majeski, S. Smith, and Tyrrell. 

But things quickly went wrong for Ruggiero during the stage break, as he stalled on pit road and had to go behind the wall.

During the next run, there were more cut tires with both Heim and C. Smith making unscheduled pit stops.

Enfinger cut a tire while leading the inside line, and it was another close call as the field scattered to avoid him.

The stage ended under caution as well, with Tan. Gray winning Stage 2 over Riggs, Rhodes, Honeycutt, Majeski, Lewis, Sutton, Green, Haley, and Queen. 

Stage 3

Right before the restart, Garcia dove to pit road from the lead with another strange flat tire situation. Majeski took over the lead and led for a bit, with the next caution for a loose window that popped out of one of the trucks. Sutton also had to make an unscheduled pit stop as a flat tire victim just before that.

On the restart, Gray threw a big block on Queen to take the lead, and behind them, Garcia crashed heavily on the backstretch. The destroyed truck came back across the track, collecting C. Jones and C. Smith.

Rhodes was leading the race after the restart, but the outside line kept rolling. Gray, Riggs, and then Smith all took turns out front.

Haley was about to do the same, but suddenly fell out of contention with another flat tire. 

Smith aggressively blocked all runs and held the lead. On the outside, Honeycutt was trying to push Annunziata to the lead when a bad bump sent the newly crowned ARCA champion careening into the outside wall. He slid back down the track where he was clobbered by Enfinger, destroying both trucks and briefly sending Annunziata up into the air.

 

The race resumed for a two-lap shootout. At the white flag, Smith was leading the bottom with Majeski up top, and Riggs got shuffled out of line. 

A crash broke out around tenth but NASCAR kept the race green, allowing the field to race back to the line. Honeycutt cut under Majeski for the lead into Turn 3, but Majeski fought back as they exited Turn 4.

Smith pushed Majeski clear, and then went to his outside to take the lead with just seconds left in the race. 

Smith crossed the line 0.091s ahead of Ankrum, with just 0.034s separating the four trucks battling for the runner-up spot.

cla#drivermanufacturerlapstimegapintpitslaps ledretirementptsbest timebest lap

1	7	Sammy Smith	Chevrolet	86	1:54'10.204			18	21			50.347	15
2	18	Tyler Ankrum	Chevrolet	86	1:54'10.295	0.091	0.091	6			35	50.337	24
3	77	Austin Green	Chevrolet	86	1:54'10.297	0.093	0.002	7	14			50.466	69
4	88	Ty Majeski	Ford	86	1:54'10.312	0.108	0.015	6	7		42	50.355	24
5	11	Kaden Honeycutt	Toyota	86	1:54'10.329	0.125	0.017	6	8		48	50.420	15
6	45	Landen Lewis	Chevrolet	86	1:54'10.476	0.272	0.147	6			36	50.373	24
7	12	Brenden Queen	RAM	86	1:54'10.481	0.277	0.005	9			31	50.389	2
8	34	Layne Riggs	Ford	86	1:54'10.482	0.278	0.001	6	6		44	50.526	69
9	76	Spencer Boyd	Chevrolet	86	1:54'13.809	3.605	3.327	7			28	50.394	55
10	1	Corey Heim	Toyota	86	1:54'16.040	5.836	2.231	9			34	49.789	30
11	15	Tanner Gray	Toyota	86	1:54'19.611	9.407	3.571	17	9		40	50.395	24
12	33	Frankie Muniz	Ford	86	1:54'20.367	10.163	0.756	8			25	50.116	33
13	2	Jason White	Ford	86	1:54'22.091	11.887	1.724	9			24	50.010	69
14	38	Chandler Smith	Ford	86	1:54'24.535	14.331	2.444	14			23	49.455	16
15	95	Clay Greenfield	Chevrolet	86	1:54'37.280	27.076	12.745	7			22	50.525	69
16	56	Timmy Hill	Toyota	86	1:55'12.580	1'02.376	35.300	21	1		21	50.048	8
17	99	Ben Rhodes	Ford	86	1:55'28.836	1'18.632	16.256	18	3		33	50.486	77
18	62	Cory Roper	Toyota	85	1:53'19.167	1 Lap	1 Lap	7		Accident	19	49.835	16
19	26	Dawson Sutton	Chevrolet	85	1:53'19.340	1 Lap	0.173	7	1		23	49.448	16
20	16	Justin Haley	RAM	84	1:54'43.796	2 Laps	1 Lap	10	2		19	50.485	69
21	91	Christian Eckes	Chevrolet	83	1:54'25.852	3 Laps	1 Lap	10			16	49.906	64
22	22	Josh Reaume	Ford	82	1:54'22.054	4 Laps	1 Lap	6	1		15	50.318	63
23	5	Thomas Annunziata	Toyota	78	1:38'49.273	8 Laps	4 Laps	6	1	Accident	14	49.758	15
24	9	Grant Enfinger	Chevrolet	78	1:38'49.807	8 Laps	0.534	9	4	Accident	13	49.599	16
25	17	Gio Ruggiero	Toyota	57	1:53'19.786	29 Laps	21 Laps	12	5		22	50.544	47
26	98	Jake Garcia	Ford	56	1:10'14.904	30 Laps	1 Lap	7	3	Accident	11	50.325	24
27	42	Conner Jones	Chevrolet	56	1:10'14.989	30 Laps	0.085	8		Accident	10	50.095	33
28	14	Mini Tyrrell	RAM	48	1:00'07.350	38 Laps	8 Laps	10		Radiator	10	50.112	15
29	13	Cole Butcher	Ford	43	58'55.530	43 Laps	5 Laps	8		Accident	8	50.783	15
30	52	Stewart Friesen	Toyota	16	13'40.555	70 Laps	27 Laps	2		Accident	7	50.411	15
31	44	Andres Perez de Lara	Chevrolet	16	13'40.651	70 Laps	0.096	3		Accident	6	50.402	15
32	81	Kris Wright	Chevrolet	16	13'40.821	70 Laps	0.170	2		Accident	5	50.728	11
33	10	Corey LaJoie	RAM	16	13'40.857	70 Laps	0.036	2		Accident	4	50.186	14
34	25	Tony Stewart	RAM	16	13'41.063	70 Laps	0.206	2		Accident	3	49.810	15
35	19	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	16	13'41.482	70 Laps	0.419	2		Accident	2	49.462	16
36	4	Cleetus McFarland	Chevrolet	16	13'42.766	70 Laps	1.284	2		Accident		49.820	16