Toyota Goes Strong at Vegas, Chandler Smith and Ty Gibbs Win

The NASCAR West Coast Swing as a tripleheader took place this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This race also marks the first of a handful of starts for the 2006 and 2010 Truck Series Champion, Todd Bodine. He drove the #62 for Halmar-Friesen and is making his first truck race since 2013. For the Camping World Truck Series race, Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag for the second race of the season. The first caution involved the #9 of Blaine Perkins having a tire blow coming off of turn two. At the end of stage one, there was a wreck on a restart with three to go involving Colby Howard, Chase Purdy, and Hailie Deegan, as Zane Smith made contact with Howard when the racing got bunched up heading into turn one. That brought the end of stage one, giving the green and white checkered flag to Ben Rhodes with Chandler Smith in second.

Todd Bodine did have a couple of small incidents, as he once lost control and spun his truck around coming off of turn four. Bodine, however, was able to keep going. As for the stage two winner, Ben Rhodes would go on to sweep both stages, as he held off a charging Kyle Busch, who was making one of five truck series starts for 2022. The racing began to pick up under 40 laps to go, with one instance of John Hunter Nemechek getting loose and losing quite a few positions, then going into turn three and four, Carson Hocevar lost control and couldn’t save it as he tapped the #17 Ford of Ryan Preece to send his #42 Truck around. On the next restart, around 32 laps to go, Ty Majeski got loose coming off of turn four and went right into his teammate, the #99 of Ben Rhodes, who had swept both stages, turning Rhodes into the wall head on and ending his race. Another Thorsport driver was taken out of contention in the closing laps of the race when Christian Eckes tried to hold off Kyle Busch, but going down the backstretch, Eckes tried to make a lane change, but came in contact with Busch, sending Eckes around and ending his chances to win. The race then restarted with three laps to go as Zane Smith and Kyle Busch were side-by-side with Zane getting a push from Ryan Preece and Kyle Busch getting a push from Chandler Smith. Chandler Smith made it three-wide in turns one and two and dueled his boss down the backstretch. As things were getting hectic, Zane Smith, the Daytona winner, ran away with it. Then with two laps to go, Chandler Smith had a run on Zane Smith, as Derek Kraus lost control of his car but was able to keep going and there would be no caution. The two Smiths, no relation, were side-by-side as they hit the white flag. Kyle Busch took a look as Zane Smith slid up coming off turn two, allowing Chandler Smith to make the crossover move by Zane Smith to take the lead and collect his first win of 2022 at Las Vegas. This would also be his third career truck series victory. As for the other Smith, Zane Smith finished second but was disqualified with a lug nut issue.

Next up was the NASCAR Xfinity Series race that met with a couple of weather delays throughout the race, with… a hint of snow? In Las Vegas? Weird. Anyway, AJ Allmendinger and Josh Berry led the field to the green flag to start the race. Things began to quickly heat up in the desert on lap three as Ty Gibbs tapped the left rear of Ryan Sieg, sending the #39 Ford loose and smacking the wall with the right rear of his car, which did not bring out the caution. The caution came out a lap later when Brennan Poole’s engine expired in his #47 Chevrolet. Ryan Sieg was not too please with Ty Gibbs after this incident. This wouldn’t be the end of this confrontation, as on lap 28, Ryan Sieg moved up the track to have a chance at payback on Ty Gibbs, trying to send his car into Gibbs and when that happened, it backfires and this caused Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed to smack the wall because of Sieg sliding up the track.

If I had my two cents on this incident, I completely understand why Sieg could be frustrated. He’s an owner-driver trying to build his race team up and get better, while Ty Gibbs is a driver that is destined to be a Cup Series Superstar later this decade. Sure, you can get payback if your heart desires, but there is a quote I will pull from Landon Cassill in 2012, “Rule number one of stock car racing: Learn how to wreck someone without wrecking yourself.” NASCAR called Ryan Sieg to the hauler after the race.

With that being said, Noah Gragson went on to take stage one as Jr Motorsport teammates Sam Mayer and Josh Berry finished second and third. On lap 84, Matt Mills, driving the #5 for BJ McLeod Motorsports, had a hard hit on the inside wall down the backstretch that would throw out a caution with seven laps left in stage two. The #07 of Joe Graf Jr got loose coming off turn two and went into Mills, sending Mills wrecking. This would bring an end to stage two, giving the stage win to Noah Gragson again.

With 29 laps to go, a big wreck occurred, involving Jesse Iwuji, Ryan Vargas, and Stefan Parsons. Iwuji got loose in turn four, Ryan Vargas had nowhere to go and ran into Iwuji, then got sandwiched when Stefan Parsons ran into the back of him. Austin Hill, Ryan Truex, and Riley Herbst got into an incident that brought out the next caution. Ryan Truex got loose and overcorrected the car into Austin Hill, sending the Daytona winner into the wall and Truex spinning. Then came a restart with five laps to go with Ty Gibbs taking the lead and Noah Gragson in second. Gragson wasn’t able to catch him and Ty Gibbs went on to get his fifth career Xfinity win at Las Vegas. As Gibbs celebrated, he did send apologies to Ryan Sieg and his team.

The NASCAR Cup Series races today at 3:30 pm EST as Christopher Bell will lead the field to the green.