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Layne Riggs gained the pole, swept the levels, and claimed victory in Friday's very late-night NASCAR Craftsman Truck Collection (NCTS) race, however that doesn't even start to inform the entire story.
Riggs made a dramatic late-race cost, defeating Rajah Caruth in a full-contact battle on the white flag to win at Nashville and gather a customized guitar.
That is Riggs' eighth profession NCTS victory, and second consecutive win. Similar to he did one week in the past in Charlotte, he bowed in honor of Kyle Busch, because the fallen NASCAR legend would do after each win.
"Not till I handed him and cleared him," stated Riggs when requested when he knew he had the win in-hand. "That's the way you win a NASTRUCK race, girls and boys. I placed on a present for you guys. I didn't wish to fall again, and I don't know what occurred to that set of tires, however it was actually undriveable. (We) made the suitable changes there, obtained me the suitable tires, obtained me the motivation, and drove it to the entrance."
LAYNE RIGGS WINS! Watch him go from third to the lead late at Nashville. That was superior. pic.twitter.com/gf6oUfmIkw
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) Could 30, 2026
Caruth, driving the truck Busch was presupposed to drive tonight earlier than his premature passing, completed an agonizing second.
"I used to be making an attempt to make this factor as huge as potential," stated Caruth, sporting a No. 8 hat in honor of KB. "Clearly, on a tire drawback, however that was an amazing name. We have been robust, simply began on the again. No qualifying type of impacted our evening, and we obtained the truck actually robust there. There's in all probability some issues I ought to have performed higher there … I actually needed to get that one clearly for everybody that was at KBM, for KB's household."
Chandler Smith completed third, Ross Chastain fourth, and Tyler Ankrum fifth. Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, and Daniel Dye stuffed out the rest of the highest ten.
Stage 1 — Calm and simple
Three hours later than deliberate because of a rain delay, the Truck race lastly went inexperienced simply after 11pm EST. Riggs began from pole and he held that place for the complete opening stage. He lapped all the best way into the low 20s, and held a multi-second lead over the competitors.
There have been no incidents throughout the first run, and Riggs simply gained Stage 1 over Honeycutt, Love, Eckes, Ruggiero, C. Smith, Rhodes. Tan. Grey, Garcia, and Hemric.
In the course of the stage break, Clayton Inexperienced wanted a push again to the pits, which delayed the opening of pit highway for a second.
Stage 2 — Chaos and cautions
Riggs gained the race off pit highway, whereas Rhodes was penalized for dashing. Within the pits, Retzlaff collided with Tyrrell and spun round, with each vans struggling minor injury.
Tyler Reif backed into the wall on the restart after getting unfastened underneath teammate Parsons, triggering the primary pure yellow of the race. The subsequent restart didn't keep inexperienced for lengthy both, as Carson Ferguson suffered a flat tire and crashed closely into the skin wall.
The rash of yellows continued, and a three-truck pileup adopted on the following restart. The vans of Jesse Love, Jake Garcia and Tanner Grey all suffered important injury. It started with Grey getting lose, sending himself and Garcia spinning whereas Love had nowhere to go.
Garcia's wounded truck ended up dropping particles on the monitor, inflicting one more yellow. Within the first 35 laps of the second stage, the longest run was simply three laps. A handful of vans determined to pit throughout this yellow, led by Chastain, who was operating fifth.
Riggs held the lead by means of all of those restarts, and at last, the run went inexperienced to the top. Riggs continued to guide each lap up thus far, profitable Stage 2 over Honeycutt, C. Smith. Eckes, Enfinger, Rhodes, Dye, Majeski, Hemric, and Chastain.
Stage 3 – A recreation of monitor place
For the primary time, there was a lead change. As Riggs and the remainder of the leaders got here down pit highway, Chastain and his group stayed out.
A complete of 4 vans stayed out together with Chastain, and Riggs was now operating decrease than P1 for the primary time the complete race. He additionally a handful of spots on pit highway with Retzlaff, Lajoie and Ruggiero all taking two recent right-sides, however he notably obtained overtaken by Honeycutt as properly.
On the restart, Caruth powered into the race lead, making an attempt to defend his 2025 Truck win at Nashville. In the meantime, Riggs was now operating exterior the highest ten. It was a really completely different story for Honeycutt, who had an amazing restart and was already again as much as third.
As Honeycutt pressured Chastain for the runner-up place, the No. 11 Tricon Toyota out of the blue misplaced energy. Honeycutt's machine slowed to a cease, forcing a warning with simply over 30 laps to go.
Caruth held the lead by means of a wild restart, and the subsequent warning flew for a runaway wheel that disconnected from Rhodes' truck and got here to relaxation within the infield grass.
After briefly getting a nostril forward of Caruth on the restart, Chastain fell again to 3rd behind C. Smith — a truck with more energizing tires. His FRM teammate Riggs had even more energizing tires than him and was charging as properly, shifting as much as third round Chastain a few laps later.
With two laps to go, Riggs was there, and Smith cleared the best way for him. Caruth tried his finest to aero block, and the 2 vans really made contact on the white flag. Riggs then roared round on the skin with 40-lap more energizing tires and the quickest truck of the evening, taking a dramatic win for Entrance Row Motorsports.
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