Nine seems to be the trending number in the NASCAR series. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s phenom Connor Zilisch has already notched nine wins in the Xfinity Series, a rookie record, culminating in him claiming the regular season championship. Meanwhile, in the Truck Series, Corey Heim has just tied Greg Biffle’s long-standing 1999 mark by capturing his ninth win of the year, setting up a showdown for the single-season win record. And as Heim advanced to the round of eight, one driver felt the full impact of this surge. Despite a gutsy second-place run at New Hampshire, the driver has come just short of the win he needed to continue his playoff run.

Chandler Smith rolled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway knowing the math wasn’t on his side, but his heart refused to quit. On Saturday afternoon, he muscled his way to a runner-up finish, his fifth top five of the 2025 Truck Series season, right on the heels of Corey Heim, who collected his jaw-dropping ninth win of the year. As solid as second place sounds, it wasn’t enough to punch Smith’s ticket into the Round of 8. The No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford had been dragging a playoff-sized anchor after back-to-back heartbreakers at Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway, where Smith limped home in 30th both times. That left Loudon as a do-or-die showdown, and the only way forward was victory. But unfortunately, even his greatest effort of a P2 fell short. And now the young driver tried to accept his fate.

Speaking post-race on pit road, the 23-year-old didn’t hold back from expressing his pride in what they had accomplished despite the disappointment. He said, “Just a lot of bad luck but honestly, I’m a faithful guy and prayed about it, my prayer’s been specific for the lord’s will, and obviously it wasn’t in his will to advance to the next round. Honestly, so super grateful for this group of guys that we were able to assemble on this 38-team. I huddled together before the race. We pray together, let them know that this doesn’t define us, no matter what the outcome is. I’m proud of each and every one of them. The effort they put into this truck throughout the week.”

Starting on the front row alongside Heim, Smith got a huge shove from Ty Majeski at the start, slid up, and even made slight contact with Corey in Turn 1. Despite the early chaos behind him with Tanner Gray and others tangling, Smith held his ground. Through the open stretch, Smith kept himself firmly inside the top three, running third at lap seven and climbing to 2nd by lap 42 when he cleared Ty on the restart. By the time stage one wrapped up, he had chased Heim across the line to snatch second-place stage points, keeping his playoff lifeline intact.

Pit strategy shuffled the order two laps later, with Smith among the group that had hit pit road. Even so, he stayed inside the mix and found his way back to 2nd by lap 119 after a restart, locking onto Heim’s bumper once again. A few laps later, he was still hanging tough in the runner-up spot, just half a second back, with tensions only growing in the closing stages. After a 143-lap restart, Smith muscled past Giovanni Ruggiero to reclaim second on the backstretch, putting himself right where he needed to be, stalking Heim. He was still second, trailing by 1.5 seconds. He clawed that margin down to under a second by lap 168, raising hopes of a last-gasp charge. But lapped traffic at lap 165 had already cost him precious ground, and in the next nine laps, Heim had stretched the gap back to nine-tenths. At the checkered flag, Smith crossed the line 0.874 seconds behind Corey, the race winner,  a gritty runner-up finish, but not the miracle win he needed.

Reflecting on what could have been is one aspect, but Smith was proud of the bigger things he had achieved with his team this season. He added, “We’ve accomplished a lot, and we obviously wanted to go after the championship and, you know, have a chance to go after it, but I’m gonna remain what I said and be faithful to the Lord. And wasn’t in his will. So just proud of everybody. The Truck was fast today. It was really good. At the very end, found something and started to run the 11 back down. Just ran out of time. Wish I would have started found what I found a little bit earlier in that run. Maybe it would have been a little better. But like I said, just proud of everybody though for sure.”

His stats are proof of why he belonged in the playoffs. The Georgia native had won two races this season, most recently at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May and Bristol Motor Speedway in April. Capping off 14 top tens and five top fives with an average start of 10 and an average finish of 11, Chandler Smith looked formidable as the playoffs rolled off. But as bad luck prevailed, Smith found himself exiting the playoffs sooner than anyone expected. And so, while his postseason dreams were sold out, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff picture tightened, clearing the way for fresh contenders like Rajah Caruth to chase their championship shot.

Rajah Caruth sneaks into the Round of 8 amid Chandler Smith’s playoff exit

While Chandler Smith saw his playoff hopes slip away, Rajah Caruth was the one smiling on the other side of the coin. The 23-year-old Spire Motorsports driver and Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace’s racing protégé snagged the final transfer spot into the Round of 8. All thanks to a steady, if not flashy, 10th-place run at New Hampshire. It wasn’t dominance, but it was enough, and sometimes enough is all it takes in the chaotic world of the NASCAR playoffs.

Now, Caruth heads into the next three-race gauntlet with his confidence dialed up. The stretch kicks off Friday, October 3, at the unpredictable Charlotte Roval, and Caruth is treating it like a clean slate. Grinning at the wild mix ahead, he said, “Man, it’s free game with the second round. You got the Roval, which is a wild card with the road course. Watkins Glen, we didn’t run as good as we should have, but Lime Rock, we were very competitive. So I’m excited to see how the Roval is for us. And then Talladega, I mean, anything can happen there. Martinsville, as you’ve seen last year, it becomes kind of jungle rules.”

In Caruth’s eyes, Corey Heim already has one of the Phoenix tickets stamped, with Layne Riggs not far behind. But the other two slots? Those are up for grabs, and it promises to be a dogfight. “I’d say (Heim) is pretty much a lock for Phoenix. (Riggs) could be pretty much as well, and those last two spots are up for grabs, so just can’t take yourself out of it,” Caruth added, knowing full well that in this round, survival is just as important as speed.

But as the 2026 season opens new avenues for the young driver, who is expected to race part-time in JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, Caruth is motivated to prove his mettle in the Truck Series. And a title is definitely on his mind.