Layne Riggs Takes No. 1 Seed In Truck Chase With Loudon Win

Layne Riggs took another win on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and will enter the Chase as the No. 1 seed. The full Truck Series Chase field is set.

Aug 22, 2026; Loudon, New Hampshire, USA; Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs (34) celebrates winning the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Not that he really needed a statement win at this point, but Layne Riggs will carry momentum into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase for the Championship as he took his sixth win of the season in Saturday's Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which served as the regular-season finale.

"Statement win. I mean, this is awesome," Riggs said after the victory.

Riggs, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150, led a race-high 106 laps from the pole position en route to the win, which marks the 11th of his 72-race career. While the box score makes the race seem like it was cut and dry, Riggs had to overcome a tight truck in the middle portion of the event, and then he had to endure two overtime restarts in order to cap off the win.

"I thought I was off a little bit. I thought I was in trouble," Riggs admitted. "Zilisch got by me, Chandler [Smith] got by me. I was just really, really tight. Couldn't get it where I needed it. But my crew chief, Dylan Cappello, and engineer Jonathan Coates, they made some excellent, excellent changes at the end."

He managed the late drama with ease, as he crossed the finish line first, ahead of Chandler Smith, his teammate, by a margin of 0.293 seconds.

Riggs will now kick off the Chase as the No. 1 seed in the championship fight, which will come with a point lead advantage.

"Let's bring on the Chase. We only have seven [races] left. No mercy," Riggs said.

Kaden Honeycutt finished third behind the Front Row Motorsports duo of Riggs and Smith, which was a miraculous comeback for the driver, who endured through a frustrating day for a solid top-three run.

Stewart Friesen finished fourth while Connor Zilisch (won Stages 1 and 2), Tristan McKee, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, and Parker Eatmon rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

Fourth-place finisher Friesen narrowly missed out on the final berth inside the Chase to Tyler Ankrum, who finished 16th on the day.

Ankrum, who suffered from brake issues, was able to somehow manage the situation well enough in the closing laps to keep himself alive in the battle for the final Chase berth, and in the end, he got the job done.

With Ankrum advancing to the Chase, the 10 drivers who will compete for the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship are Riggs, Honeycutt, Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric, and Ankrum.

The opening race of the seven-race NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase for the Championship will be the UNOH 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, September 17. That race will be televised on FS1 and TV coverage of the event will kick off at 8:00 PM ET. The NASCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.