Sammy Smith Gets First Xfinity Series win at Phoenix

18-year-old Sammy Smith is still taking classes online to finish high school, but when it comes to the weekends, he’s out doing his job and competing with some of the best up-and-coming stars of the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

This weekend was a big moment for the young driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, as he earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at Phoenix Raceway, holding off teammate Ryan Truex and Sheldon Creed for the win. Smith led for a total of 92 laps of the 200 in what was a caution-filled race, featuring 11 cautions for a total of 69 laps. Smith took the lead on lap 149 from Kyle Busch, who formerly drove for JGR, to secure his first win in just 13 starts.

“That was tough with all of those restarts and going against some of the best,” said Smith after the race. “I just have to thank everybody on Pilot/Flying J, Toyota, JGR guys, and everybody on this 18 team for giving me an awesome car. This is awesome.

This is a dream come true, and I did know that at some point this was coming. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of great people around me. Without all of these guys, I wouldn’t be here.”

Ryan Truex, who had never won in the Xfinity Series, matched his career-best with a second-place finish in his part-time role at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“That was a good restart at the end,” Truex said. “I thought I could at least try to make it exciting. Congrats to Sammy, he was the class of the field all day. His car was so good. He could really kind of do whatever he wanted.”

Sheldon Creed ended up in third place after spinning out on lap 148, he managed a great comeback thanks to Kaulig teammates Chandler Smith and Kyle Busch getting together on the final lap. This helped Creed finish third, while Chander Smith still got fifth, and Kyle Busch was ninth.

Not only did Kaulig Racing teammates collide, but JR Motorsports teammates also did on two separate occasions. Josh Berry got turned with a little bit of help from teammate Sam Mayer on lap 84, as that was the second time Berry had spun in the race. Despite the two spins, Berry went on to finish eighth. Then Justin Allgaier, who swept both stages, crashed out on lap 178 after contact with teammate Brandon Jones and Kaz Grala of Sam Hunt Racing.

Riley Herbst finished fourth, while John Hunter Nemechek was able to finish sixth after bouncing back from a restart penalty, in which he went below the yellow line and onto the apron before reaching the start and finish line.

Austin Hill was seventh, and Josh Berry, Kyle Busch, and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top ten. Cole Custer won the pole and finished in 12th. The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads next to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 18th at 5 pm EST for the Raptor King of Tough 250.

Who to Watch: The Future Stars

While this may sound generic, we have a very good group of young drivers in the Xfinity Series who are already competitive. Sammy Smith at age 18 earned his first win at Phoenix, Chander Smith has already shown good strides just four races into the season, and a win is coming very soon for him. Then you have Sam Mayer, who after finishing Daytona on his roof, has put in good runs. He finished 11th at Phoenix, but Mayer is showing consistency and he is definitely in the picture to be in victory lane soon.

Not only in the Xfinity Series did I want to talk about this, but also in the ARCA Menards Series race the night before. The race was won by 15-year-old Tyler Reiff. That is correct, a 15-year-old. After spinning early, he fought back to what felt like to be a second or third-place finish until new Toyota prospect William Sawalich (16 years old) threw a late block in the first green-white-checkered restart in the race and went around. Despite that, Sawalich led most of the race in his very first ARCA start and he also looks to be well on his way.

There was also 16-year-old Bradley Erickson, who also made his ARCA debut, who ran consistently in the top 10 all race after starting 13th and even had a shot to win late in the race. Erickson went on to finish third. There was also 17-year-old Landen Lewis, who finished second in the race and is a protege to NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. This race really shined the light on these young drivers and after the impressive performances they put on at Phoenix, these drivers are going to be exciting to watch down the road.