The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series tackled Richmond Raceway on Saturday for the Worldwide Express 250. The event started with Ty Majeski on the pole and ended with Chandler Smith celebrating in victory lane.
Scoring his third victory of the season, Smith, one of 12 playoff drivers, led 176 of the 250 laps en route to his third win of the season. He’ll leave Richmond with five career wins and 12 top 10 finishes.
Celebrating the win, Smith dedicated the victory to his new son and wife watching back at home.
“God is so good. I’m a Daddy now. My wife had such an amazing labor and delivery. We have an amazing and beautiful baby boy at home, said Smith. “Honey, this is for you and Jr. this is for you as well.”
John Hunter Nemechek sat 2.790 seconds behind Smith when the checkered flag fell. Nemechek, who is also a playoff driver, leaves the track with eight top-five and 13 top 10s this season with a win at Darlington.
“We didn’t adjust quite like we needed to from day to night. Partly on me so I’ll take that one. Overall, solid day for our Safeway Toyota Tundra TRD Pro,” said Nemechek. “Can’t complain about that, just one spot short. It’s good to be disappointed when you have a run like that with second, second and second. Really good points day, let’s go advance to the next round. Only thing that matters is getting to the final four in Phoenix to compete for a championship,” he added.
Pole sitter Ty Majeski rounded out the top three finishers at Richmond on Saturday. Majeski led the field for 73 circuits in his No. 66 Toyota.
Despite fighting hard Saturday, Majeski feels like they’ll have to run up front at Kansas to advance into the next round.
“We really fought hard, but we really don’t have much to show for it,” said Majeski. “We don’t have much to lose at Kansas now. I know it’s only six points, but I feel like it’s going to take running up front and a win to make it happen.”
He’ll go into Kansas Speedway next month still looking to snag his first career victory.
Grant Enfinger and Corey Heim take home top fives.
The rest of the top 10 included Taylor Gray, Matt Crafton, Christian Eckes, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar.
Stewart Friesen (finishing 11th) and Ben Rhodes (finishing 18th and two laps down) were the only two playoff drivers to finish outside the top 10.
The Worldwide Express 250 had only one cation outside of the two scheduled stage breaks. The yellow flew on lap 216 for a two-truck incident in turn one that involved Nick Leitz and Carson Hocevar. Leitz day was done while Hocevar continued.
The series will head next to Kansas Speedway for the Wise Power 200 on September 9th. The event will air live on FS1 and MRN Radio.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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