Ford captured this year’s manufacturers’ championship thanks in part to 11 series wins by three drivers.
· Layne Riggs led the way with seven while Chandler Smith had three and Jake Garcia one.
· All six full-time Ford drivers representing Front Row Motorsports and ThorSport Racing scored manufacturer points by being the top finisher in at least one race.
· Here’s a breakdown of Ford’s top finisher by race:
· Layne Riggs (11): St. Petersburg, Darlington, Rockingham, Charlotte 1, Nashville, Michigan, San Diego, Indianapolis, Loudon, Charlotte 2, Phoenix
· Chandler Smith (5): Daytona, Bristol, Watkins Glen, North Wilkesboro, Martinsville
· Ben Rhodes (3): Atlanta, Texas, Kansas
· Ty Majeski (3): Dover, Talladega, Homestead
· Jake Garcia (2): Richmond, Bristol
· Cole Butcher (1): Lime Rock
· This marks the third manufacturers’ title for Ford and the first since 2000.
· Ford’s other championship came in 1999 after posting a season-high 12 wins.
· F-150 has been the only truck to compete in the series for Ford and has won 140 all-time races.
QUOTING MARK RUSHBROOK, GLOBAL DIRECTOR, FORD RACING:
“Our Ford Racing engineers have worked hard with our race teams throughout this year and it’s great to see all of that pay off with this manufacturers’ championship. This was truly a team effort and something we’ll celebrate with our global Ford employees, especially those who build the F-150 at the Dearborn Truck Plant. Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is important to us because we know a lot of the fans who are in the grandstands every weekend get there in an F-Series truck, so to be able and share something like this with them feels good.”
Ford Finishing Results:
4th – Ty Majeski
7th – Chandler Smith
8th – Jake Garcia
13th – Ben Rhodes
17th – Timmy Hill
22nd – Cole Butcher
25th – Matt Crafton
28th – Frankie Muniz
31st – Clayton Green
32nd – Layne Riggs
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops/Fleetguard Ford F-150 – WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT AFTER SEEING THAT HAPPEN SO EARLY IN THE RACE? “I’m thinking about how great of a season we had all year long. I don’t really know what happened there at the beginning. I felt like it kind of happened out of nowhere. I thought I was all good, but the next thing I knew I’m sideways and in the 77. I have no clue exactly what happened, but I had plenty of time riding around about 10 laps down to think about my day today, my year leading up to it. Of course, I’m disappointed about this one race, but, at the same time, I’m just so proud that I was even in a position to walk out on the stage before the race and had the potential at a championship. We knew we were gonna have to execute an almost perfect race and I think it was like lap two or three and, all of a sudden, that was out the window. I’m just proud of everybody on the team and the year that we had. We were there all the way to the end. We had speed all year long, but we just didn’t have the consistency that we needed to be champions.”
IS IT MORE DISAPPOINTING THAT ONCE THE TIRE ISSUE HAPPENED YOU DIDN’T HAVE A CHANCE TO BATTLE TO THE END? “I just know that when I had the tire issue, it was going down that entire run and I was losing spots and I just knew that no matter what I wasn’t ever gonna have a chance to know what we were gonna have or even if we were gonna have a shot.”
HOW DOES THIS SITUATION COMPARE TO DIFFERENT POINTS IN YOUR CAREER? “I think that racing is a hole. You have a lot more disappointing days than you have exciting days. Today just wasn’t that exciting day for us and, like I said before, I knew that it was gonna be a Hail Mary to get the job done. The pressures weren’t even up on the tires yet and we were already out of contention and never knew what the balance was gonna be, never knew how fast our truck was gonna be. I look at it as we blew up on lap two or three just from a notes standpoint. We don’t really know what we were gonna have, so that’s what is more disappointing for me.”
YOU AND KADEN WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HAVING ANOTHER SHOT AT IT? “Every year that you get to race and you have a shot to be competitive or a shot to win a championship that’s just where you want to be as a race car driver. When you’re running in the back it’s very difficult, but when you’re up front and you’re winning races, you’re competitive, you’re on TV, I have a media scrum with 15 of you people here. You just have to look at the positives and know that I’m very fortunate to be in the spot that I’m in.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON LAP TWO? “I don’t really know. I need to watch the replay. I was under the 77. I thought that I had some gap off of him and the next thing I knew I was getting sucked around sideways and into him, so no clue from my end.”
YOU JUST RUN IT OUT FROM THERE EVEN IF YOU THINK THE TIRE IS GOING TO BLOW? “Yeah. I mean, you’re just riding around at that point.”
–Ford Racing —