Layne Riggs won the pole, swept the stages, and claimed victory in Friday’s very late-night NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.
Riggs made a dramatic late-race charge, defeating Rajah Caruth in a full-contact battle at the white flag to win at Nashville and collect a custom guitar.
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This is Riggs’ eighth career NCTS victory, and second consecutive win. Just like he did one week ago in Charlotte, he bowed in honor of Kyle Busch, as the fallen NASCAR legend would do after every win.
“Not until I passed him and cleared him,” said Riggs when asked when he knew he had the win in-hand. “That’s how you win a NASTRUCK race, boys and girls. I put on a show for you guys. I didn’t want to fall back, and I don’t know what happened to that set of tires, but it was literally undriveable. (We) made the right adjustments there, got me the right tires, got me the motivation, and drove it to the front.”
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Caruth, driving the truck Busch was supposed to drive tonight before his untimely passing, finished an agonizing second.
“I was trying to make this thing as wide as possible,” said Caruth, sporting a No. 8 hat in honor of KB. “Obviously, on a tire disadvantage, but that was a great call. We were strong, just started at the back. No qualifying kind of impacted our night, and we got the truck really strong there. There’s probably some things I should have done better there … I really wanted to get that one obviously for everyone that was at KBM, for KB’s family.”
Chandler Smith finished third, Ross Chastain fourth, and Tyler Ankrum fifth. Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, and Daniel Dye filled out the remainder of the top ten.
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Stage 1 — Calm and straightforward
Three hours later than planned due to a rain delay, the Truck race finally went green just after 11pm EST. Riggs started from pole and he held that position for the entire opening stage. He lapped all the way into the low 20s, and held a multi-second lead over the competition.
There were no incidents during the first run, and Riggs easily won Stage 1 over Honeycutt, Love, Eckes, Ruggiero, C. Smith, Rhodes. Tan. Gray, Garcia, and Hemric.
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During the stage break, Clayton Green needed a push back to the pits, which delayed the opening of pit road for a moment.
Stage 2 — Chaos and cautions
Riggs won the race off pit road, while Rhodes was penalized for speeding. In the pits, Retzlaff collided with Tyrrell and spun around, with both trucks suffering minor damage.
Tyler Reif backed into the wall on the restart after getting loose under teammate Parsons, triggering the first natural yellow of the race. The next restart didn’t stay green for long either, as Carson Ferguson suffered a flat tire and crashed heavily into the outside wall.
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The rash of yellows continued, and a three-truck pileup followed on the ensuing restart. The trucks of Jesse Love, Jake Garcia and Tanner Gray all suffered significant damage. It began with Gray getting lose, sending himself and Garcia spinning while Love had nowhere to go.
Garcia’s wounded truck ended up dropping debris on the track, causing yet another yellow. In the first 35 laps of the second stage, the longest run was just three laps. A handful of trucks decided to pit during this yellow, led by Chastain, who was running fifth.
Riggs held the lead through all of these restarts, and finally, the run went green to the end. Riggs continued to lead every lap up to this point, winning Stage 2 over Honeycutt, C. Smith. Eckes, Enfinger, Rhodes, Dye, Majeski, Hemric, and Chastain.
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Stage 3 – A game of track position
For the first time, there was a lead change. As Riggs and the rest of the leaders came down pit road, Chastain and his group stayed out.
A total of four trucks stayed out including Chastain, and Riggs was now running lower than P1 for the first time the entire race. He also a handful of spots on pit road with Retzlaff, Lajoie and Ruggiero all taking two fresh right-sides, but he notably got overtaken by Honeycutt as well.
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On the restart, Caruth powered into the race lead, trying to defend his 2025 Truck win at Nashville. Meanwhile, Riggs was now running outside the top ten. It was a very different story for Honeycutt, who had a great restart and was already back up to third.
As Honeycutt pressured Chastain for the runner-up position, the No. 11 Tricon Toyota suddenly lost power. Honeycutt’s machine slowed to a stop, forcing a caution with just over 30 laps to go.
Caruth held the lead through a wild restart, and the next caution flew for a runaway wheel that disconnected from Rhodes’ truck and came to rest in the infield grass.
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After briefly getting a nose ahead of Caruth on the restart, Chastain fell back to third behind C. Smith — a truck with fresher tires. His FRM teammate Riggs had even fresher tires than him and was charging as well, moving up to third around Chastain a few laps later.
With two laps to go, Riggs was there, and Smith cleared the way for him. Caruth tried his best to aero block, and the two trucks actually made contact at the white flag. Riggs then roared around on the outside with 40-lap fresher tires and the fastest truck of the night, taking a dramatic win for Front Row Motorsports.
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