Riggs re-signs with Front Row Motorsports, sets sights on title
Layne Riggs has had a career year – winning six NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races and earning the No. 1 seed in the seven-race Chase that will decide who hoists the big trophy at the end of the year.
He confirmed Tuesday during the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase Media Day interview session featuring the 10 championship-eligible drivers that he had re-signed with Front Row Motorsports for next season and is eager to continue that tenure with a “champion” in front of his first name.
The series opens its Chase run Thursday under the bright lights on the famous Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway high banks in the UNOH 250 Presented by Ohio Logistics (8 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The defending race winner? None other than Riggs.
The 24-year-old second-generation NASCAR driver was his typically friendly-self during Tuesday’s interview session, but he was also quick to emphasize that he’s absolutely ready to raise his game in the championship run. And that says a lot, considering he’s already claimed a career-best six wins this season, including the most recent race – from pole position, no less – at New Hampshire three weeks ago.
Three of his six wins have come from pole (also Nashville and Indianapolis Raceway Park), and he’s finished first or second in three of the last four races entering the Chase. He takes a 25-point lead over TRICON Garage’s Kaden Honeycutt into Thursday’s Chase opener.
“We’ve just been getting stronger and keeping our minds sharper in situations that aren’t ideal for us, and we’ve just got to keep that same mindset rolling that we’ve been doing all year long,” said Riggs, who drives the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “This is nothing new for us. We’ve been points racing the entire year.
“What we’ve been doing the last two months, keep doing it just have to focus on keep doing that. Don’t do anything any different if it’s working.”
He acknowledged there may be the proverbial “target” on his back to decide this title and said he’s absolutely prepared to meet that challenge.
“I do [have a target] because everybody wants to be me, who doesn’t want to be the number one guy with the target on the back. Someone asks, ‘how do you like being hunted?’ I’m not, I’m still the hunter, hunting for a bigger points lead. I’m not on defense, I’m on just as much offense as I have been all year long and that’s not going to change.”
Honeycutt leans on championship-caliber team in Truck title pursuit
Entering the Chase second in points, there’s plenty of reason for Honeycutt to enter this week’s postseason opener feeling confident and optimistic. And he is both.
The 23-year-old Texan likes the seven-race schedule that will determine the series championship saying he and his team really have “no weak spots” in that stretch. He led the championship (for five weeks) for the first time in his career and enters the Chase 25-points behind Riggs in the points reset – the two drivers dominating first or second place in the standings all season.
It’s already been a career year for Honeycutt, whose 11 top-five finishes are nearly triple his previous best entire-season tally. Most reassuring to his title chances, he earned his first two career series wins at the Watkins Glen, N.Y. road course and then the Richmond, Va. short oval only two weeks before the pre-championship stretch break.
“If we can go out and start really good at Bristol, be really consistent,” Honeycutt said, noting that Chase competition in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has been quite dramatic already.
“We’ve obviously seen the last couple races for Cup have completely turned upside down for most of the guys,” he added. “I feel like if we just execute, do our own deal, race our race, and not try to do anything else other than that and not focus on points so much, just focus on winning, and everything kind of takes care of itself after that.”
Importantly, his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota team is led by one of the winningest crew chiefs in series history, Scott Zipadelli, who led Corey Heim to the championship just last year.
“Having a crew chief like Scott and the whole team that’s a championship caliber team is definitely very easy to get used to,” Honeycutt said. “Scott has helped me tremendously on my race craft and he’s done a lot of things for me outside of truck racing that’s led to winning races.
Championship would provide fitting farewell for Smith, Front Row
Chandler Smith comes into the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase ranked third in the seeding – only 35 points behind his Front Row Motorsports’ teammate Riggs atop the standings – and Smith says he’s ready to harness a whole lot of that momentum.
It goes beyond his innate competitive push to hoist the season trophy. Only weeks ago, the 24-year-old Georgia native was signed by Richard Childress Racing to return to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series fulltime in 2027. So, Smith is determined to make this championship-run a celebratory farewell.
