Sometimes, in NASCAR, you have to be really lucky, and sometimes you have to be really good to find success. Layne Riggs was both on Friday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway, and the result was the top starting spot for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Allegiance 200.
Starting Lineup: Allegiance 200 at Nashville
Earlier in the day, Riggs was the fastest driver in a rain-shortened Truck Series practice session at Nashville. However, after a brief hold, it appeared that Riggs would have to fight it out for the top qualifying spot in Friday night’s race.
However, with 13 trucks left to attack in the qualifying session, Mother Nature intervened, which brought an early end to the session and effectively wiped out the results. With not every truck getting a chance to take a qualifying lap, the starting lineup reverted to the NASCAR Rule Book, which sets things by the performance metric.
Winning last weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway meant the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 was P1 again. While Riggs is happy to control the start from the pole position in Friday night’s race, he would have liked to actually earn it on track in the session.
“I did do a mock-qualifying run in practice, so I did run qualifying speed,” Riggs joked. “Yeah, I’m not excited about this. Sure, I like starting on the front row, but it’s a lot more gratifying when you earn the pole.”
Despite not being happy about inheriting the pole, Riggs said NASCAR didn’t have much of an option other than to call the session early due to the slick conditions around the 1.33-mile facility in Lebanon, TN.
“I rode around in the pace truck out there. This track is so smooth with the concrete, and the rubber gets in the pores so much. You could feel it on the paint here on pit road, it’s so slick to your foot,” Riggs said of the slippery track conditions. “If it were a track like Charlotte or Darlington, a track with more of a porous surface for the water to go, I’d be okay with it.”
Now, Riggs will set his sights on achieving something he’s always wanted to do. He wants a Nashville Superspeedway guitar, a trophy he’s always admired in his dad’s trophy case.
“I’m excited for tonight. This has been a great track for me. Like I’ve said for the last two years, I’ve had to look at my dad’s three guitars all my life in our basement, and I want to get one of my own,” Riggs explained. “We’ve got a great shot here tonight. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. We brought a fast truck; hopefully, we can keep it up front.”
Kaden Honeycutt, the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD PRO, will start alongside Riggs on the front row of the race on Friday night.
Jesse Love, a full-time competitor in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, will start from third in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, while Gio Ruggiero and Christian Eckes will round out the top-five starters in the field for the Allegiance 200 at Nashville.
With 38 trucks on the entry list for this race, that meant two drivers and teams would unfortunately miss the show. Toni Breidinger, driving the No. 27 Rackley WAR Chevrolet, and Jonathan Shafer, driving the No. 69 MBM Motorsports Ford, are the two who will have to watch Friday night’s race instead of competing in it.
