Rackley Roofing 200
Layne Riggs rolled into Nashville Superspeedway with a roller coaster of a season under his belt. Despite two top-five finishes, and a top 10, his average finish was 20.5 after two DNFs in 2024. With only four races left in the regular season, Riggs sat 16th on the Playoff leaderboard, 76 points below the cut line.
He looked to better the finish of his lone start at the 1.33-mile concrete track, which was P27. In fact, he was looking to secure his first win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. With a P6 starting spot, he was certainly starting off on the right foot.
Before taking the green flag, Spotter Josh Williams prepped Riggs for what to expect on track. Then, crew chief Dylan Cappello encouraged him, “Have fun, keep it clean, and we’ll do our best down here.” Finally, Riggs thanked his team and was ready to go.
Stage 1
Running the top lane, those on Riggs’ inside attempted to take the race three wide. Immediately, the caution flag was waving as Dean Thompson, Bret Holmes, Timmy Hill, and Akinori Ogata all went spinning.
Riggs gained a spot in the chaos and restarted P5 on Lap 8. The leaders started off shaky and Riggs was immediately bottom of three with Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski. When things shook out, Riggs was sitting P3 and Holmes brought out the second caution on Lap 10.
Riggs quickly radioed in, “This thing is good!” After the Lap 15 restart, Riggs, sitting P3, was pushing Christian Eckes and then was lined up with Stewart Friesen.
The No. 52 was racing door-to-door with Riggs, but as drivers took Lap 16, Riggs claimed P2.
The race was on to catch Eckes at this point. As Riggs was running a half-second behind the No. 19, he noted, “Chattering the right rear on entry. But not too bad.” Other than that, he was quiet on his radio as he logged laps on the first green-flag run of the race.
By Lap 22, Eckes and Riggs had a 2.5 second lead on the field. Four laps later, Riggs said, “Getting tighter and tighter…giving it all I can here.”
With 14 to go, Eckes had over a second lead on the No. 38, but Riggs was holding his ground.
As drivers took six to go, Riggs had a three second buffer on P3 and was encouraged to try some different lanes in case he needed to run “something different later.”
Williams said, “We see you tight. We’ll get you dialed in.” When the stage ended, Riggs was scored P2 and gained nine stage points.
“As tight as it is, I’m surprised we’re as good as we are.” Riggs went on to share more about what he was feeling as he navigated the track.
Stage 2
After pitting for tires and fuel, Riggs returned to the track in P3 for the start of Stage 2. Cappello said, “This thing should turn better now!” And with that, Riggs was off for a shorter stage which consisted of 43 laps.
Once again, the caution was immediately in the air as Taylor Gray went spinning. Riggs maintained his position and awaited the next restart.
That came on Lap 60 and once again, he lined up P3. The green immediately became a yellow again as drivers stacked up and then took the race five wide.
Under caution, Riggs said, “This is easily the best truck I’ve ever had. Thank you so much!”
For the Lap 66 restart, Riggs lined up P2 on the front row. A clean restart had Heim at Riggs’ door and suddently shooting around him.
Riggs radioed in, “Real tight here.” He was running P3 with Rajah Caruth on his bumper.
With 22 to go, Caruth was working hard to get around Riggs. After a multi-lap battle, Caruth earned the spot, but Riggs wasn’t giving up easily. In the subsequent laps, Cappello and Williams noted there was something on the splitter. At the same time, Riggs fell to P6 and was screaming over the radio about his truck being incredibly tight.
Riggs fell to P7 with 14 to go, and then lost another spot when Friesen snuck around him two laps later. With six laps remaining, Riggs fell to P10 and Williams said, “We’ll make a big swing at it in just a minute.”
Battle Goes Bad
Stefan Parsons and Riggs battled hard for a few laps. They eventually got into each other which resulted in Riggs making a phenomenal save. But, once the No. 75 got around Riggs, the driver of the No. 38 gave the bumper a slight push which sent Parsons into the wall. This brought out the caution and forced the stage to end under yellow.
Riggs was P13 and ready for major changes.
After the on-track incident, NASCAR penalized Riggs for reckless driving. He was forced to sit in his stall for two laps, then return to pit road for his tires, fuel, and adjustments.
Stage 3
Crew members of the No. 38 team took advantage of the situation to really inspect the truck and fix damage from on-track beating and banging.
The final stage stage started with Riggs in P28, down two laps. On the restart, he gained two spots. He maintained P26 until the caution waved with 38 to go as Jack Wood got turned and went for a spin.
With that, Riggs was racing Parsons and Hill for the lucky dog. All three drivers were two laps down, so it would require that many cautions to get him back on the lead lap.
After restarting P26 with 32 to go, Riggs ended up in another three-wide situation and came out still in P26.
Six laps later, he was scored P25, and racing Lawless Alan for the Lucky Dog. With 10 to go, Riggs was tapped by Clint Bowyer and nearly went spinning.
Unfortunately for the No. 38 team, the two much-needed cautions didn’t come and Riggs brought it home P25.
Riggs thanked his team for the fast truck before signing off for the night.
Sponsor Shoutout + Driver & Team Socials
Finally, NASCAR fans know sponsors make the sport go ’round. We want to give a shoutout to Love’s Travel Stops who played a huge part of the weekend for Layne and the No. 38 team.
Be sure to give Layne Riggs (Facebook, Instagram, X) and Front Row Motorsports (Facebook, Instagram, X) a follow to keep up with the latest news from the driver and team.
