Layne Riggs beats Truck Series championship favorites and wins playoff opening game
Sunday’s LiUNA! 175 at the Milwaukee Mile kicked off the NASCAR Truck Series playoffs, but non-contender Layne Riggs stole the show by winning his first national touring race.
Meanwhile, the first race of the first three-race playoff round was fairly uneventful from a dynamic perspective. No one was able to qualify for the second race by winning, and no one had a disastrously bad race that would have put them in a must-win situation in the next two races at Bristol or Kansas.
The three championship favorites – Corey Heim, Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski – all finished in the top 10. Heim received a speeding penalty that cost him stage points in the first half, but his lead heading into the playoff was so large that the final results were marginal.
The only disappointment is certainly Rajah Caruth, who started from the back of the field due to unauthorized pre-race changes and was unable to make up his deficit in track position. However, the table remains close.
Christian Eckes +60
Ty Majeski +44
Corey Home +41
Nick Sanchez +34
Taylor Gray +13
Tyler Ankrum +13
Daniel Dye +9
Grant Enfinger +2
—
Ben Rhodes -2
Rajah Caruth -4
But it also turned into a night to celebrate the development of Front Row Motorsports’ rookie driver Riggs and rookie crew chief Dylan Cappello, who have been a challenge all year to ease them into their new roles.
Front Row Motorsports’ Truck program has won a championship with Zane Smith and crew chief Chris Lawson. Riggs has won late model races and championships, but the Truck Series is a different type of racing platform.
Riggs, son of Cup regular Scott, had a lot to learn this season, and while there were some high points, there were also many low points.
“I think it says that this guy is a serious contender, that he’s serious, that this guy can win and that can be normal because we had a rocky start to the season, no question, but we learned a lot from the ups and downs,” Riggs said. “I’m just happy that we made progress in every race. This is our third top-five finish in a row.”
“It’s a short distance, but we’re still figuring everything out. I didn’t think this first win would come so quickly. It surprised me and I hope it shows people that they should start paying a little more attention.”
He wore it for the first seven months of the season, but now he hopes to wear down the playoff contenders for a year before hopefully joining them.
“I’ve become really humbled. It just weighs me down, weighs me down. Sometimes you question a lot of things,” Riggs said.
At the final restart at the start of the third stage, Majeski took the lead from Eckes, but was then immediately challenged by Riggs.
Even without the victory, this was a reason for optimism for Majeski.
“I think the fact that we missed it by so much and were so close is super encouraging,” Majeski said. “It means we have a lot of speed in our trucks. It’s just up to us to get the package right. Joe (Shear, crew chief) and I have been working together to develop our Phoenix package and make some changes to it to make it better for Phoenix.”
“I don’t know if we’re quite there yet, but I’m super proud of our run over the last three races. We’re running at full speed right now and super proud of everyone in the shop who worked hard during the Olympic break in Richmond and Milwaukee to improve our trucks. We’re seeing that improvement and I’m happy with where we are right now.”
He points to Phoenix because that’s where the championship will be decided and he intends to make it to the last four.
Eckes also had a chance of winning, but had to settle for third place.
“I was in the lead at the bottom, then it shot up the race track and I couldn’t recover, I was way too close,” said Eckes, who was also able to record a stage win for a good points-scoring day.
He is now leading the playoff standings with a 16-point lead over Majeski. Heim is third, just 19 points behind.
“I’m proud of everyone, but it was a pretty big missed opportunity,” Eckes said.
Results
- Layne Riggs
- Ty Majeski (P)
- Christian Eckes (P)
- Nick Sanchez (P)
- Taylor Gray (P)
- Tyler Ankrum (P)
- Corey Heim (P)
- Daniel Dye (P)
- Ben Rhodes (P)
- Matt Crafton
- Tanner Gray
- Kaden Honeycutt (OP)
- Grant Enfinger (P)
- William Sawalich
- Jack Wood
- