Smith looks to be one position better at UNOH 250

CHATTANOOGA — Chandler Smith was one spot short in the spring NASCAR Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. It gives him extra motivation for a third Bristol win in next month's UNOH 250 at the "Last Great Colosseum." Smith has two wins this season at Daytona and North Wilkesboro where he had the largest margin of victory on a short track this season. He was closing in on race winner Christopher Bell at the end of the spring Bristol race. "I'm super stoked, especially since just came up a few laps short in the spring this year, coming up second to Christopher Bell," Smith said during a BMS media appearance at Food City. "Then last year in the fall race, we had our mechanical issue. Bristol's always been a really good, statistically speaking, race track for myself. Got a few victories there, and even for Front Row Motorsports, has been extremely well the last few years." His teammate Layne Riggs, the current Truck Series points leader, won back-to-back UNOH 250s at Bristol in 2024-25. As for Smith, a Georgia driver in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, he has nine career wins. This season's strong start has him a solid third in the Truck Series points. "Just fruits of the labor, we've got a really good group of men and women back at the race shop that works their tails off endlessly, even on the off weeks like we've had," Smith said. "Talking to my crew chief yesterday, sounds like we're ahead on a month of trucks on our inventory, which is you know unheard of. We're not shortcutting any areas, dotting our i's, crossing our t's, doing the detail work that matters. During the off season, we went to work on making our short track program, mile and a half program better." Bristol is a particularly special track for Smith and his Front Row Motorsports team owner. His truck owner, Bob Jenkins, is a Dandridge businessman who owns multiple businesses in the Morristown area. "Bob, that's one of the ones he circles. Like this is our home track," Smith said. "He always has a suite over in turn one on the front stretch there, and we always go up there and do an appearance. He's got all his buddies, all of his friends, family. It's no different than when I go to Atlanta, have all my friends, my family there. I want to win there so bad." There's another reason why he's successful at Bristol. It's the type of track he grew up racing Super Late Models. He led the most laps at the 2017 Short Track U.S. Nationals before ultimately finishing second to Bubba Wallace. He also talked about having excellent equipment, like being a part of the Toyota Racing Development program as part of Kyle Busch Motorsports before joining Front Row. Next season, plans are for him to race in the O'Reilly Series, although Smith couldn't comment on reports it will be for Richard Childress Racing. Before talking about the future, the 24-year-old driver looked back to his first time at Bristol over a decade ago. "I remember the first time I ever practiced there. I got told when you get out of the car, you're going to be wore out," he recalled. "I was 13 years old, and I felt like there was 200 pound dumbbells on both of my shoulders. I literally got and couldn't hold my shoulders up. It was just the G force was so immense. Bristol's my one of my favorite racetracks, specifically because the atmosphere. You just can't beat it."