Layne Riggs salvaged a sixth-place finish on a night where he encountered some rough sledding, which put him a lap down in the middle portion of Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race. Despite the late-race rally, the Front Row Motorsports driver wasn’t pleased with what he saw on Friday night.
RESULTS: Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol
No, he wasn’t upset with his fellow competitors, Riggs was frustrated that the usage of traction compound in the bottom groove of the 0.533-mile short track led to single-file follow-the-leader style racing.
“[NASCAR] really knows how to screw a racetrack up” Layne Riggs unhappy with NASCAR’s decision to use PJ1 at Bristol.
? @calebbarnes_ pic.twitter.com/iD7SoSgN7E
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 12, 2025
“They really know how to screw a racetrack up, putting that PJ1 on the bottom,” Riggs pointed in a post-race interview with Frontstretch. “Man, it was just terrible racing tonight, in my opinion. Just single file on the bottom, you couldn’t pass anybody. The top finally got rolling there the last few laps, but, man, it sucks when it takes all race to just hold the bottom and hold where you’re at.”
While he was frustrated with the track conditions, Riggs was proud that he and the No. 34 team were able to make chicken salad out of chicken poo on Friday night.
Riggs received the free pass on Lap 161, and he began his climb back through the field once he returned to the lead lap. Riggs, who had been in a fevered rush to climb back through the grid says that when he lined up for the final restart of the race with seven laps to go, he was pleased with how things turned out.
“Obviously, we had our tire cording issue and went a lap down. To get the lucky dog at the start of the final Stage and to come back at the seven [laps] to go restart and line up fourth, I was pretty happy with our day,” Riggs explained.
At the end of the night, it was a solid race for Front Row Motorsports, which saw Chandler Smith, Riggs’ teammate, take the win after a dominant performance. Riggs took solace in the fact that he felt his truck was every bit as good as Smith’s. All the driver feels like he was lacking to be a dominant force himself was track position.
“We had pretty equal trucks,” Riggs explained. “I think if I had the same track position he had, I could have done the same thing like last year. Didn’t go our way on this day, but it is what it is. I’m proud of our effort and the speed we had.”
Sure, it wasn’t a win, like Riggs experienced at Bristol Motor Speedway last Fall, but the 22-year-old driver is enjoying a much better start to his Sophomore season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. After the sixth race of his rookie campaign, Riggs sat 22nd in the championship standings, and ultimately failed to make the Playoffs before scoring two wins as a non-Playoff contender in the final few races of the season.
After the sixth-place run on Friday night, Riggs is up to sixth in the championship standings after the sixth race of the 2025 season.
