Jake Garcia scored the first win of his career at Bristol Motor Speedway, taking the Chase-opening UNOH 250 Truck Series race Thursday night after 94 starts. Driving the No. 98 ThorSport Ford, Garcia led three times for 104 laps, seizing control for good with an inside pass on Stewart Friesen on Lap 230 of 250. He held off a hard-fought restart battle after briefly losing the lead to Friesen on Lap 220, ultimately winning by 1.305 seconds over Bayley Currey. Garcia, who started 12th, credited a strategy built around a rain-out qualifying session and praised his crew for the win, which also snapped ThorSport's team-wide drought dating to Ty Majeski's 2024 Phoenix Championship 4 victory.
The race was chaos for the Chase field — no seeded playoff driver finished better than sixth. Top seed Layne Riggs dominated early, winning the first two stages, but a loose wheel and later contact dropped him to 32nd; he still leads the standings by three points over Kaden Honeycutt. Chandler Smith (speeding penalty, tire issue) finished 24th, and Christian Eckes (early damage) finished 30th, both losing ground. Currey was runner-up in his season debut, and 16-year-old Tristan McKee became the youngest top-five finisher in series history.
