Layne Riggs returns to Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway later today (Thurs., Sept. 11, 2025), the same track where the second-generation racer and son of former NASCAR great, Scott Riggs, upset the field with a stunning, first-place finish as part of NASCAR’s Truck Series playoffs in late 2024.
Not bad for a 22 year-old newcomer, who finished the 2024 season as Sunoco’s Rookie of the Year.
Now a year older, and certainly a year wiser, Riggs will be gunning for his first championship trophy, taking on the likes of fellow NASCAR wunderkinds Corey Heim and Daniel Hemric, among others. But race fans are still buzzing about Front Row Motorsports’ No. 34 Ford F-150.
The BKB bare knuckle fist splattered across his hood was hard to miss — even from the cheap seats.
Riggs and his team were driven to the playoffs by BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing, the fast-rising combat sports promotion that airs on VICE TV. For BKB Chairman Mike Vazquez, pairing NASCAR with bare knuckle boxing presented an opportunity to conjoin fanbases through increased exposure across both brands.
“I felt the audience was very similar and in 2016, when Dada 5000 fought Kimbo Slice, I actually put a truck out the day before the fight, in Daytona, with the image of Dada and Kimbo and Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock on the truck to promote that fight the next night on one of the networks,” Vazquez told MMAmania.com. “From there, I put Bellator MMA together with NASCAR, and then they did an event. I think it was after a race or after practices in Daytona a few years ago. So that all developed from our first exposure in 2017. Bellator saw it, NASCAR saw it, and we’re trying to marry those two audiences, as well. That’s kind of the goal, to have the NASCAR fans who are watching these races on FOX or FS1 or the CW network, to look at Layne and see this BKB car run out front and come in and check us out.“
Bellator MMA had a lot of great ideas over the course of its 16-year existence. What it didn’t have was great execution, which allowed Donn Davis and Professional Fighters League (PFL) to pillage its remaining assets following the promotion’s unceremonious collapse in late 2024.
As for Vazquez, a founding member of NASCAR’s Diversity Council and the driving force behind the creation of NASCAR Mexico, his partnership with Layne is an extension of his long-standing relationship with Scott. The elder Riggs was named 2002 NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year and 2003 NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver.
“Scott Riggs was a champ in NASCAR back in the early 2000s,” Vazquez said. “I’ve known Scott for many years. He’s an absolutely great guy with a great family, and he was a great driver. He came to NASCAR Mexico to support us. When we were starting NASCAR Mexico, he actually came down and raced a couple of races for us in Mexico. And when his son picked that next step and jumped into the Truck Series, I was happy to support them along their way, as well. Scott is a great guy, and Layne himself, a great kid. He’s got his head on his shoulders, just a great spokesperson for the brand, as well. You saw him get out of his car in Victory Lane. First thing he did was point to his uniform and our logo. It’s just an all-around great marriage.”
Layne captured his first pole as well as his first checkered flag of 2025 when he tamed the “Tricky Triangle” at Pocono Raceway back in June. Some of the most decorated racers in history have wrecked at the 2.5-mile tri-oval track in Blakeslee including Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon.
“You know, it’s so crazy, like you get out there and just a sense of speed kind of like, the first couple laps on the track, I’m like man, we’re going fast,” Riggs explained. “And then just that sense of speed goes away. Sometimes you take it for granted how fast you’re going. Like qualifying: I go out there and you just run your line, you’re doing your thing, you’re worried about grip, you’re focusing on your line, then you get out and your team is like, ‘Yeah, you averaged 168 miles an hour.’ I’m like, ’What?‘ You don’t understand how fast you’re going until you kind of look at the numbers.”
Speaking of numbers, Riggs is currently ranked No. 2 behind Heim headed into tonight’s race.
“I feel like you have to kind of be built for this,” Riggs added. “Everybody that kind of has the knack for it and the natural talent to be a driver, I feel like just kind of gets in that zone and you can’t really explain the zone that you’re in unless you’re somebody that does it. And a lot of people that are out there can’t find that zone, either. So I would say that I’m just naturally gifted and very thankful that I do have that feeling in the zone. I get to talk about it with my dad a lot because he feels the same way. Just when you get in that zone, you’re locked in like that … you just feel untouchable. Nothing can touch you. Nothing can bother you. You feel like Superman.”
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Following his “Tricky Triangle” trophy, Riggs reunited with the BKB team for “Music City Brawl” in Nashville, where Lorawnt-T Nelson stopped Sam Liera by way of first-round knockout. Riggs was feeling less like Superman during that night of bare knuckle carnage (see it here) and more like Jimmy Olsen.