The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford started the year with a win in the season-opener at Daytona and added his ninth career series victory in July at North Wilkesboro, N.C. He’s earned top-10 finishes in 12 of the 18 races to date, including the four leading into this Chase run.
“We’re 35 points out and if you look at the last few races of the regular season how we started cutting that points deficit. … I think our team is in a good spot right now and I’m driving in a good spot,” Smith said.
“Here recently we’ve really been consistent and seen the fruits of the labor,” Smith said of the team’s efforts, praising his team owner Bob Jenkins for “taking a risk” on hiring him two years ago.
“I’d like to leave them on a good note, leave them with a good solid foundation that whatever driver they have coming in and go out and win races and contend for championships, that they have the notebook, they have the trucks, they have everything at their disposal.”
Smith finished third in the championship in 2022 boasting three trips to Victory Lane, but says he looks forward to the new championship format this year that rewards a season-long effort.
“To be a part of the Chase and be part of a format that I watched Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch just dominate, or Tony Stewart, those guys – to be a part of that format is really cool for me,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of it and now here I am, so it’s a little bit of a dream come true.
“The other thing that makes it different from this year to last year is now we have a most a full other year of working as a team and the fruit of that labor has been showing here recently with the consistent finishes. Chemistry is big. It takes time and patience and I’m proud to see the 38-team growing and getting better week by week.”
Fourth-seeded Eckes takes big-picture approach into title run
Christian Eckes, driver of the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet, enters the Chase ranked fourth among the 10 championship-eligible drivers – 40 points off Rigg’s lead.
This is the first time he’s competed in the series fulltime since 2024 when he finished third in the championship and won four races. Eckes is still winless on the year but is taking a big picture approach to this title run. Nearly half (four) of his nine career wins in the series have come at tracks in this postseason stretch. And his 11 top-10 showings on the year are as many as the points leader Riggs.
“For us, it’s definitely not dragging us down at all,” Eckes said of going into the Chase without a victory yet. “If anything, I’d say it really puts us into a position where we don’t have anything to lose because we’re not the [championship] favorite and we haven’t been the best running truck throughout the year. So, it puts us in a spot, where whatever happens, happens and we’ll do the best we can.”
Championship hopefuls brace for hectic Chase opener at Bristol
All of the 10 drivers competing for the 2026 NASCAR CARFTSMAN Truck Series title allowed a slight smile or shook their head when asked about the challenging Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway to open the Chase this week. Many spoke of the action-packed NASCAR Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase openers that have already immediately impacted the championship standings.
TRICON Garage’s Gio Ruggiero, who drives the No. 17 Toyota and is making his first ever Chase appearance did not mince words. The 21-year-old finished third in the series’ Spring visit to Bristol and acknowledges the intensity will be picking up this go-round at the half-mile Bullring.
“We’ve been off for a couple weeks now and everybody’s hungry to get back out there and race,” said Ruggiero, who is ranked fifth in the reseeded Chase standings. “Starting up the Chase, everybody’s trying to make up those points now. I feel like it’s going to be a hectic race for sure. I think everybody’s going to race each other hard and restarts there are super important because it can be a hard track to pass at, if the bottom lane is super gripped up. I think the restarts; you’re going to see some really good racing and hopefully not too many wrecks.”
Proven Chase-track winner Enfinger believes championship is within reach
Series veteran Grant Enfinger may head into the Chase ranked seventh among the 10 drivers, but the 41-year-old Alabama-native sounded optimistic about his ability to contend in the right circumstances.
The driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet is a 14-time race winner, hoisting his most recent trophy this July at the Lime Rock, Conn. road course. He’s finished seventh or better in the championship in seven of the last eight years with a career best showing of runner-up in 2023.
He’s won at four of the Chase tracks, including the site of the finale, Homestead Motor Speedway.
“We can absolutely do this,” Enfinger said.
–NASCAR Wire Service–