Layne Riggs Would Have Been Upset Even If He Made Championship 4

Danny Hansen, NKP for Ford Racing

As Layne Riggs crossed the finish line in the third position as the checkered flag waved in the Slim Jim 200 at Martinsville Speedway, the Front Row Motorsports driver thought he had locked into the Championship 4. And while part of him was excited by that prospect, there was a tinge of disappointment in how he got to what he felt was a position to advance into the Championship 4.

Race Results: Slim Jim 200 at Martinsville

Riggs, who cut his teeth racing short tracks in the Southeast isn't a fan of what the closing laps of races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series devolves into, and he felt he was as guilty as anyone else of roughing up others selfishly for a couple of championship points.

"Battling back there at the end, we thought that we were the tiebreaker winner, and I got told that we were in, and I was still just kind of upset," Riggs admitted in a post-race media scrum on pit road. "Like I said, I don't like how those races finish like that. You have to do what you have to do. That's just not my kind of mentality, I don't like doing that."

Riggs continued, "But I'm hearing, 'Gotta get a spot, gotta get one,' I'm going to do what my team tells me to do to get into this championship. Roughing guys up, I don't really want to rough up; they have done nothing to me in the past. I don't like how it comes down to the end like this, and how people race, especially here at Martinsville."

The disappointment about how he had to race in the closing laps quickly shifted to a disappointment of a different kind for Riggs.

While he and his team initially thought they had advanced to the Championship 4 in a tiebreaker over Kaden Honeycutt, it was Honeycutt, who took the tiebreaker by virtue of his runner-up finish on Friday night. In the NASCAR Playoffs, tiebreakers are awarded to the driver with the best finish within the current round.

Riggs, who for the majority of the season has been seen as the driver most likely to be able to upset championship favorite Corey Heim in the Championship Race next weekend at Phoenix Raceway, won't get the opportunity to prove that thought correct, as he missed out on advancement to the Championship 4 by the narrowest of margins.

On a night where one point would have made all of the difference, Riggs definitely squandered points on Friday night.

Riggs started the evening from the pole position and led the opening 27 laps, but on a Lap 28 restart, he encountered an issue trying to shift from third gear into fourth, which cost him the lead. He'd never regain it the rest of the night.

"I don't really know what happened on the restart. I have never missed a shift in the truck with these transmissions, ever," Riggs noted. "And it just would not go into third gear, wouldn't go into fourth. Like, no matter what I do, it wouldn't go into gear. I've never had that happen before."

While the missed shift derailed a potentially dominant night, and it would be easy to blame the end of his Playoff run on the most recent race, Riggs says missing the Championship 4 was about more than a missed shift on a restart at Martinsville. It was a collection of issues over the three races in the Round of 8 that did him and his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team in.

"We can't look at tonight where it went wrong. You've got to look at the Roval, Lap 1, break the sway bar, ride around in the back all day, break the axle. Go to Talladega, get turned on Lap 10. I mean, it's really the culmination," Riggs explained. "I'm not going to place tonight was the reason why. That was our best race out of the Round of 8."

While he's disappointed to be heading to Avondale, Arizona without a chance at the championship, Riggs is appreciative of how his No. 34 team performed over the entirety of the season, and he's going to keep his head up as he knows he'll have another chance to collect a championship next season.

"You know what, this 34 team did a great job all year. I would have been on the disappointed side even if we were in. It's just really odd how it all plays out with this Playoff format. But yeah, just excited for the future with this race team, coming back with them," Riggs said. "Fighting for it again next year. We've been strong all year. I'm not going to hang my head about today."