But also recognized the parallels between both sports.
“I love the tactics of bare knuckle fighting,” Riggs said. “It’s a whole lot more in depth than people think it is on the surface. So yeah, mad respect for those guys for what they do. It’s really cool to be a part of it and bring two kind of sports together. I mean, of course they have their thing. We have our thing that’s so different from each other; but like I said, you’re passionate, your whole life is based around one thing. Ours is racing a race, theirs is fighting a fight. And you know that this means everything to them — the same way that racing means everything to me. And we can all, as athletes, relate to that and know that when the money’s on the line and it’s time to do your job, you do anything you can to be successful at it. I see the passion that those BKB guys have and full respect to them — I would never do what they do. And I think most of them would say the same about me. They would never want to do what I do. So yeah, respect both directions, for sure.”
For Riggs, who captured the Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship in 2022, his “race-day hangover” can leave him feeling as though he went five rounds inside BKB’s “Mighty Trigon.” In addition to the adrenaline dump, not unlike that of a bare knuckle boxer fresh off a grueling fight, Riggs must also endure the mental fatigue that comes with a 200-mile race.
“It can be a little bit rough, I call it the race-day hangover,” Riggs explained. “And it’s more of like a mental exhaustion hangover, because I mean, when you’re in the race and you’re focused and you’re in your groove, you are like so laser focused, it’s on a different level than you can ever explain. The adrenaline’s up, heart rate’s up, and you don’t feel pain, you don’t feel hot, you don’t feel tired, you don’t feel anything. And then when it’s all over with and you calm down, you leave the track, you start to realize, man, I’m wore out. So yeah, I always call it the race-day hangover, and it comes with a headache after. Just mentally exhausting and like I said, just when you’re focused for two and a half hours straight, lasered in the whole time, it really is a mental toll. So really the mental toll is the biggest hitter.”
Another big hitter this season was the BKB sponsorship, which quickly became the talk of the track. In fact, Vazquez is hoping to parlay his popularity in the racing community into a longterm partnership with NASCAR, one that could feature BKB fights and NASCAR racing on the same weekend, in the same city.
And perhaps even on the same racetrack.
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“As soon as they saw BKB on a race car, I got contacted by 36 other drivers asking for opportunities in sponsorship,” Vazquez said. “Several of my old friends in the garage were asking me to come back as an owner; so, who knows what the future holds. I’d love to continue supporting Layne as he grows because he’s got a world of talent and I think he’ll be racing on Sundays in a few years. Down the road we’ll be looking to run BKB the same weekend as NASCAR as part of NASCAR weekend, 1000 percent. Things kind of came up quickly this year, so as we move toward the future, we’ll look at having it in the same city to possibly having it at the racetrack. Not only in NASCAR USA but also with our friends in NASCAR Mexico as we expand overseas, as well, as we ramp up our schedule in the coming years. I think that would be fantastic.”
For anyone else, pitching NASCAR on a collaborative effort involving triangular combat might sound like a fool’s errand. But Vazquez has a history of “firsts” with the association, preceded by his days of traveling the country with motorsports legend and CART Championship Series trophy winner, Juan Montoya.
“The head of NASCAR, Commissioner Steve Phelps, is an old friend of mine from my years back in the early 2000s when he came on board, and we’ve been in dialogue about collaborating,” Vazquez said. “We’re looking to work our 2026 schedule around a couple of potential events and doing something together, whether trackside or nearby, where we can inform the teams and their sponsors, all the crews and the fans themselves. ‘Hey, after a long day, why don’t you come and see somebody get punched in the face for a change?’ So we’re working on that.“
Vazquez will need to convert racing fans to bare knuckle boxing fans, and vice versa, which may not be a tough sell (in either direction) considering the foundation for both extreme sports is the rush of adrenaline. A fighter can get knocked out with one solid punch, just as a racer can wreck with one bad turn.
“I love motorsports, I love the adrenaline. I think it’s the same feeling,” Vazquez added. “When you see a car in the race and you see it passing, and the strategy and the laps are counting down, it’s kind of what you feel when you’re watching a fight, when you see the action going back and forth and whatnot. So that same adrenaline feeling pumps through your veins, that’s why I feel NASCAR fans and combat sports fans can share in that. More so than when you’re watching a baseball game or a basketball game, because in those sports, how many shots do you shoot? How many pitches are thrown? How many passes? How many runs? In combat sports, one punch can end it, so you got to stay on it. In a race, same thing. Any turn, your guy can get wiped out. He can get clipped. So, your attention is there. I think it’s a good mix.“
BKB returns to action with “Empire State Brawl” at Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino on Sept. 27.
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