Lucky 13 rides along with the driver who qualifies 13th, keeping an eye on how their race unfolds. This driver could be sent to the back of the pack and still pull off a victory, or their luck could take a nosedive early in the race. With luck on their side – or against them – anything can happen! So, grab your four-leaf clovers, your lucky horseshoes, and maybe even a rabbit’s foot for the latest Lucky 13! Will it be fortune or misfortune? Let’s find out!
United Rentals 300
Driver: Sammy Smith
Organization & Number: JR Motorsports, #8
Crew Chief: Phillip Bell
Spotter: Frank Kimmel
“Let’s execute and be there at the end. Start the season off good.” – Sammy Smith
Stage 1
With the green flag in the air, Sammy Smith maintained P13 through the opening lap, and with the subsequent surging lanes, he fluctuated between P13 and P15. While Lap 4 saw him break into the top 10, he was back into P13 a lap later.
Lap 6 saw early chaos as Smith, Jesse Love, Carson Kvapil, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton, Brennan Poole, Daniel Dye, and others went spinning.
The No. 8 team noted the damage was not too significant, however, they opted to bring Smith in for fuel and tires, as well as a quick close-up look at the damage.
Back to Green
The first restart came on Lap 12 with Smith in P26. Within two laps, he hit P20. He slowly worked his way forward with drafting help from those around him.
As his lane got the run, with 12 to go, he was sitting P14. Spotter Frank Kimmel reminded Smith, “Don’t get too aggressive with the pushing. They’re doing enough of that up front.”
Before more ground could be made, the caution waved on Lap 20 as Poole’s hood was flapping in the wind and he was dropping debris around the track.
Crew chief Phillip Bell made the call to maintain track position and stay on track. This afforded Smith two more spots and a P12 restart spot with five to go.
Kimmel reminded his driver, “This is probably going to get messy. Remember, we need a car to race with later.”
Running the inside lane, Smith was waiting for help. The help never came and he was forced into the single file line that had formed with three to go.
In the midst of all that, he fell to P16.
Kimmel was working hard to coach his driver on drafting, pushing, and jumping lines.
The green-white-checkered waved and Smith crossed the stripe P17. He apologized and said, “Nothing I did was right.”
Stage 2
Bell told his driver to, “Learn from it,” and encouraged him with the fact that they would gain some track position over the stage break.
Once the pits opened, Smith took to his stall for tires, fuel, and adjustments. Smith was seventh off pit road and that resulted in a P11 restart on Lap 37.
He gained three positions in the opening two lights after a good deal of surging and shuffling.
One lap later, he took to the lead alongside teammate, Justin Allgaier. More shuffling led to Smith jumping head of Allgaier, and suddenly, Jeb Burton took to the lead.
Smith hung onto Burton’s bumper until the No. 27 went to the inside lane and Smith got a push from Austin Hill. Over the next few laps, Burton waivered between the two lanes.
Unfortunately for the No. 8 team, Hill worked his way around Smith. Hill’s lane surged ahead, leaving Smith in the dust, leading a three-wide pack in P9.
On Lap 54, Kimmel informed Smith, “We got some good cars here.” And that’s just what the Iowa native needed to hear as he awaited help and had fallen to P14.
With four to go, Kimmel gave his driver some freedom to try what he felt he could. But the JR Motorsports driver was just “stuck.”
With two to go, the caution waved as Nick Sanchez got loose and slammed the wall.
Smith updated Bell on his car and said, “I think we just take tires here.” Bell agreed and a game plan was worked out.
He finished the stage P17.
Stage 3
After a quick stop from the No. 8 crew, Smith returned to the track in P9 for the start of the final stage.
As Hill took off with the lead, the shuffling lanes put Smith back in P13. Over the next stretch of racing, it was a lot of give and take, with doors banging throughout the field.
With 43 to go, Smith was awaiting green flag stops. During this time, the No. 31 of Blaine Perkins started smoking, but the race stayed green.
Smith took to the pits in the second group with 38 laps to go for a quick splash of fuel. With Hill having trouble in the pits, Smith returned to the track in P19.
During the third group of stops, Kris Wright and Josh Bilicki wrecked through the infield.
Issues at the entrance to pit road!@KrisOnNASCAR has trouble getting slowed down and makes hard contact with the No. 91. pic.twitter.com/nmsXNzii5l
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 15, 2025
After a lengthy caution, Smith was lined up P13. Bell noted, “It’s been an eventful night, but we’re in a good spot. Plenty of laps left.”
The green waved once again with 25 to go and shortly after, Smith was back in the top 10 on the top lane.
Five laps later, Smith found himself sitting middle of three with his JRM teammates in P5.
Kimmel told his driver, “We’ll get your help.” He said this right as Smith said, “We gotta work together!”
With 15 to go, Jesse Love was leading Smith’s lane and Smith was still running P5.
Within three laps, he had gained two spots and was on the bumper of Connor Zilisch.
Facing 10 laps remaining, Smith was back in P8 and very frustrated with the help (or lack thereof).
Kimmel said, “Follow that 27, and if the middle opens, you take it. Every single time from here on out.”
Strife for Smith
With eight to go, The Big One happened. Smith was collected and immediately radioed, “It’s killed! Something’s broke.”
Justin Bonsignore got loose after contact with Allgaier and slid down into Smith, which started a chain reaction involving Anthony Alfredo, Kvapil, and Ryan Sieg.
After Smith hit the pits and the damage was assessed, Bell noted, “The splitter bar was in the tire.” After returning to the track, Smith noted things still weren’t right. Being the only car one-lap down, he returned to the pits for more repairs.
A very unlucky situation for the No. 8 team.
With three to go, Smith lined up P27 and hoped to take advantage of a Lucky Dog situation.
Smith had a front-row seat of the lead pack running three wide and another massive wreck that collected Parker Retzlaff, Christian Eckes, William Sawalich, and Zilisch, among others.
NASCAR Overtime
There were still complaints coming from the driver of the No. 8, and Bell noted that he would bring his driver in for some quick repairs to finish out the United Rentals 300.
Following the stop, Bell informed Smith, “Your left front shock is broken. You’ll just have to limp it around and hope everyone wrecks out.”
Smith was lined up P24, one lap down, and hoping for the best for his team.
Coming to the white flag, a massive pile-up occurred taking out, but NASCAR deemed it over and Jesse Love was the winner.
Smith was scored P24. He told his team, “We’ll go get ’em at Atlanta.” Bell responded, “That’s right. Keep fighting.”
Sponsor Shout-out + Social Round-up
NASCAR fans know sponsors make the sport go ’round. We want to give a shoutout to TMC Transportation who played a huge part of the weekend for Sammy and the No. 8 team.
Be sure to give Sammy Smith (Facebook, Instagram, X) and JR Motorsports (Facebook, Instagram, X) a follow to keep up with the latest news from the driver and team.
