Riggs Rattles Reif For Truck Series Street Course Win in San Diego

In the closing laps of Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Navy 250 at Naval Base Coronado, it appeared that Tyler Reif could chisel his name into the history books with his first career win. However, by the end of a frantic overtime finish, it was Layne Riggs who scored the win, and with it kept his perfect record on street course layouts intact.

“Layne van Riggsbergen came to play today, man,” Riggs joked after the win. “I got my second street course. We’re undefeated at street courses. Hey, much respect, Shane [van Gisbergen], I wish I could be as good as you one day, man, but I’m going to take all my glory in the Truck Series.”

Despite his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 sputtering on the final lap, Riggs was able to apply just enough pressure onto Reif, a 19-year-old racer for Niece Motorsports who was making just his seventh career start. With Riggs looming large in Reif's mirror, the young driver made a miscue and cut the course on the final lap, which allowed Riggs a path to swoop on past him for the lead, and the win.

“I don’t even know what happened at the end. It’s sparks flying, people wrecking, staying on the throttle. I was running out of fuel the entire last lap; it was like St. Pete all over again,” Riggs said. “Great job with Reif there. I faked left to scare him, and he missed the corner. I wasn’t really going to dive it in there, and it worked for me.”

To add insult to injury, Reif didn't even cross the finish line in the runner-up spot, that distinction belonged to Daniel Hemric, while Kaz Grala, Landen Lewis, and Ty Majeski rounded out the top-five finishers in the race.

Reif initially crossed the finish line with a seventh-place finish, but after being assessed a penalty for cutting the course, Reif was relegated to a 19th-place finish.

In the end, Reif admitted that he made an error while trying to give his all for his first career win.

“Pushing 101%, obviously. I was just way over the tire, there. And I heard one [truck length] back with Layne, and I just didn’t want him to have a chance to get to me. So, my mistake. It’s very unfortunate that I did that,” Reif explained. “I don’t know how many chances I’ll have like this. I’m sure there will be more, and I’m going to make sure to not make that mistake again.”

There were a slew of former full-time NASCAR National Series racers, who made the trip to San Diego to compete in the first-ever NASCAR National Series event on Naval Base Coronado, including Brendan Gaughan, who finished the best of the all in 16th.

The finish for the Las Vegas native was impressive because he suffered a miserable day on Friday for the most part, as he crashed in qualifying, and suffered a cut tire late in the race. However, when the chips were on the table, Gaughan got it done and secured a top-20 finish for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.

While Jimmie Johnson had the best overall performance of the veteran racers making their returns to the Truck Series, as he practice, qualified, and raced inside the top-five all day long, mechanical gremlins hampered Johnson down the stretch, and he failed to make it to the finish.

Johnson would come home with a 30th-place finish.

Jamie McMurray, who was driving the No. 25 Ram 1500 for Kaulig Racing, would score a 34th-place finish after he suffered brake failure, which resulted in a hard crash.

While there was elation for Riggs after his fourth win of the season, Kaden Honeycutt, his main rival for the series championship didn't enjoy the same feelings. On the final restart of the race, Honeycutt was battling Chandler Smith, Riggs' teammate, for the race win.

As the race went green, Smith lost control of his No. 38 Ford F-150, and crashed into Honeycutt's No. 11 Toyota. This would end Honeycutt's day a lap shy of the finish, and he would be credited with a 23rd-place finish. Honeycutt leaves San Diego 65 points behind Riggs in the battle for the regular season championship.

Navy 250 Race Results

1. 34 - Layne Riggs
2. 19 - Daniel Hemric
3. 62 - Kaz Grala
4. 45 - Landen Lewis
5. 88 - Ty Majeski
6. 16 - Justin Haley
7. 12 - Brenden Queen
8. 99 - Ben Rhodes
9. 91 - Christian Eckes
10. 17 - Gio Ruggiero
11. 14 - Mini Tyrrell
12. 15 - Tanner Gray
13. 81 - Kris Wright
14. 5 - Adam Andretti
15. 13 - Cole Butcher
16. 20 - Brendan Gaughan
17. 22 - Austin Varco
18. 75 - Parker Kligerman
19. 42 - Tyler Reif
20. 33 - Frankie Muniz
21. 44 - Andres Perez de Lara
22. 38 - Chandler Smith
23. 11 - Kaden Honeycutt
24. 7 - Connor Mosack
25. 77 - Justin Marks
26. 26 - Dawson Sutton
27. 2 - Jackson Lee
28. 76 - Nathan Nicholson
29. 9 - Grant Enfinger
30. 1 - Jimmie Johnson
31. 18 - Tyler Ankrum
32. 98 - Jake Garcia
33. 52 - Stewart Friesen
34. 25 - Jamie McMurray
35. 10 - Corey LaJoie

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