Smith Out-Strategizes Tucker & Ethier for First Season 7 MRL Xfinity Win

By Kevin Kyle — July 17, 2025 | Texas Motor Speedway

A Pole for Stiers, a Wild Lap-2 Moment

Front-row starter Joey Stiers converted his qualifying speed into the early lead, sharing the front row with Ray Ray Walton. The night’s first headline arrived on Lap 2. Ricky Mandella grazed the Turn-4 wall and darted down the track. This forced Joseph Amato through the infield grass.

Trouble Brews—And Boils Over

During lap-8, Michael Benton hit the outside wall hard. This was after a tap from Zach Wagaman in the quad-oval. The collision would haunt Benton’s hopes of achieving a top 20.

The first yellow waved on Lap 14 as Nate Mowrer hooked Robert Babcock in Turn 1. Babcock later recovered to set the race’s fastest lap at 29.905 seconds on Lap 111.

Tempers flare on lap 53 as Matt Novella pinches Hunter Manley down the back stretch.

from there things escalate quickly thru turn 3 and 4, and the front stretch.

But it doesn’t stop there. Novella continues pushing Manley through the infield. He finally stops at the exit of pit road.

The novella car rolls back on the track into turn 1. The driver of the 969, Zachary Mulhern, did not expect what would happen next. He T-boned Novella while going in excess of 170 mph.

Novella’s car spins in the air like a top before finally landing. The driver of the 54, David Smith, says “hold my beer.” He then takes a shot at the lifeless car of Novella’s in turn 1. This would bring out caution #2

Stage Strategy Sets the Table

The mandatory Stage-1 break at Lap 60 served as Caution 3, bunching the field and opening the playbook. Matt Tucker—already the points leader—grabbed ten lucrative stage points.

A final yellow on Lap 64 occurred. Christopher Lewis looped his Chevy and stacked up Amato, Brenner, Swingle, and Mandella. This set up a long green flag run to the checkered flag.

Strategy Spotlight – “The 42-Second Gamble”

Driver	Pit-in	In-lap	Out-lap	Lane Δ	Tyre age to flag	Outcome
Smith	Lap 107	42.512 s	1:01.808 s	44.3 s	2-lap fresher	Won
Tucker	Lap 109	42.165 s	1:02.450 s	44.7 s	2-lap older	P2
Ethier	Lap 102	41.864 s	1:01.824 s	43.7 s	5-lap older	P3

Smith’s lane time was textbook average—but when he took it mattered more than how fast he was.

Daniel’s timing of his pit stop isn’t the whole reason he won but it did play a major role. Daniel Smith managed to chase down Kyle Etheir and Matt Tucker to secure the win. His outright speed is impressive. He also has the ability to keep the tires under him while slicing through traffic. This makes him a clear favorite for a championship run this season.

Numbers Never Lift: Facts and tidbits

+26: Andrew Bolander stormed from 30th on the grid to 4th – the biggest one-race charge in the series so far.

-22: Hard-luck award goes to John Spisak III (11th → 33rd). Combine with his season-worst 8.7 average running position vs. 37.0 finish (-28.3)

Zero-incident club: Only five drivers logged a 0x night, headlined by points leader Matt Tucker (P2). “Clean = championship”

Average incidents: 5.38x per driver at Texas, down from 6.1x in Week 1 – the field is settling in.

Most contact: Michael Benton racked up 19x at Texas and now tops the season list at 38. Pair with his slide to 26th

Laps Led vs. Result (Texas): Strong negative correlation (r = -0.63) – generally, if you led, you finished well. Two exceptions: • Randy Cornwell led 10 laps, finished 7th • Joey Stiers led 12, faded to 14th.

Fastest man: Robert Babcock clocked the only sub-30.130 lap (30.128 s on Lap 110) yet finished 24th

Biggest points jump: Andrew Bolander vaulted 18 spots in the standings (P28 → P10). Kyle Ethier (+15, P33 → P18) and your own Kevin Kyle (+11) also made double-digit gains.

Matt Tucker’s stat line: 2.0 avg finish, 20 stage points, 0 wins. “Mr. Consistency” – leading championship by 22 without a victory.

Pass masters (season): Kyle Lynott leads with 95 total passes, followed by Hunter Manley (81)

Efficiency kings: Tucker scores 16.3 pts per incident (130 pts / 8 incs); Benton nets just 3.4 (38 incs, 130 pts behind).

Standings churn: 13 of 44 drivers moved ±6 positions or more this week

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