FANTASY NASCAR Racin

Chandler started out racing Go-Karts at the age of 5 in Chatsworth Ga. He started out in the Beginner Purple Class winning his first race on March 16, 2008. In late August 2008, he decided to race something more challenging and moved on to racing Quarter Midgets out of the Metro Atlanta Quarter Midget Association at Lanier Speedway in Gainesville GA. He was a late starter in this type of racing, but did very well right from the start. Chandler learned quickly and captured his first win in Junior Novice after just 3 races. Chandler started off the 2009 season racing Junior Honda & Junior Stock. He has had several top 3 finishes and won his first Junior Honda race on August 8, 2009 and his Junior Stock on March 21, 2009. At the end of the 2009 season Chandler finished 1st in his Jr. Stock & 3rd in his Jr. Honda in the MAQMA points race. Chandler started out the 2010 season with a big win during the first USAC race in North Carolina winning in his Jr. Honda. On June 27 he traveled to Mini Indy in Indiana to compete for the National Title. On June 29 he shattered the track record with a 6.1730 in his Jr. Stock. Later that week he became the National Champion of 2010 in Jr. Stock. In 2013, Smith won the bandoleros national championship after two wins at Atlanta, one at Charlotte and one at Bethel Motor Speedway. In his ARCA Racing Series debut, Smith won the pole after qualifying was rained out at Nashville. He led 51 laps and finished 5th in his ARCA debut. In his fourth ARCA Series start, Smith dominated at Madison International Speedway and won his first race after leading

the most laps. He raced in the CARS Super Late Model Tour part time from 2016-2020. His first race he finished 12th; his worst finish in the series. The rest were all top ten finishes; and his last five races he finished second. In his fourth ARCA Series start, Smith dominated at Madison International Speedway and won his first race after leading the most laps. On September 15, 2018, Smith dominated at Salem Speedway, leading nearly every lap to win his second race. On November 2, 2018, it was announced that Smith would return to Venturini Motorsports for the 2019 season for 11 races. Smith will run mostly short track events due to age restrictions. On February 21, 2019, Kyle Busch Motorsports announced that Smith would run a four-race NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule in the team's #46 and #51 Toyota Tundras. In his first race he led 55 laps and finished eighth. His other three races he finished second; third; and fourth. Very impressive for the young man at such a young age. In 2020 he again drove for Venturini Motorsports in the ARCA Series; but because of his young age; he was only able to run 13 of the 20 races. But in those races he grabbed two wins; eight top five and t Texas in November, Smith

ten top ten results. On March 3, 2020, Smith was announced to return to KBM part-time in the Truck Series for the 2020 season. His original schedule included eight races, all in the #51. His schedule was shuffled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He ended up running 12 races. He got off to a rough start where his first five races he finished no better than 20th. But after that the switch seemed to flip and suddenly he started running up front contending for wins. At Richmond he finished 12th; and the final six races he posted five top five finishes. A spun and criticized Tanner Gray for the lack of an ability to drive straight. What made that comment funny was that Gray had moved to the Truck series from the NHRA Drag Racing Series.

Smith was hired by KBM to drive the 2021 season. Smith had a good season wheeling the #18 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck in 2021. The nineteen year old got off to a slow start, but heated up coming down the stretch. He’s a young aggressive driver, cut out of the same cloth as Kyle Busch; and when opportunity presents itself, he’ll stuff it in there. He made the Chase; and won for the first time at Bristol. A crash, and resulting poor finish, at Las Vegas would eliminate him from the playoffs, just before the final race for the Championship. When the teams rolled into Phoenix the team rolled a stout race vehicle out of the hauler. Smith; Stewart Friesen and Sheldon Creed were the class of the field. Smith got to the front late in the event, and led the final 18 laps to claim the win. He finished eight in season points. Plans are to see him return to KBM in 2022. After the 2021 season concluded; Smith and several other NASCAR regulars traveled to Pensacola

FL to compete in the prestigious Snow Ball Derby. Derek Thorn had won the pole and been in command of the 300 lap, race until a lap race caution. A late race restart with 13 laps to go, saw Smith have a shot to grab the win when he used a late race bump-and-run to enabled NASCAR Camping World Truck regular to take the win. Smith began the 2022 season with a 21st place finish at Daytona. The next time he hit the track was at Las Vegas where he would fend off Kyle Busch to get his first win of the season. The next ten races saw him finish worse than eighth only twice. At Pocono he picked up his second win. In the Chase for the championship he won again; this time at Richmond; which advanced him into the round of eight.

He had finishes of ninth; tenth and 14th in that round, but managed to make it to the final four anyway. In the finals, Zane Smith was more than anyone could handle as he won the race and the Championship. Chandler came home in third. 2022 also saw Chandler make his first starts in the Xfinity Series. He had bad luck in his first start as he wheeled the #26 car for Sam Hunt Racing. Smith got caught up in an accident on lap 47 and crashed out, finishing 38th. He next start came at Dover where he ran ok and finished 21st. His final start was at Homestead-Miami, and he made an impressive run, coming home

seventh. In October, Kaulig Racing announced that Smith would replace A. J. Allmendinger in the #16 in 2023 in the Xfinity Series, as Allmendinger would return to a full-time schedule in the Cup Series. Smith had a busy season in 2023. He kicked off the year with a good run at Daytona, finishing 12th. The next three races he finished in the top five. Mechanical issues let him in 28th at Atlanta, but two weeks later he claimed his first Xfinity win when the series visited Richmond. Things were up and down the next ten races with two races where he crashed out, and a few top ten finishes. At Loudon NH he almost pulled off the win, just losing to John Hunter Nemechek. When the playoffs started at Bristol, Smith was ready and the team was fired up. He posted finishes of fifth, fourth and 12th in the Round of 12 to easily advance to the Round of 8. In that

round he had issues. At Las Vegas he came out of the box strong and finished fourth. But he erupted an engine at Homestead and finished 34th. At Martinsville he ran strong and was in the top ten at the end of each stage. But on lap 187 he was involved in a crash and finished 36th. This knocked him out of a shot to compete for the Championship. He finished eighth at the season ending race at Phoenix, and was ninth in season points. He also made a start in the Truck series, driving the #25 at Talladega. He started 28th and finished fourth. He also made his first career Cup start. It came at Richmond driving for Kaulig Racing. He started 37th, but run a clean

race, completed every lap and finished 17th. He made two more starts for Kaulig this season. The second came at Daytona in August. He started 36th and showed he could run well on the super speedways bringing home the car 15th. His final start was at Talladega. He started 34th and finished eleventh. In his three starts he started near the near and worked his way through the field to produce nice finishes. He completed every lap in the races he ran. He is expected to be back with Kaulig Racing full time in 2024. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

CHANDLER MICHAEL SMITH - 06/26/2002