Sammy Smith earns first career Truck Series win at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — On a day where Sammy Smith announces his full-time 2027 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign, he collects his first series win at Talladega.

This is eighth start of the season and his lone victory comes in his 11th total in the series.

The Love’s RV Stop 225 was a race that was mired with tire issues. Many cautions were caused by either a flat-tire or the debris from a flat-tire on the racetrack.

While the tires kept falling, Sammy Smith and his Spire Motorsports No. 7 truck stayed persistent. Though he only collected two stage points on the day, he kept his truck out of trouble for the end.

It was the final stage where he shifted in and out of the lead the most; Which eventually led Smith to lead a race-high 21 laps in his maiden victory.

He even led just before the white flag. Then, a huge shove from teammate Austin Green nearly costed him any chance of the win. Smith somehow held onto the truck before the first corner on the final lap and lost the lead to Ty Majeski and Kaden Honeycutt.

Fortunately for him, the finish line is after the tri-oval. Their squabble opened the door on the high lane in the tri-oval and allowed enough room and momentum for him to squeeze through to win at the superspeedway.

The Top Ten

After Smith, it was a four-wide photo-finish for second through fourth place.

It was Tyler Ankrum who capitalized on the loss of momentum for the drivers fighting on the low-side of the track. He crossed the line second for a much needed boost in confidence late in the season.

Then, Austin Green finished his series debut in one piece with an outstanding top five effort from third.

Ty Majeski won the pole and was able to parlay the effort into a top five from fourth.

In a race where chaos had the best chance to shake-up the frontrunning duo in the Chase, it failed to capture that expectation.

Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs collected the most stage points on the day between them and finished inside the top ten.

However, it was Honeycutt who edged Riggs today. He finished fifth and extended his Chase lead by four additional points.

Landen Lewis qualified outside of the top twenty for and stayed out of trouble to finish sixth. Then, Brenden Queen tied his career-best result from seventh.

The championship is still within touching distance for Riggs as he finished eighth. He has a 43-point deficit to Honeycutt with two races remaining.

Finally, Spencer Boyd collected his first top ten since 2024 and Corey Heim recovered from multiple flat tires to round out the top ten from tenth.

Notable Results

The first caution of the race ended up as the largest wreck of the day when Stewart Friesen had a tire seep down in the middle of turns one and two in the final few laps of the opening stage.

That wreck captured some notable names in the back of the pack such as Chase driver Daniel Hemric, Tony Stewart and fan favorite Cleetus McFarland.

Big trouble to end Stage 1 for the @NASCAR_Trucks at Talladega. pic.twitter.com/cbjgrqGMID

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) October 23, 2026

Chase Woes

The wreck also gave the stage win to Gio Ruggiero who looked primed to defend his win at the track from last year. His day went from really good to really bad under the following stage caution.

Ruggiero entered his pit stall too hot and had to back up to allow his crew to service his No. 17 Toyota Tundra. After his service, his transmission failed to get out of reverse and the team had to replace the stuck parts for a 25th-placed finish 29 laps down.

Four other Chase drivers finished outside of the top ten on a day where they wanted to capitalize on the chaos.

Grant Enfinger was involved in the penultimate caution with 2026 ARCA Series champion Thomas Annunziata and DNF’d in 24th.

Then, both Christian Eckes and Chandler Smith had issues with flat front-tires. Eckes finished three laps down from 21st while Smith recovered to finish on the lead lap in 14th. Finally, Ben Rhodes finished 17th.

Extra Headlines

Dawson Sutton finished out Rackley W.A.R.’s final race as an organization from 19th. Then a few drivers had great days because of others misfortunes.

Clay Greenfield captured a top-15 finish in 15th. Then the Team Reaume duo of Jason White and Frankie Muniz finished 13th and 12th.

Finally while the driver who won the race will replace him in the Tricon Garage No. 15 in 2027, it did not stop him from having a good race for himself. Tanner Gray won his second career stage in his 11th-placed run.

Below are the full results and the updated Chase standings for the fifth race of the Truck Series Chase from Talladega.

Full Results & Chase Standings