LAS VEGAS – Chandler Smith entered his third NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with an optimism that carried over from last season, even with a switch of teams from one year to the next. The results were strikingly similar, but both were just shy of a convincing victory.
Smith placed third in Saturday afternoon’s The LiUNA! 300-miler, sweeping both stage wins but ending up with the same finish as last March after the handling of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 81 Toyota soured during the final segment. JGR teammate John Hunter Nemechek sailed to his first victory of the season, with defending series champion and pole-starter Cole Custer slipping by Smith for the runner-up spot.
“Won both stages, had a good points day, led a lot of laps, felt like we maybe we put ourselves on the map for some people that were starting to write us off early on, but proud of the effort,” said Smith, who finished third and fourth at Las Vegas during his 2023 campaign with Kaulig Racing. “Sucks. I’ve been waiting on this race since Phoenix of last year when I knew I was coming over here. I was like, ‘man, I know we’re really good at Vegas in the Kaulig stuff and I know JGR is going to be good there and Toyota’s always been good there, too.’ “
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Smith was at his strongest early on, leading all 45 laps of the first stage. After a sluggish pit stop where he lost six positions during the stage break, the 21-year-old driver rallied to eke his way past Nemechek on the final lap of Stage 2 for that green-checkered flag.
From there, Smith’s handling took a downturn after a Lap 125 stop as he struggled to find lateral grip.
“I just got laterally super-free after we came in at the end of Stage 2,” Smith said, “but at the same time when I fired back off, there was a really loud pop, like something broke or something in the rear, and after that, I went to crap for the rest of the race. So I don’t know. I get out of the car, I feel it’s a lot cooler out here and this track’s super-sensitive to track temp changes as well. So I think it’s a combination. I definitely think we over-adjusted. I’m not gonna sit here and say we broke something for sure because we don’t know.”
Said No. 81 crew chief Jeff Meendering: “We’ll look over the car really good. He heard a strange popping noise there in the next-to-the-last run and seemed like we went really loose after that. So not really sure what caused that, but we’ll have to dig into it a little bit deeper.”
If there was some consolation to be had, it’s in Smith’s potent start to the season. Only one other driver – two-time winner Austin Hill — has opened the year with top-five finishes in all three races. His points bonanza for winning both stages moved Smith into second place behind Hill in the Xfinity Series standings.
“I’m disappointed but I shouldn’t be,” said Smith, who led 74 laps Saturday – second only to Nemechek’s 99. “Yeah, that’s cool, but I really felt like I let this one get away today. A part of the direction we went in was because I steered our team that direction, but win as a team, lose as a team.”
Said Meendering: “Obviously, a great points day. Winning those two stages was big. It was a great day, but I mean, disappointed we didn’t win. For so much of that race, it looked like we were going to. But kind of scratching our heads a little bit. We’ll get it figured out, though.”