Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP) -- Jane Smith came inches away from winning the truck series opener in regulation. Forced to try again in overtime, Smith held on in a two-lap sprint to win at Daytona International Speedway.
Friday night's win was the fourth of Smith's career, but he did drive a No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports in his debut. Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500 last year in the team's cup car.
Smith had risen into the lead as Flagman threw white to indicate a lap to go, but it was precisely at this point that an 18-truck crash behind him triggered a yellow warning light. Had Smith passed under the white flag, the race would have ended before the warning lights flashed; Instead the ground was frozen for about 20 minutes to clear dirt off the track before overtime.
His timing was again impeccable as Smith regained the lead and made it past the white flag. This time the race came to an end when another accident called caution.
“Really my heart ache during that red flag. I thought we had it," Smith said. "It's going to be a really fun year. I'm going to try to make this a record year for myself."
Series champion Ben Rhodes was credited with a second-place finish nearly 30 minutes after the checkered flag in the scoring change. Christian X finished third at Toyota, followed by Tanner Gray at Ford. The next three finishers – Parker Kligerman, Carson Hosever and Jesse Little – were all at Chevrolet.
The race was extremely clean and meticulously free through the first two stages, but no one believed it would go on. Kyle Bush, who owned two trucks, printed a T-shirt declaring Friday night "the most expensive day every year." Bush wore the shirt to a pre-race grid, where the empty pockets of his jeans were pulled in and out as if they were torn apart. He said the shirt, which depicts a pile of money burning, can be purchased from his online store.
Sure enough, both of his trucks had gathered in the major accident that ended the regulation. John Hunter was driving Nemechek Smith to victory when his Toyota was damaged.