Layne Riggs wins at New Hampshire and earns top seed in Chase
Layne Riggs scores his sixth win of the season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a thrilling race at the Magic Mile.
In addition to the win, he also takes the top seed going in the Chase for the first time in his career.
The 24-year-old from Bahama, NC. continues to prove he is one of NASCAR’s biggest rising stars and has reached 10 victories in the Truck Series.
Front Row Motorsports also scored a 1-2 finish as Riggs’ teammate Chandler Smith finished second.
41 trucks entered the race, the largest entry list since the season opener at Daytona. Riggs scored his fourth pole in the last five races. Five drivers did not qualify for the race, Luke Baldwin, Dawson Sutton, Mason Massey, Derek White, and D.L. Wilson.
Two driver changes occured prior to the start of the race. After not making a qualifying lap, Sutton moved back into the No. 26 truck replacing Toni Breidinger. Frankie Muniz also gave up his No. 33 truck for Baldwin.
Race Summary
As the race started, a crash occured at the start-finish line following a stack up through the field. Baldwin got in the back of another truck and spun out. Jake Garcia who came in 21 points below the Chase cutline got damage in the rear of his truck.
On the restart, Kaden Honeycutt spun his tires which allowed Riggs to clear him. Connor Zilisch took second from Honeycutt on the outside. The field of 36 got aggressive with each other throughout the field with trucks going three wide very early on. Baldwin came back on track on lap 12, nine laps down.
The second caution came out on lap 13 when Landen Lewis spun in turns one and two and backed it into the wall. John Hunter Nemechek got into Lewis going into turn one after both went low on the track.
The green waved again as Riggs took off. Despite the damage, Garcia kept pace running in the top 10-15. Christopher Bell in his last Truck race of the season moved into the top 10 by the halfway point of stage one. He started back in 17th.
Towards the front of the field, Daniel Hemric moved into third passing Honeycutt. A tight battle for fourth then began between Honeycutt, Smith and Gio Ruggiero. Smith went from sixth to fourth quickly with a strong long run truck. Tristan McKee then joined the Tricon battle as Smith pulled away.
A battle for the lead then brewed as Zilisch caught Riggs. Zilisch took the lead on lap 36. Honeycutt however continued to fall through the field with a tire issue.
With less than 10 to go in the stage, Bell continued to move up and got to the top five. With five to go, Honeycutt fell down a lap and got as low as 30th.
Zilisch won stage one while Hemric and Grant Enfinger clinched spots in the Chase. Sutton received the free pass. Garcia came off pit road first taking two tires, while Zilisch lost three spots.
Stage Two
As stage two began, Zilisch and Bell tried taking it four wide for the lead. However both backed out and fell to sixth and seventh respectively. Garcia who tried to break into the Chase held the lead. Smith took second from Riggs on lap 68.
Zilisch and Bell rebounded by lap 70 getting up to fourth and fifth each. Smith started to close in on Garcia. He took the lead on lap 74. Zilisch also chased down the leaders getting Riggs for third. The fourth caution of the race came out on lap 77 for Spencer Boyd spinning. Colin Braun got into him.
Tyler Ankrum who came in as the driver on the bubble developed brake issues. Zilisch took charge on the restart getting the lead back after a tight battle with Smith. Bell and Riggs also slotted into third and fourth over Garcia. Bell and Riggs then sporadically swapped positions.
Smith stayed in reach of Zilisch as the second stage began to wind down. Zilisch held on and swept both stages on the day. After he scored enough stage points, Riggs clinched the top seed in the Chase. The McAnally crews continued to work on Ankrum’s truck.
Multiple trucks tried to play strategy as Stewart Friesen won the race off pit road. Mike Christopher Jr., Tristan McKee and Tanner Gray also all gained many spots. Unfortunately for Garcia, he received a penalty for pitting outside the box which put his Chase break-in attempt in jeopardy.
Stage Three
The field fanned out on the restart as Riggs took the lead from Friesen a lap after the restart. Another caution came out when Nemechek spun in turns three and four and collected Kris Wright and Timmy Hill.
The green came back out with 47 to go as Riggs took off. However, Bell spun in turns one and two and made light contact with the wall. Smith made contact with him, and a few trucks came close to also getting involved.
With 40 to go on a restart, Ruggiero gave Riggs a bit of a challenge, while Friesen tried to settle in third to make the Chase. Zilisch also rebounded back up to fifth while he and Smith battled.
Garcia in addition tried to make up as many positions as possible to try to overtake Friesen for the last Chase spot. As the race continued to wind down, Smith caught Friesen for third. The gap between Friesen, Ankrum and Garcia continued to get closer for the final spot.
