On Saturday at Lime Rock Park, we witnessed the return of “Layne van Riggsbergen” to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Layne Riggs, who continues to surprise with his incredible road racing ability, got the job done again as the Naval Base Coronado race winner scored the pole position for Saturday afternoon’s LiUNA! 150.
Starting Lineup: LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park
However, it wasn’t a completely clean run for the Truck Series’ newfound road racing master. Riggs went off course during his lap, which will cause his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team to inspect the front splitter of his Ford F-150.
“I just went Bahama four-wheeling,” Riggs joked. “I’m used to doing that in the mud at home. But what a WheelHouse Racing School Ford F-150. It’s so great. I feel like I’m missing my marks, and it’s still fast. So, thank you to everybody at Front Row Motorsports. They’re doing a great job, and as I said, Ford Racing is giving us all the tools that we need to go fast, and we’re showing it week-in and week-out.”
Riggs said he dipped off the track as he was simply pushing his truck too hard on his qualifying run.
“I was trying to get a little bit more, there,” Riggs explained. “I was kind of disappointed in myself because I thought that other people were definitely going to go faster, and I know I didn’t pick up. Yeah, like I said, we’re missing marks going off the racetrack, and we’re still P1. That just shows how good this thing is.”
This qualifying effort marks the first pole of the season for Riggs, and it is the series point leader’s fifth career pole-winning run, coming in his 68th start.
Riggs narrowly defeated Connor Mosack, driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, by a margin of 0.055 seconds for the pole.
Kaden Honeycutt will start third behind the wheel of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra, and he was followed on the speedcharts by Thomas Annunziata, the winner of Friday’s ARCA Menards Series event at Lime Rock Park.
Ty Majeski, Landen Lewis, Gio Ruggiero, Daniel Hemric, Chandler Smith, and Jake Garcia rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for the LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock.
Christian Eckes, who is dealing with a Grade 3 Lateral Sprain of his left foot this weekend, will start Saturday’s event from the 13th position.
