The NASCAR Cup Series is currently on an off weekend for Easter, but the Truck and O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Series is still active. Chandler Smith put on a spirited display in the race at Rockingham as he came from behind the field to bag a 4th-place finish in the Truck race. In the aftermath of the NASCAR race, he spoke about what went wrong during the weekend and how he tried to salvage things for his team.
Chandler Smith had a rough NASCAR race at Rock.ingham
After a botched qualifying, Smith lined up all the way down in 33rd, alongside Caleb Costner. Owing to this, he had a mountain to climb, but he somehow persevered. Unfortunately, his #38 Front Row Motorsports truck wasn’t being very cooperative. According to Smith, he had to combat dirty air a lot, in spite of great raw speed. There were moments where he got clean air and took advantage of that by carving his way up the pack. Unfortunately, any time he closed in on a new opponent, his truck began stalling out and misbehaving.
“Yeah, the right front shock just broke completely. Felt like a flat tire, but a little more controlled,” said Smith in an interview with Frontstretch. “It’s crazy we weren’t in the wall somehow. Honestly, I’m pretty thankful that we were able to qualify, cause who would have known if it would have happened in the race. That’s pretty much what happened.”
This seemed like a brilliant racing display and helped him keep hold of his contention in the NASCAR Trucks Series standings. However, bad news was waiting for Smith and his team. The car was disqualified after failing the post-race body and height requirements. This meant that the Front Row Motorsports driver would drop to fourth place in the standings.
“Man, what a race, started dead last and ended up driving up to 4th,” wrote Smith on his official Instagram page. “Truck was pretty good, just a game of track position all race. Unfortunate what happened following post-race inspection, but we’re going to keep chipping away with our heads up headed to Bristol.
The disqualification has been a bitter blow, not just for Smith and Front Row Motorsports, but for Ford as well. The OEM has been rapidly losing teams in the NASCAR Truck Series to either Chevrolet or Toyota. Currently, there are 12 full-time Truck teams, and only three of those are powered by Ford. This includes Front Row Motorsports, Team Reaume and ThorSport Racing. Among the part-timers, there are just two teams, namely ThorSport and MBM Motorsports.
By contrast, Toyota has two full-time teams and four part-time teams on its roster. RAM, who recently re-entered NASCAR, has one team in its books. Chevrolet, on the other hand, runs with six full-time teams and 11 part-time organisations.
In the NASCAR O’Reilly standings, Nick Sanchez, who is placed 27th, is the highest-ranked Ford driver. While there is no indication of there being a strategy behind Ford launching fewer teams in non-Cup Series races, it remains to be seen if more Ford teams will be seen on the track, considering the rich history the manufacturer has in NASCAR.