Garcia got even more aggressive passing Corey LaJoie and gained on Andres Perez De Lara as he ran in the top 15. At the front, Friesen got more trouble in his rear-view mirror with McKee and Honeycutt catching him. Ankrum despite the brake issues gained another point on Friesen making a pass on Cole Butcher.
With less than 10 to go, Ankrum cut it down to one point between him and Friesen after passing Gray. With eight to go, Honeycutt took fourth from Friesen making it a tie between him and Ankrum.
The battle changed very quickly after a very hard hit into turn one occured for Gavan Boschele. Boschele had a strong run in the top 10 and unfortunately fell out with six to go. Fortunately, he was ok after the hit.
With pit road opening, Ankrum stayed out to try to get as many spots as possible with the brake issues. Garcia and Friesen also stayed out. Ankrum made it up to being nine points above the cutline.
The race went into overtime, but on the restart, Ruggiero made contact with Riggs going for the lead and spun himself out. He collected Connor Mosack and Sutton among others. Garcia, Friesen and Ankrum all made it through with no damage.
A second overtime restart occured, and Riggs held on to win while Ankrum got the final Chase spot by seven points.
Post Race Interviews
In his frontstretch post race interview with Fox Sports 1’s Josh Sims, Riggs said, “statement win, this is awesome thank you to all the fans.” “I’m ready for some lobster.” In addition Riggs thanked crew chief Dylan Cappello and engineer Jonathan Coates for putting him in position to take the lead back in stage three.
In his FS1 interview, Ankrum thanked spotter Eddie D’Hondt for helping him manage the brake issues throughout the race. He did feel he got lucky though as he felt the No. 18 team didn’t perform like they belonged in the Chase.
Notable Results
Despite not winning the race after dominating, Zilisch still finished in fifth and also scored the fastest lap of the race. This is also the final race that the No. 71 truck for Spire Motorsports will run this year.
McKee scored another top 10 finish with a sixth place run and came very close to his first top five finish. With four Truck races left on his schedule this year, could a win be in the cards for Spire Motorsports’ big prospect?
Justin Haley gave Kaulig and RAM another top 10 finish with a ninth place run. Haley scores his fourth top 10 of the season and first since Coronado. Corey Lajoie and Brenden Queen also gave Kaulig two more top 20 finishes with a 15th and 20th respectively. Is the performance starting to pick up for the Kaulig truck team?
Parker Eatmon scores his first career top 10 finish in the Truck Series with a 10th place run. Eatmon has shown impressive speed in his limited starts for Niece Motorsports this year as he finished 12th at Indy Raceway Park and qualified sixth at Richmond last week. Eatmon has a few more starts left this year in the No. 42 truck.
In one of the most special schemes in the race, Mike Christopher Jr. gave Halmar Friesen Racing’s third truck a 12th place finish for it’s first race. The No. 72 truck scheme paid tribute to Mike’s uncle Ted Christopher with a scheme that he ran in his first Cup race in 1999.
Race Results
- 34 Layne Riggs
- 38 Chandler Smith
- 11 Kaden Honeycutt
- 52 Stewart Friesen
- 71 Connor Zilisch
- 77 Tristan McKee
- 62 Christopher Bell
- 19 Daniel Hemric
- 16 Justin Haley
- 42 Parker Eatmon
- 88 Ty Majeski
- 72 Mike Christopher Jr
- 9 Grant Enfinger
- 98 Jake Garcia
- 10 Corey LaJoie
- 18 Tyler Ankrum
- 13 Cole Butcher
- 99 Ben Rhodes
- 5 John Hunter Nemechek
- 12 Brenden Queen
- 15 Tanner Gray
- 4 Connor Hall
- 14 Mini Tyrrell
- 25 Colin Braun
- 26 Dawson Sutton
- 17 Gio Ruggiero
- 44 Andres Perez De Lara
- 91 Christian Eckes
- 56 Timmy Hill -2 Laps
- 7 Connor Mosack OUT
- 33 Luke Baldwin -12 Laps
- 45 Landen Lewis -12 Laps
- 1 Gavan Boschele OUT
- 81 Kris Wright OUT
- 22 Patrick Emerling OUT
- 76 Spencer Boyd OUT
Truck Chase Grid
- 34 Layne Riggs
- 11 Kaden Honeycutt
- 38 Chandler Smith
- 91 Christian Eckes
- 17 Gio Ruggiero
- 88 Ty Majeski
- 9 Grant Enfinger
- 19 Daniel Hemric
- 99 Ben Rhodes
- 18 Tyler Ankrum
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return for the first Chase race at Bristol Motor Speedway for the UHOH 250 on Thursday, Sept. 17.
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