Riggs holds off late race charge in first-ever NASCAR Truck Series street course race
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
A costly mistake by Ty Majeski proved detrimental. After taking the lead on the final restart of the race, a lock-up in turn 12 allowed Layne Riggs retake the lead for his first win of the season, and Front Row Motorsports' second win in three races.
“I feel like coming into this weekend, we really need some help. And my first two races, which were at super speedway-style race tracks, didn't go my way,” Riggs said. “This offseason, my guys were able to focus, work and make speed. Hopefully, the first two races' hiccups will be forgotten about after today, and our positive momentum.”
Layne Riggs, driver of the No.34 Ford F-150, led 40 laps en route to his first road course win in his fifth start at the style of track. However, it didn't come easy for him as he started 28th and got through a field filled with road course ringers and INDYCAR winners: Colin Braun, Dario Franchitti and James Hinchliffe. His dominance was evident across several Fords, as the manufacturer led all 72 laps, between Riggs, Ty Majeski, Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith, who swept the top four positions.
Riggs gave all the credit to another road ringer for the team’s dominance in the road course program.
“Overall, I think going back to Joey Hand, he's the guy, he's the coach, [and] he's the mentor,” Riggs said. “He is very good at coaching, very good at nitpicking things, and everything that he said, I found myself… I think every other lap I would hear his voice telling me something in my head of something that he's told me in the past, to watch out for here.”
With limited practice and no qualifying, the fuel number for how far the trucks could go was significantly miscalculated, and Riggs saw himself struggling to save and stay in the lead during the closing laps of the race. This misinformation allowed Majeski, driver of the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150, to close in on Riggs late in the race.
“All those corners that were left, I thought were having sputtering and fuel pressure issues, but all the right-handers were good, and I just didn't know how long that was going to last,” Riggs said. “Then, down the straightaway, the last couple laps, I started to sputter a little bit, too.”
Majeski was the dominant truck in the latter half of this race and the only one able to pass Riggs under green-flag conditions. Unfortunately, it only took one mistake to take the win away as a lock-up in turns 13 and 14 with seven laps left saw the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion go off track.
He was able to work his way back up to a second-place finish with a last lap bass on teammate Ben Rhodes, driver of the No.99 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150, into turn one.
For the aforementioned road course ringers, Colin Braun, driver of the No.25 Kaulig Racing Ram 1500, led the group with a ninth-place finish, the best finish for the team and the “Free Agent” truck. Dario Franchitti and James “Jimmy’ Hinchliffe finished 27th and 10th, respectively.
While the “big one” never came, there were several one-truck spins, engine issues, two turn-eight wrecks and a lot of hurt feelings. The most prevalent was when Christian Eckes, driver of the No. 91 McAnally Hilgermann Chevorlet Silverado, made contact with Tanner Gray, driver of the No. 15 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra, resulting in heavy damage to both drivers. Daniel Hemric, driver of the No. 19 McAnally Hilgermann Chevorlet Silverado, was an unfortunate bystander in the incident.
Riggs alluded that the lack of a big wreck or aggressive moves until later in the race was due to the shortened practice session and the cancelled qualifying session on Friday, Feb. 27.
“It was a lot of fun racing here at St Pete,” Riggs said. “I mean, I think that everybody heard ‘street course’. They heard not going to be able to pass, not great side-by-side racing. This is one of the most “racey” tracks we've gone to.”
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results:
Layne Riggs #34 - (WINNER)
Ty Majeski #88 -0.879s
Ben Rhodes #99 -1.887s
Chandler Smith #38 -5.504s
Kaden Honeycutt #11 -5.858s
Landen Lewis #45 -15.776s
Andres Perez De Lara #44 -18.609s
Daniel Hemric #19 -19.057s
Colin Braun #25 -22.15s
James Hinchliffe #77 -23.08s
Ben Maier #4 -28.425s
Justin Haley #16 -30.038s
Connor Mosack #7 -34.489s
Cole Butcher #13 (R) -38.047s
Christian Eckes #91 -39.529s
Tyler Reif #42 -44.933s
Daniel Dye #10 -47.434s
Jake Garcia #98 -47.465s
Kris Wright #81 -58.859s
Tanner Gray #15 -72.235s
Carter Fartuch #2 -74.373s
Grant Enfinger #9 -76.185s
Adam Andretti #5 -81.832s
Brenden Queen #12 (R) -82.128s
Gio Ruggiero #17 -1 lap
Stewart Friesen #52 -1 lap
Dario Franchitti #1 -1 lap
Mini Tyrell #14 (R) -3 laps
Jackson Lee #22 -5 laps
Frankie Muniz #33 -6 laps
Tyler Ankrum #18 -10 laps
Timmy Hill #56 -17 laps
Dawson Sutton #26 -18 laps (DNF)
Nathan Nicholson #76 -25 laps (DNF)
Derek White #69 -28 laps (DNF)
Wesly Slimp #62 -65 laps (DNF)
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series travels to Darlington Raceway on Friday, March 20, to kick off three straight race weekends and the Triple Truck Challenge. Fans can watch the race at 7:30 pm on FS1.
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