#7-Sammy Smith won his first career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race in the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday. Earlier in the day, Smith announced plans to transition full-time to the Truck Series next season.
Smith, who led a race high 21 laps, drove ahead for the win as a four-wide challenge for second broke out behind him.
#18-Tyler Ankrum inched ahead of #77-Austin Green in his series debut, pole-sitter #88-Ty Majeski, and points leader #11-Kaden Honeycutt in the top-5.
#45-Landen Lewis, #12-Brenden Queen, #34-Layne Riggs, #76-Spencer Boyd, and #1-Corey Heim were the remainder of the top-10.
The opening stage was won by last year’s race winner, championship contender #17-Gio Ruggiero. After his stage one win, he suffered transmission issues. Stage two was won by #15-Tanner Gray.
Ruggiero wasn’t the only championship driver to have issues. #38-Chandler Smith had multiple issues spanning a flat tire to a wreck. #19-Daniel Hemric also got caught up in an incident, as did #9-Grant Enfinger.
There were 32 lead changes among 15 drivers and five caution flags for 26 yellow flag laps.
The average speed of the race was: 120.224mph.
See race details at: Race Results, Driver Point Standings, Owner Point Standings, Cumulative Report, Penalty Report

For complete race information, check out the Phoenix Talladega race page.