NASCAR Truck Series regulars entrenched in dogfight for points lead

A full-time driver competing for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship hasn't won since Feb. 28, but the battle at the top of the series standings has been the best in NASCAR. 

Chandler Smith, who won the season-opener at Daytona, and his Front Row Motorsports teammate in Layne Riggs are the only two series regulars to win this season. Kyle Busch, Corey Heim, Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar have won the other five races in 2026, with Heim being the lone repeat winner of the year. 

The points lead has been swapped thrice between Heim — who is not competing for the series title — Smith and Kaden Honeycutt over the last three races, with Heim holding a 14-point advantage over Smith following Friday's race at Texas Motor Speedway. 

Riggs trails Honeycutt by only 19 points, with Gio Ruggiero (-31) and Ben Rhodes (-34) rounding out the top five.  Tenth-place driver Stewart Friesen is separated from Honeycutt by only 94 points, though with Heim not in title contention, it's Jake Garcia who holds the 10th and final provisional Chase berth by a singular point over Justin Haley. 

No separation at the top of Truck Series standings

The lack of separation can be attributed to the lack of wins among series regulars. Unlike in the Cup Series and O'Reilly Series, where points leaders Tyler Reddick and Justin Allgaier have opened up triple-digit leads over second-place Denny Hamlin and Sheldon Creed ahead of those series' respective races at Texas this weekend, the Truck Series points battle is the dictionary definition of a dogfight. 

It's not likely that a Truck Series regular will pull into victory lane next week, either. The May 8 race at Watkins Glen will feature five Cup Series drivers, including Texas winner Hocevar and Ross Chastain. Three of those can certainly be considered road course aces: Connor Zilisch, AJ Allmendinger and Shane van Gisbergen. 

Even if a Truck regular does break through and take the checkered flag at the New York road course, the standings will still be volatile and the points lead could very well change hands for the fourth time in four races.