While he failed to make it into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs came into Friday’s Loves RV Stop 2225 at Talladega Superspeedway as the hottest driver on the circuit.
Riggs came into the day on a five-race top-five finishing streak, including back-to-back wins at Milwaukee and Bristol. After he rebounded from a 33rd-place starting spot due to issues in pre-qualifying inspection, Riggs found himself near the front of the field with under 30 laps remaining in the event.
Then, after a green flag pit sequence, all hell broke loose.
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While Riggs was sitting fifth in the inside lane, Jake Garcia received a shove from Stefan Parsons, who was also being shoved by Tanner Gray, heading toward Turn 1 on the frontstretch on Lap 62 of the 85-lap race.
The shove sent Garcia down into Riggs, and as Riggs gathered his truck up, Garcia skidded into Riggs’ right-rear quarter-panel again, which sent the driver of the No. 38 Ford F-150 spinning toward the outside wall. Riggs would piledrive into Gray and Matt Mills, and the biggest crash of the afternoon was on.
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Riggs, who said there was nothing he could have done to prevent his involvement in the crash once the incident was triggered, said once he knew there was no saving his No. 38 machine, his mind switched into survival mode as he braced for impact.
.@LayneRiggs99 called the crash he sustained on Lap 62 of today’s race the hardest lick of his life. But says he is okay despite the hard hit. Riggs takes away the silver lining of gaining valuable experience on a superspeedway track. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/CettEuD2O3
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) October 4, 2024
“It was brace for impact. When I got hooked like 45 [degrees], and then got hit in the door again, and I knew there was nothing I could do,” Riggs explained. “So, I just tried to put my hands around my chest and let kind of the wheel do its thing. Yeah, it was definitely a hard hit, glad that I braced myself right, and glad NASCAR has a good safety crew.”
The hit, which looked super vicious on the television broadcast, was just as vicious from inside the truck as Riggs called the hit that he sustained on Lap 62 the hardest of his life.
“Pretty hard lick, hardest lick I’ve ever taken in my life,” Riggs stated. “Thank god for SAFER barriers, I couldn’t imagine back in the day hitting the wall without a SAFER barrier that hard. It was a lick. Those old guys were tough.”
Fortunately, Riggs was able to walk away from the massive impact. Furthermore, all of the other drivers involved in the crash were also checked and released from the infield car center.
While it was a rough ending, Riggs, who will return to Front Row Motorsports for another year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2025, took away the silver lining of gaining precious experience at a superspeedway, something the 22-year-old failed to do in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway as he crashed out of that event after just 13 laps.
“Yeah, I mean, I learned a lot today. I had a lot of fun. My first ever time really in a pack racing before besides from Daytona which was only a couple of laps,” Riggs explained. “We were at the very back of the pack, we were in the middle, got to run both lanes and even got to lead some got to lead my group when we all made that short pit with all of the Toyotas.”
Riggs continued by thanking his FRM team for putting together another top-tier race truck.
“My truck felt really good everywhere. Super thankful to Front Row, they built another awesome race truck. Had a lot of fun.”
Even with the early exit from the race, and the hardest crash of his young racing career, Riggs was all smiles and is ready to compete at Daytona International Speedway next February.
“That’s speedway racing. We all know it. I learned a lot today, it was a lot of fun. I’ve always wanted to do it for a lot of years. We’ll do the next one whenever that is,” Riggs said.
While the crash snaps a five-race top-five finish streak for Riggs, expect the young racer to continue to be a thorn in the side of the Playoff contenders for the remainder of the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
