Zane Smith defends at Daytona, wins rain-shortened NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opener

DAYTONA BEACH — A season-opening Truck Series win at Daytona proved a good omen for Zane Smith in 2022. He went on to snatch the overall Craftsman Truck Series championship at year's end in an overtime shootout.

Fortune shined upon Smith again Friday night despite dismal conditions and stop-and-start showers at the World Center of Racing.

Smith successfully defended his NextEra Energy 250 win, being declared the winner with 79 of 100 scheduled laps completed during a third red-flag delay due to rain.

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"Fortunately, I got to the lead at the right time," Smith said. "They don't ask how; they ask how many. I wanted to win it how I did last year. It was a little more exciting. But if you have the opportunity to stand in Victory Lane in Daytona, I don't think anybody's going to turn that down."

It's the eighth career Truck Series victory for Smith, who clinched his spot in the playoffs. The 23-year-old also qualified for Sunday's Daytona 500 with his performance in the first of two Duels on Thursday night.

Tanner Gray notched a career-best, second-place finish and Christian Eckes took third. Colby Howard and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top-five.

NASCAR attempted to restart the race after a hiatus of over an hour, but the rain returned as soon as the trucks were sent back onto the track. After six caution laps, the red flag waved again and shortly after, the race was called. In total, seven cautions resulted in 41 of the 79 laps being run under the yellow flag.

Two weather-related cautions in the opening 10 laps set the tone for the evening and slowed down the first stage, eventually won by Eckes in his debut for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. Officials waved the first red flag as drivers crossed the line for Lap 29, following a chain-reaction crash in the trioval that spelled the end of the evening for Clay Greenfield, Hailie Deegan and Dean Thompson.

"I feel like I'm going to have to write a book one day (titled) 1,000 ways to lose a superspeedway race. … I wish we could have finished out, but overall I'm really proud of everybody," Eckes said.

"The saying for the year is brick-by-brick, and I feel like we laid a couple of them down tonight. It's a good start for sure, but in the same aspect, we came here wanting to win a race."

Tyler Ankrum took the checkered flag for Stage 2, but the bigger development occurred seconds earlier on the backstretch. Stewart Friesen, running second in the multicolored No. 52 Toyota, tried to block Ben Rhodes on the outside but was turned into the wall and ignited another crash with trucks sliding through the infield.

Former Cup Series champion Chase Elliott finished in 10th, while motocross and rally racing star Travis Pastrana, who qualified for the Daytona 500 on Wednesday, was 13th.

DeLand native Daniel Dye, making his Truck Series debut for GMS Racing, placed 30th. He was part of a pair of crashes, the second of which — a five-car wreck triggered by teammate Rajah Caruth spinning — ended his night on Lap 58.

"It's been crazy for us, not being able to practice," Dye said. "I was just trying to learn. The first stage was kind of our practice. Good little fight back. We were in the mix for a second, just got caught up in the big one."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR Truck Series: Zane Smith wins rain-shortened opener at Daytona