by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Chandler Smith picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course when his #81 Smith General Contracting Toyota lost the engine after 5 of 50 laps.

The finish, which came in Smith’s 54th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since April 23, 2022 at Talladega, 75 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 5th for the #81, the 164th for Toyota, and the 280th from an engine issue. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 26th for the #81, the 413th for Toyota, and the 1,142nd from the engine.

This season marks an important reunion between 22-year-old Smith and Toyota’s racing program. Following his three-win Truck Series season in 2022, where he finished 3rd in the Championship Four, Smith went to Kaulig Racing’s Chevrolet team, where he scored his first XFINITY Series win at Richmond and ranked 9th in points. After failing to qualify for the Daytona 500, he also made his first three Cup points-paying starts with Kaulig and improved his finish in each, climbing from 17th in Richmond to 15th in Daytona and 11th at Talladega. He now comes home to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he pilots the team’s #81 Toyota. In these first 16 races of the season, he’s nearly matched his 2023 season total of Top Fives and Top Tens, and has punched his ticket into the Playoffs with two more wins at Phoenix and Richmond. But his runner-up finish last Saturday in Nashville was his first Top Five in ten races, dating back to a 3rd-place run in Martinsville.

After an 8th-place finish in last year’s rain-shortened inaugural race on the Chicago Street Course, Smith ranked 17th of the 43 entrants in Saturday’s practice, then qualified 3rd in Round 1A with a lap of 90.255 seconds (87.751mph). He advanced to Round 2, where he secured 9th on the grid with a lap of 91.234 seconds (86.810mph). Missing the show were both JD Motorsports entries of Ty Dillon in the #4 Crav’n Flavor Chevrolet and Thomas Annunziata in the #6 Opti-Coat Chevrolet, both Joey Gase Motorsports cars of Brad Perez in the #35 Cortech Ford and Kenko Miura of Japan in the #53 24 Needs 24 Toyota, and Israel’s Alon Day in the #45 JSSI Chevrolet.

Early in practice, Perez’ #35, which carried many fan sponsorships on the rear decklid, dropped a cylinder and stalled off Turn 4 while Miura spun out three times and twice slid into the tire barriers, the latest in a series of struggles this season for the Gase team. Dillon drove into a runoff area, and the crew had to make both a gear and rear axle change. Day’s afternoon ended in a frightening accident which began after Justin Allgaier’s #7 Brandt Chevrolet slid into the tire barriers at Turn 4, leaving the right-rear of his car sticking into traffic. Around 20 seconds later, Day was following Ryan Sieg into the corner, but wasn’t able to slow in time and collided with the back of Allgaier’s car. The impact destroyed both cars and sheared the driver’s side body panels from Day’s Chevrolet. Without a backup car, Day was unable to attempt to qualify, and was first to join the DNQ list.

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Sage Karam, who was sent to a backup #26 Colture Sports Toyota after an incident in Turn 6 damaged the right-rear corner of his primary. Just ahead of him in 37th was Sheldon Creed, whose #18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota slapped the concrete wall between Turns 4 and 5, then lost the engine near the end of practice. Allgaier’s backup car – flat black with the team’s emergency decals applied to it – ranked 36th behind 35th-place Kyle Sieg in the #28 RSS Racing Ford, whose team changed engines. Sieg, Creed, Allgaier, Karam, and two of the DNQs of Perez and Day failed to complete a lap in qualifying.

Prior to the start, the tail end of the field was further scrambled by a series of pre-race penalties. Like Creed and Kyle Sieg, there were engine changes for both 6th-place John Hunter Nemechek in the #20 Jewel Osco Toyota on Friday, plus 7th-place Parker Kligerman in the #48 Spiked Lite Tropical Coolers Chevrolet. Unapproved adjustments penalties were handed to both 22nd-place Ryan Sieg in the #39 Sci Aps Ford and 31st-place Daniel Suarez in the #36 Van Der Hagen Chevrolet. The net effect of this saw Suarez trailing the right-hand lane in the final row with Kyle Sieg’s #28 to his left.

