By David Morgan, Associate Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Spin and win.
Layne Riggs started Thursday night’s UNOH 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on the wrong foot when his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford went spinning, but he was able to stage the comeback and end the night in Victory Lane for the second year in a row on the half-mile concrete bullring.
“You don’t get two mulligans in the Playoffs and I got two,” said Riggs. “Not sure what happened on the initial start with the 7 [Corey Day]. I felt like I was there pretty good.
“Man, the first lap of the race, to spin out, it’s a blow to your confidence for sure. But I’ve got faith in this team. I’ve got faith in everybody here.
“…It just shows we’re right there. We’re in contention. We can do it. These guys right here don’t give up. I don’t give up. That’s three in a row at Bristol Motor Speedway for Front Row Motorsports. Big testament to all these guys. We’ve got a really good package here.”
He now joins Corey Heim as the two drivers locked into next round of the Playoffs, keeping him safe from elimination when the Playoff field heads to its first cut-off race next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“Man, I’m excited for New Hampshire,” Riggs added. “I’ve never even been there and I already love that race track. Bring the Playoffs on, bring ‘em on.”
After rolling off from seventh-place to start the second race of the Truck Series Playoffs, Riggs found himself in a battle with Corey Day in Turn 4 on the opening lap, which saw his truck get the short end of the stick and he went for a slide.
Luckily, Riggs was able to escape the run-in without any damage to his machine and he quickly regained his composure and set his sights on moving back forward again. By the end of the first stage, he had rebounded to ninth place.
The second stage would see Riggs locked in a fierce battle with Corey Heim as the two drivers dueled it out lap after lap with Heim ultimately winning out and capturing the stage win.
Following their battle at the end of the second stage, it seemed as if the final stage would come down to those two drivers, but the restart to kick off the final stage would give Riggs the advantage he needed to capitalize.
Riggs would start on the outside of Cole Butcher in the No. 62 truck, with Heim lining up behind Butcher, who was the lone truck to stay out during the final round of pit stops during the stage break.
When the green flag dropped for the final restart, Butcher dropped like an anchor, hemming up Heim and the entire bottom lane behind him, which ultimately forced Heim back to seventh place.
Meanwhile, Riggs was able to open up a sizeable gap on the competition and just clicked off the final laps en route to the win, save for a short challenge from Ben Rhodes, which he was able to dispatch in short order, ultimately opening up the final 0.759-second margin of victory.
Heim finally worked his way free of traffic and climbed back to third-place, but the damage had been done on the final stage restart and he would have to settle for a podium finish instead of challenging Riggs for the win.
“I thought our truck was good. I think the best team won for sure, those guys were lights out,” said Heim.
“I thought we were second to him, and could run around him, like at the end of stage two. We were on older tires, and we could kind of fend him off. Really just dependent on who was ahead of who, and he happened to be ahead of me. Took us a while to carve through the pack, and get back to a decent spot.
“I think if we got a restart, we could have raced it out. Just really proud of my TRICON guys. This Yahoo Tundra was really good all day. I felt like we made really good gains throughout practice – I didn’t feel like we fired off great this morning, but huge thank you to them, Toyota and Yahoo and on to the next.”
Ty Majeski finished the night in fourth place, followed by Daniel Hemric, Tanner Gray, Connor Mosack, Andres Perez De Lara, Corey LaJoie, and Matt Crafton rounding out the top-10 finishers.
Only four of the 10 Playoff drivers would come home in the top-10, among them being Riggs, Heim, Majeski, and Hemric.
The remaining drivers in the mix for the postseason would find themselves scattered down the final running order after the checkered flag flew, including Kaden Honeycutt (12th), Rajah Caruth (15th), Tyler Ankrum (20th), and Grant Enfinger (21st).
Mechanical issues doom Smith and Garcia
The two Playoff drivers that had the worst night were Chandler Smith and Jake Garcia, finishing 30th and 33rd, respectively, after each had mechanical issues during the race.
Electrical issues doomed Smith, who radioed in within the first 30 laps about the engine missing on his No. 38 Ford, which ultimately required a trip behind the wall for repairs. He would return to the track, finishing 14 laps down to the leaders.
As for Garcia, his night was looking very promising early on after winning the pole and the first stage – the first of his career, but things went downhill rapidly when the power steering went out on his No. 13 Thorsport Racing Ford and he too had to make a trip behind the wall for repairs.
Garcia would finish the race 31 laps down.
“Going into Turn 3, I felt the power-steering completely go away,” Garcia recounted. “I hung onto it and ran for another half-a-lap before I realized that the water temperature was skyrocketing.
“I thought just the power-steering belt broke or something, but the whole assembly, the bolt sheared off in there and all the belts came off. The water got super-hot, so we came in and pitted. We replaced all of that and came back out 30 laps down.
“After that, it was just a matter of staying in the race and keeping the truck in one piece and trying to make the most of it. I’m proud of my guys for coming in and addressing the problem and getting me back out there because that could have been the difference in a few points, so, overall, I’m proud of the fight and really proud of the truck we brought here.
“I’m proud of the speed and the preparation by everybody, but something completely out of our control happened tonight.”
With their mechanical issues and subsequent poor finishes at Bristol, Garcia and Smith now find themselves as the two drivers on the outside looking in with one race remaining in the first round of the Truck Series Playoffs.
Garcia sits 14 markers back from Rajah Caruth, who currently occupies the final transfer spot, with Smith now 24 points in arears.
“This No. 38 QuikTie Products Ford F-150 was the fastest one here. That’s the gut-wrenching part is just knowing how good this truck was tonight,” said Smith. “Now we’re in a must-win situation going to New Hampshire, but honestly it comes all the way back to making a bonehead move at Darlington that put us in this position.
“Who knows what would have happened and where we would be points-wise depending on how Darlington went and not stuffing it into the fence and stuff like that after tonight, but nevertheless we’re gonna go and do what we were gonna do tonight and that’s kick their ass.”
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