Sammy Smith holds off Truex in Phoenix for maiden Xfinity win

Older race fans will not appreciate this fun fact: the combined age of the winners at Phoenix Raceway so far this weekend is just 16.5. A day after fifteen-year-old Tyler Reif won the ARCA Menards Series race, eighteen-year-old Sammy Smith held off Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Ryan Truex to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ United Rentals 200.

Cautions plagued the day as eleven were called including the two for stage breaks, the second most for a Phoenix Xfinity race after fourteen in the spring 2005 edition. The final yellow flag eliminated Justin Allgaier, who won both stages but was sqeueezed into the wall by Kaz Grala and Brett Moffitt; Allgaier had fallen back after contact from JR Motorsports team-mates Brandon Jones and Sam Mayer, the latter of whom crashed with JRM’s Josh Berry in Stage #2.

While a race to forget for JRM, JGR enjoyed a 1–2 finish with Smith and Truex, the former now holding the early advantage in the Rookie of the Year battle. Smith took the lead shortly after Gray Gaulding‘s wreck on lap 147 and never relinquished it through the carnage.

“I think the track just changed a lot more than I expected it to,” explained Truex, who was making his first of six starts for JGR. “That long run, we were really bad. I was just hanging on. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and these guys let me complain on the radio and we made the right adjustments. That was a good restart at the end; I’m glad at least I could try to make it exciting. Congrats to Sammy and I think he was the class of the field all day. His car looked so good, and he could do what he wanted.”

Sheldon Creed had a dramatic rally after spinning with fifty laps to go and dropping out of the top twenty before climbing through the order, notably gaining eighteen spots in the final sixteen circuits to finish third. Creed partly capitalised on late contact between Kaulig Racing‘s Kyle Busch and Chandler Smith, causing the former to slide into the wall before finishing ninth.

Connor Mosack finished twenty-fourth in his first Xfinity oval race, three spots ahead of series newcomer Leland Honeyman Jr. Garrett Smithley was thirty-second in his first start of 2023 for DGM Racing after opening the year with B.J. McLeod Motorsports. CHK Racing, who missed the first three races, finally cracked the grid with Dawson Cram but retired with a fuel pump issue.

MBM Motorsports‘ #66 was the lone car to miss tha race with Timmy Hill. Brian Weber was supposed to enter the race in what would have been his first Xfinity start since 2003, but was replaced by Hill as he felt he needed more time to prepare.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	11	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	12	19	Ryan Truex	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
3	5	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
5	6	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	4	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
7	8	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	38	10	Kyle Busch*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	3	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	14	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	1	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
13	17	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	200	Running
14	25	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	37	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	9	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
17	18	02	Kyle Weatherman	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
18	15	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
19	19	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
20	27	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
21	20	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
22	16	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
23	21	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
24	36	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	200	Running
25	22	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
26	33	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	200	Running
27	23	45	Leland Honeyman Jr.	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
28	32	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
29	28	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
30	34	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
31	24	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
32	30	91	Garrett Smithley	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
33	31	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
34	13	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
35	35	07	Blaine Perkins	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	192	Suspension
36	2	7	Justin Alllgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	178	Accident
37	26	08	Gray Gaulding	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	137	Accident
38	29	74	Dawson Cram	CHK Racing	Chevrolet	99	Fuel Pump
DNQ		66	Timmy Hill	MBM Motorsports	Ford

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