By this point, still another driver found trouble. During one of the first pace laps, Blaine Perkins lost brake pressure on his #29 Crocodile Cloth Ford. He pulled out of the 29th spot on the grid and came down pit road, where the crew started working under the hood. Perkins continued to pump the brakes as the crew bled the system and checked the master cylinder. The issue took so long that they were still working when the green flag dropped, instantly dropping him to last place. This lifted to 37th Kyle Weatherman, who was told by NASCAR to drop to the rear just before the start in his 28th-place #91 Beard Guyz Chevrolet. Weatherman crossed the stripe to begin Lap 1 at 8.835 seconds back of the lead, trailing the pair of Kyle Sieg and Suarez.

On Lap 2, Perkins reported he had about half his brake pressure back, and by Lap 3 remarked, “That’s probably the best it’s been so far.” On Lap 4, the team was told they would have to pull behind the wall to continue repairs, but by then, Perkins was about to return to the track. On Lap 6, he finally completed his first lap of the day – exactly when trouble found Chander Smith.

While Smith was still battling among the leaders, NASCAR’s spotters were told to keep an eye on the rear bumper for possible fluid off the #81. Spotters responded the bumper was clean, but seconds later officials black-flagged him for both smoke and possible fluid. Some of this fluid got on the windshield of Austin Hill’s #21 Dow Coatings Chevrolet, and he continued through the stage with limited visibility. As the leaders began Lap 7, Smith was on pit road, where he asked, “Are we done?” “Yeah, were done,” came the answer. With that, the crew pushed his car behind the wall. “There’s a hole somewhere,” said the crew. “It's leaking everywhere. We'll regroup and come back at Pocono.” The broadcast noted this was already the third engine failure of the weekend for JGR, joined by the earlier issues for both Nemechek and Creed. NASCAR declared Creed out on Lap 19, just before the restart to begin Stage 2.

The rest of the Bottom Five was eliminated in two incidents in the unforgiving Turn 11. Finishing 37th was Jeremy Clements, who stoved in the nose of his #51 Impel Union Chevrolet during a stack-up exiting that corner. Another on Lap 36 knocked out Josh Bilicki, whose #92 Insurance King Chevrolet piled into Kyle Sieg’s #28, and further back saw 35th-place Andre Castro rear-end Sage Karam’s backup #26 enough to destroy the front of Castro’s #14 eRacing Association Chevrolet. Parker Retzlaff finished 34th after he left the pileup with his unfastened hood plastered across the windshield of his #31 Funkaway Chevrolet. Retzlaff completed two more laps than Castro or Bilicki before he called it a day. Karam dropped out the lap after, ranking him outside the Bottom Five.

Mosack and Green survive the chaos at Chicago

Making his first XFINITY start of the season and first in JR Motorsports’ #88 Porter Pipe & Supply Chevrolet, Connor Mosack picked up a strong 6th-place finish, his best since a 5th last summer in Watkins Glen. Further behind him, Austin Green also continued his series of strong runs in the joint effort between Jordan Anderson Racing and Peterson Racing. Green this time finished 10th in the #32 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet, his fourth-straight finish of 15th or better in his road course exclusive season. Green is expected to attempt some oval races later this year.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #81 in a XFINITY Series race since July 2, 1995, when Doug Taylor’s #81 Unifirst Uniforms Ford crashed after 16 laps of the Sears Auto Center 250 at the Milwaukee Mile.

*Toyota is now tied with Pontiac for the fourth-most last-place finishes in XFINITY Series history with 164 apiece.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #81-Chandler Smith / 5 laps / engine

37) #51-Jeremy Clements / 15 laps / crash

36) #92-Josh Bilicki / 34 laps / crash

35) #14-Andre Castro / 34 laps / crash

34) #31-Parker Retzlaff / 36 laps / crash

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Joey Gase Motorsports, JR Motorsports (3)

2nd) DGM Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (2)

3rd) Alpha Prime Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, RSS Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (12)

2nd) Ford, Toyota (3)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP