Religion is a elementary element to who Chandler Smith is as a person, father, husband and racer, so it involves no shock that he leaned on his convictions in articulating the vary of feelings from lacking the Daytona 500 to successful within the Truck Sequence 24 hours later.
“In truth, I pray a sure prayer earlier than each race, and most of my prayers are very constant within the sure sense of I am all the time going to submit myself to the Lord’s plan and no matter His will is for me,” Smith stated. “And I’m a agency believer that I wasn’t meant to be within the Daytona 500 — 110 %.
“As soon as once more, like I stated, it is a constant factor that I pray about is I simply wish to submit myself to God and His divine will for me. After I mirror again from my profession from begin to end, all of the trials and tribulations, all of the highs I have been via, once I mirror again and look, I see God’s hand, His provident hand in each single factor that that I’ve accomplished, all the teachings that I’ve discovered, even in life.”
That isn’t to say that Smith doesn’t get dissatisfied or annoyed in that course of however he expressed conviction that it’s not his path to dictate. To his level, these have been the identical solutions he gave after his untimely elimination from the Truck Sequence playoffs final 12 months – that it’s not his place to query the next path.
“As soon as once more, tonight is much more of an affidavit,” Smith stated. “I might sit again and mirror again, you possibly can even say that is possibly — we did not make it to the second spherical of playoffs final 12 months, we had such a crappy first spherical and got here all the way down to New Hampshire in a must-win, and we completed second. And everybody was like, man, how are you not hanging your head by that?
“As soon as once more, I imagine that God has a sure plan and I will submit myself to that plan. And once I mirror on tonight, I might positively see His hand in it. Lots of people name this racing luck. I do not imagine in luck.”
No matter Smith or any observer desires to name it, the ultimate lap was genuinely chaotic in that he wanted a push from Ty Majeski to be in place to win. He wanted to survived some daring strikes by Gio Ruggiero. Smith wanted Kaden Honeycutt to get trapped with out a pusher after main within the closing lap. H e wanted Christian Eckes and John Hunter Nemechek’s strikes to not pan out.
All of that occurred.
Ty Majeski: “Oh, simply chaos, typical Daytona. I believed, for a area full of men with nothing to lose, this race might have been rather a lot crazier than what it was. Simply happy with the whole area and happy with Ford Racing. We caught collectively all race and caught with (Smith) on the finish at bought a Ford to Victory Lane. Glad to be right here. Glad to be on this place with the 88 Menards F-150 and it’s an effective way to start out off a brand new partnership and a brand new period.”
Gio Ruggiero: “All people was simply making an attempt to do no matter it takes to win and that’s what I did for myself and my group. I in all probability would’ve pushed John Hunter to the win there, however he simply wrecked me twice. I believe total as a gaggle we have to do higher as Toyotas. I believed me, Tanner and Taylor (Grey) labored very well collectively however all people else simply appeared like they have been on the market on their very own. I positively suppose we discovered some issues for the following superspeedway.”
JH Nemechek: “I haven’t seen the entire replay but, however fairly annoyed with myself. Simply onerous to cowl all the lanes there – ought to have gotten to the center and blocked (Ruggiero) sooner than I did. Didn’t anticipate it fairly as I in all probability ought to have off of flip 4, however man, it was one heck of a race. I had lots of enjoyable all night time.”
Kaden Honeycutt: “I bought to the lead on the again stretch and I used to be locked on with (Ruggiero) and I assume he bailed and we disconnected after which he tried to dam (Nemechek) and he virtually bought wrecked. After which I bought misplaced in No Man’s Land. … You’ll be able to’t be the chief coming to white. You are only a sitting duck and it is really easy to get locked out. It’s very onerous to get well from it. Simply didn’t did not make the proper strikes on the finish of it, I assume.”
Watch: Ruggiero breaks down Daytona runner-up: ‘We have to do higher’
This was additionally the primary race of the Chase for the Championship period within the Truck Sequence with everybody within the top-10 avoiding a significant bullet that would deny them an opportunity to race for the title come the autumn.
“Prime 5 them to demise,” Majeski stated. “I really feel like this format actually fits me and what we do. Prime 5 them to demise and maintain these Menards F-150s in a single piece. We are able to’t afford DNFs early within the 12 months like you possibly can the final format. In order that’s our motto – top-5 them to demise.”
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