Layne Riggs Spoils Truck Series Playoffs Again with Bristol Victory

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Layne Train keeps rolling on.

For the second race in a row, Layne Riggs played spoiler in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, bringing home the win in Thursday night’s UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Piloting the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Riggs rolled off from 18^th in the 200-lap event, but didn’t stay there for long, advancing up to eighth by the end of the first stage and fourth at the end of the second.

Riggs would continue his climb upwards, snatching the lead away from Corey Heim on Lap 121 and he would never relent from there on. He would remain a steady hand through the final two restarts, keeping the rest of the field in his rear-view all the way to the finish, crossing the line 1.096 seconds ahead of Heim at the line.

“We have just learned so much with the trucks and my team. Dillon, my crew chief, he’s bad ass,” Riggs said. “He works so hard at night and we as a team, we’re a young team. I think the average age is in the twenties, so it’s so amazing. To be running fifth, 10th and then all of a sudden go back-to-back in the playoffs? 

“Man, I wish I was in the playoffs so bad. I think we’d be a real threat to win this championship.”

Heim and Rajah Caruth would have a spirited battle for the runner-up spot in the final run to the finish, with Heim just nipping Caruth for the position.

Both Heim and Caruth won a stage, as Caruth took the first stage and Heim took the second, gaining both valuable points on the night.

Fellow Playoff drivers Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez would round out the top-five finishers, with the remainder of the top-10 going to Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ty Majeski, Stewart Friesen, and Tyler Ankrum.

The rest of the Playoff drivers finished the night scattered throughout the running order with Taylor Gray in 12^th, Grant Enfinger in 17^th, Ben Rhodes in 27^th, and Daniel Dye in 32^nd.

Polesitter Connor Zilisch came home in 19^th after getting spun at the end of the second stage.

The first round of the Truck Series Playoffs heads off to Kansas for the first elimination race as three of the 10 eligible drivers (Eckes, Heim, and Sanchez) are now locked in on points and will move on to the next round.

Majeski is in the best points position of the remaining Playoff drivers with a 58-point advantage over the cut-off line, having salvaged a top-10 after starting at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

“We did what we needed to do tonight. Obviously, we fought some adversity. I was proud of the team,” Majeski said. “When you have a little mishap like that, this is the kind of comeback we needed tonight. It’s what we needed. 

“Of course, we always come to the racetrack wanting to win. We have good, fast Ford F-150s every week. We made the most out of it tonight and did exactly what we needed to do. That will put us in a really comfortable spot going to Kansas and we’ll try to capitalize there and move on to Talladega.”

Caruth likewise turned around his Playoff fortunes having come into the night at a deficit to the cut-off line, but now holds a 35-point buffer with one race left in the first round.

As he listened to Riggs do his celebratory burnout after the race, Caruth could only smile, saying:

“Damn, I wish that was us. We’ll go to Kansas next week and win that one.”

The other drivers that will carry a double-digit points lead into Kansas include Ankrum (+25) and Gray (+23), while the rest will have a stressful week ahead as they hope to stay alive.

Grant Enfinger sits at +7, with Dye at -7 and defending series champion bringing up the rear of the Playoff grid at -12 points.

Both Dye and Rhodes had issues of their own, as Dye was involved in an incident with Kaden Honeycutt on Lap 156, while Rhodes battled handling issues and finished two laps off the pace.

“It was tough from the get-go,” Rhodes said. “The moment we unloaded from the transporter we had some issues in practice. It’s kind of the story with this Next Gen practice. If you have issues, you can’t really fix them. You can only really tune on the truck and we needed more than fine-tuning today. 

“We tried to fix one thing, but it would hurt another so we were kind of stuck in the middle of No man’s land and not really able to fix the truck. That made myself more less comfortable at times. 

“All in all, I wish we had a better outing for this Bommarito Ford F-150, but we’re just gonna have to go get it at Kansas now and work really hard to get our points back. I don’t know where we’re at in points, but I know it’s not good. You kind of do mental math as the race is unfolding and know that you’re losing it, so now we’re in a clutch moment where we have to come through at Kansas.”

UNOH 200 at Bristol Race Results: