Chandler Smith, Carson Hocevar become first-time winners

The NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series raced at different tracks on Saturday, but both had the same constant: a driver winning for the first time in their respective division.

At Richmond Raceway, Chandler Smith led a race-high 83 of 250 laps but faced stiff pressure from his former Truck team-mate John Hunter Nemechek. Smith kept Nemechek at bay on the final restart, which came shortly after a five-car wreck with ten laps remaining, to secure the win seven races into his Xfinity rookie season.

Smith is the second Xfinity rookie to win in 2023 after Sammy Smith at Phoenix three rounds prior. The former could have been the first the week before at Las Vegas when he won the pole and led the most laps but the win slipped away in the closing laps.

“This goes to testimony as to Vegas, dominated that race but didn’t win and said, it was all in God’s timing,” said Smith. “Here we are in Richmond, my favorite race track and we’re sitting in Victory Lane.”

Later in the day at Texas Motor Speedway, Carson Hocevar took advantage of a chaotic finish to visit Victory Lane for the first time. In contrast to Smith winning early into his Xfinity career, Hocevar had fallen short on multiple occasions before finally breaking through in his fifty-ninth career Truck start.

Nick Sanchez was looking to make it a rookie sweep of Saturday’s racing as he led 168 of 172 laps from the pole, but slight contact with Zane Smith as they began the final lap resulted in Sanchez getting loose and sliding through the grass. An attempt to save his truck failed upon being clipped by Hocevar, who was running behind him in third, and he shot into Smith to take them and Derek Kraus out.

Hocevar apologised to Sanchez for the contact, explaining he “just meant to give him a push and he got sideways the second I hit him. I apologise to them, I’ll take the fall for it, I wrecked a Chevy, and I’ll go talk to him about it. He deserved to win for sure.

“But all the times we were the fastest car and I don’t win, this team deserves to win more than anything, I can stop getting the same question asked all the time now. We didn’t deserve to win today but we were in the right spot at the right time.”

The incident came in double overtime, wrapping up a chaotic race with ten cautions excluding the two stage breaks. One such wreck on lap 146 saw Dean Thompson crash into the frontstretch outside wall and come to a rest before being hit by Matt Mills, who was unable to see through the smoke, with Armani Williams and Trey Hutchens drifting into him afterwards while trying to avoid him.

“Just wanna say hope Dean is okay, came out of (turn) 4 checking up and just followed cars in front of me all I seen was grass and smoke and just sliding through it trying to slow down, I couldn’t see there was a car even sitting there,” Mills explained on Twitter. “It may look different but that was my perspective.”

Thompson was taken to hospital where he was evaluated and later released. He will undergo further tests and needs to be cleared by NASCAR before the next Truck race at Bristol on 8 April.

Xfinity race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
2	10	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	250	Running
3	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
4	21	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	250	Running
5	22	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	250	Running
6	6	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
7	17	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	250	Running
8	20	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	250	Running
9	18	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
10	11	10	Derek Kraus	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
11	32	91	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
12	16	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
13	1	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
14	29	38	Chris Hacker*	RSS Racing	Ford	250	Running
15	23	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
16	14	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
17	3	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
18	34	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
19	2	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	250	Running
20	25	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	250	Running
21	9	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
22	24	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	250	Running
23	4	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	250	Running
24	5	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
25	28	45	Leland Honeyman	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
26	27	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	248	Running
27	35	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	248	Running
28	19	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	248	Running
29	33	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	248	Running
30	37	4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	248	Running
31	38	66	Mason Maggio*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	247	Running
32	36	07	Stefan Parsons	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	247	Running
33	26	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	247	Running
34	30	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
35	31	08	Gray Gaulding	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	245	Running
36	12	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	243	Running
37	15	19	Joe Graf Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	236	Running
38	13	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	144	Accident
DNQ		74	Dawson Cram	CHK Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		96	Kyle Weatherman	FRS Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points

Truck race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	172	Running
2	14	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	172	Running
3	7	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	172	Running
4	3	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	172	Running
5	9	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	172	Running
6	25	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	172	Running
7	4	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	172	Running
8	26	30	Ryan Vargas	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	172	Running
9	2	51	Jack Wood	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	172	Running
10	10	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	172	Running
11	27	33	Mason Massey	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	172	Running
12	23	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	172	Running
13	21	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	172	Running
14	18	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	172	Running
15	6	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	172	Running
16	1	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	171	Accident
17	13	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	171	Running
18	19	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	170	Running
19	15	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
20	24	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	169	Running
21	29	22	Josh Reaume	AM Racing	Ford	168	Running
22	34	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	168	Running
23	12	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	167	Running
24	17	17	Taylor Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	166	Running
25	20	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
26	8	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	164	Running
27	11	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	161	Accident
28	16	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	143	Accident
29	32	46	Armani Williams	G2G Racing	Toyota	140	Accident
30	30	14	Trey Hutchens	Trey Hutchens Racing	Chevrolet	137	Accident
31	28	20	Matt Mills	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Accident
32	33	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	122	Vibration
33	31	34	Keith McGee	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	39	Vibration
34	22	41	Chad Chastain	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	17	Accident
Wth		56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota
Wth		04	Kaden Honeycutt	Roper Racing	Ford