Others have flashed some speed throughout the season, but the common denominator — err dominator — this season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has been Layne Riggs, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150. In Saturday’s regular-season finale, the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Riggs turned in yet another top-notch performance as he claimed his sixth win of the season and the No. 1 seed in the Chase, all in one fell swoop.
Race Results: Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire
“Statement win. I mean, this is awesome,” Riggs, who led a race-high 106 laps, said after his latest victory.
While Riggs led the most laps en route to the win from the pole, what made this a statement win for the driver was the ability of his team to work themselves back into contention after his truck’s handling fell off mid-race.
“I thought I was off a little bit. I thought I was in trouble,” Riggs admitted. “Zilisch got by me, Chandler [Smith] got by me. I was just really, really tight. Couldn’t get it where I needed it. But my crew chief, Dylan Cappello, and engineer Jonathan Coates, they made some excellent, excellent changes at the end.”
With the tight handling condition corrected, Riggs was back in a league by himself at the front, and he cruised to his 11th career win by a margin of 0.293 seconds over Chandler Smith, his teammate, in a double overtime finish.
With the points he scored on Saturday, Riggs was able to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Chase, which will give him a distinct advantage points-wise over the final seven races of the season.
“Let’s bring on the Chase. We only have seven [races] left. No mercy,” Riggs said.
Kaden Honeycutt, who won last weekend at Richmond Raceway, suffered from a frustrating race early. But once it was discovered he was running on a flat tire for the majority of one of the Stages, the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota was able to start working his way back into contention.
He would end the day with a third-place finish, just behind the Front Row Motorsports teammates.
Stewart Friesen had an impressive effort with his back against the wall in the fight for a Chase berth, but ultimately came up just shy of advancing to the championship fight with a fourth-place finish.
Connor Zilisch (won Stages 1 and 2), Tristan McKee, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, and Parker Eatmon rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
With a 16th-place finish on the day, a day when he suffered from a mysterious brake issue, Tyler Ankrum was able to narrowly defeat Friesen for the final Chase berth.
With Ankrum advancing to the Chase, the 10 drivers who will compete for the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship are Riggs, Honeycutt, Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric, and Ankrum.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase for the Championship will get kicked off at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, September 17. That race will be televised on FS1, and TV coverage of the event will kick off at 8:00 PM ET. The NASCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.
