By Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Chandler Smith muscled to the lead on a restart with 12 laps remaining to take the trophy in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tires 200 at Martinsville (Va) Speedway.
The 24-year old Georgia-native pulled ahead of his Front Row Motorsports teammate and the night’s most dominant driver, Layne Riggs, who started alongside him on the front row for that final green-flag run. And while Smith went on to earn his first famous Martinsville grandfather clock trophy – by .574-second over ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes – the outcome ultimately made his teammate Riggs’ title hopes just a bit harder heading into next week’s championship finale.
Riggs, who finished third, now trails TRICON Garage driver Kaden Honeycutt by 20 points with one race remaining to settle the title. Had Riggs, who swept both stage wins and led a race best 156 of the 200 laps won, would have taken the points lead by one point.
Honeycutt finished 14th after some jostling of his own with 16-year old rookie pole-winner Tristan McKee in typically tight Martinsville traffic during those closing laps.
“Just God’s plan,’’ said Smith, who now has three wins in the No. 38 Front Row Ford this season. “We’ve been through a very rough patch since the Chase started and we’ve kept our heads down and we’ve stayed faithful. I’m truly humbled right now for this experience. Martinsville’s been one on my bucket list to win for a quite a while.”
Riggs was immediately congratulatory to his teammate despite the obvious disappointment after having turned in such a strong showing on the famed .526-mile track.
“First off, congratulations to Chandler Smith my teammate; he drove a really good race and won, so really happy for those guys – it’s been a little while for them, so happy for them,’’ said Riggs, who conceded having to take the bottom line beside his teammate on the final restart did not work out.
“Just too free to fire off on restarts when the rubber got picked up and really free up under Chandler and really free up under the 99 [Rhodes], just could not get going on that last restart’’ he continued. “I did the best I could, just didn’t have the clean air like on those other runs. Believe it or not, clean air means more here than so many other tracks.
“But hey, we’ve still got a shot and gained more [points] than we were down, so happy about that,’’ Riggs continued. “Wanted that clock so bad, but the way it looks, I think it’s going to be me or the 11 [Honeycutt] wins at Homestead, winner takes all.’’
Honeycutt ran top-10 most of the night but did not lead a lap. He was frustrated with the outcome, but as with Riggs, ready to take this championship to the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval next week.
“It’s a sucky-deal, but I got bailed out there especially with Chandler winning that race, I’m really surprised he went and did that,’’ Honeycutt said, acknowledging the contact and tight quarters were just part of hard-racing in the final laps at a short track.
“It’s 20 points [his lead], but definitely not comfortable. We’ve got to go win Homestead next week and just focus on winning. That’s all we can do.’’
Rhodes’ ThorSport teammate Ty Majeski finished fourth, completing the four-Ford sweep out front. McKee was fifth after becoming the youngest driver in history to win a pole position in the truck series.
Andres Perez de Lara was sixth with Tyler Ankrum, Gio Ruggero, William Sawalich and Christian Eckes rounding out the top-10.
There were only four race leaders and seven lead changes on the evening so dominated by Riggs.
Teams head to South Florida for next Friday’s season finale, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson won the last truck race there in March, 2025.
Interview: NCTS Race Winner – Chandler Smith (No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford) –
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – Black’s Tire 200 presented by Down East Heating & Air Conditioning
Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virginia
Friday, October 30, 2026
1. (3) Chandler Smith (C), Ford, 200.
2. (4) Ben Rhodes (C), Ford, 200.
3. (2) Layne Riggs (C), Ford, 200.
4. (6) Ty Majeski (C), Ford, 200.
5. (1) Tristan McKee (C), Chevrolet, 200.
6. (13) Andres Perez De Lara, Chevrolet, 200.
7. (9) Tyler Ankrum (C), Chevrolet, 200.
8. (11) Giovanni Ruggiero (C), Toyota, 200.
9. (18) William Sawalich(i), Toyota, 200.
10. (7) Christian Eckes (C), Chevrolet, 200.
11. (19) Grant Enfinger (C), Chevrolet, 200.
12. (20) Brenden Queen #, RAM, 200.
13. (36) Jake Garcia, Ford, 200.
14. (5) Kaden Honeycutt (C), Toyota, 200.
15. (15) Daniel Hemric (C), Chevrolet, 200.
16. (23) Kasey Kleyn, Toyota, 200.
17. (25) Mini Tyrrell #, RAM, 200.
18. (10) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 200.
19. (12) Landen Lewis (C), Chevrolet, 200.
20. (29) Corey LaJoie, RAM, 200.
21. (28) Kris Wright, Chevrolet, 200.
22. (22) Cole Butcher #, Ford, 200.
23. (31) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 199.
24. (35) Gavan Boschele (C), Toyota, 198.
25. (30) Frankie Muniz, Ford, 198.
26. (26) Josh Reaume, Ford, 198.
27. (16) Tyler Reif, Chevrolet, 198.
28. (34) Tyler Tomassi(i), RAM, 196.
29. (27) Carson Ferguson, RAM, Accident, 179.
30. (14) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, Accident, 147.
31. (24) Timmy Hill, Toyota, Accident, 146.
32. (33) Justin Carroll, Toyota, Accident, 141.
33. (8) Sammy Smith(i) (C), Chevrolet, Suspension, 129.
34. (17) Justin Haley, RAM, Accident, 119.
35. (32) Monty Tipton, Ford, Accident, 115.
36. (21) Conner Jones, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 95.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 57.899 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 49 Mins, 1 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.574 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 67 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: L. Riggs (C) 1-109;T. McKee (C) 110;S. Friesen 111-113;L. Riggs (C) 114-125;T. McKee (C) 126-153;L. Riggs (C) 154-188;C. Smith (C) 189-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Layne Riggs (C) 3 times for 156 laps; Tristan McKee (C) 2 times for 29 laps; Chandler Smith (C) 1 time for 12 laps; Stewart Friesen 1 time for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 34,77,38,99,88,91,11,18,44,17
Stage #2 Top Ten: 34,77,38,99,88,11,91,18,44,98
