Chandler Smith has been carrying The Blue Oval’s banner to Victory Lane in the Truck Series this year. After putting his No. 38 NASCAR Ford F-150 in Victory Lane last month at Bristol, he did it again at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 16th, 2025, although his win was made possible by controversial move from his Row Motorsports (FRM) teammate.
Throughout the race, Layne Riggs, behind the wheel of the No. 34 NASCAR Ford truck, went toe-to-toe with the field’s top dog, trading increasingly aggressive blows with Corey Heim’s No. 11 Toyota TRD Tundra as the laps ticked off. Heim, who led 162 of 255 laps, was taken out by Riggs on the last lap when the No. 34 F-150 slid up the track. Heim snapped sideways, which opened the door for Smith to sneak past them both.
Smith put the hammer down and didn’t look back. His No. 38 NASCAR Ford easily cleared his teammate, and he only led one single lap on his way to the victory. In fact, Smith started in the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments to his race truck to fix an issue with the brakes.
“I feel like this place… tires kind of mattered, but they also kind of didn’t,” said Smith. “I didn’t think we were as good as the 11 [Heim] – obviously we had a tire advantage on him there.”
He added, “That last restart, I did everything but the right thing. My teammate, Layne Riggs, executed perfectly, and we came out on the right end of the stick.”
Unsurprisingly, Heim expressed frustration with Riggs after the race, saying, “He tried to do it to the 7 (Carson Hocevar) last week for the win, and mission accomplished for him, I guess, this week. And it cost him one, too. I don’t know. We’ve given up so many of them this year, after dominating the race… The 38 [Smith] was the only other guy that was rightfully good. I felt like he deserved to win over anyone else, not the 34 [Riggs].”
Comment
Ford should pull out of trucks…and be ashamed they running a GM designed LS engine in trucks….they may think we dont know it…but with all the social media its out there…They have sealed engines that would be perfect for this in the Ford Performance parts bin…should have leveaged that..