Only two races remain now to decide the 10 Chase positions that will settle the 2026 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship and after a two-week break in competition teams are eager to roll and finalize which five drivers will complete the Chase grid.
For championship leader and five-time race winner Layne Riggs, a good showing in Friday night’s Black’s Tire 250 at Richmond Raceway could land him the Chase’s coveted number one seed – even with another regular season race remaining next week at New Hampshire.
The Front Row Motorsports driver Riggs, who finished third at Richmond last year, goes into the weekend with a robust 100-point lead on TRICON Garage’s Kaden Honeycutt. Rigg’s teammate Chandler Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes and TRICON’s Gio Ruggiero are the others to have already clinched a Chase spot.
ThorSport Racing teammates Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, McAnally-Hilgemann’ s Daniel Hemric and Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen round out the Chase standings now.
However, only 49 points, separate ninth place Hemric from 14th place Brenden McQueen. And Tyler Ankrum is only a slight eight points off Friesen for that crucial 10th place spot.
Three of the last six races have been won by Chase contenders. Enfinger won at Richmond in 2020. Smith won in 2022 and Majeski hoisted the trophy in 2024.
In last year’s race, eventual season champion Corey Heim – who will steer the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota Friday night – led 75 laps ultimately beating the day’s most dominant driver, Majeski by .923-second. But Majeski led 143 of the 250 laps, again proving why Richmond is his best track statistically. He’s averaging a second-place finish in four series starts there and has never finished out of the top-10. The former series champion Majeski is still racing for his first win of the season.
The starting grid this week will feature some interesting storylines beyond the championship implications. Former NASCAR Cup Series star and Virginia-native Elliott Sadler, 51, will drive the No. 25 Kaulig Racing RAM in his first truck series start in 25 years. New Zealand NASCAR Cup Series star Shane van Gisbergen is entered in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with a 16-year-old teammate, Tristan McKee, who currently leads the ARCA Menards Series East points and is making his Truck Series debut in the No. 77 Spire Chevrolet.
Practice for the Black’s Tire 250 gets underway at 1 p.m. ET on Friday followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 2:05 p.m. ET – both sessions televised on FS2. Heim won the race from pole position last year.
—NASCAR Wire Service —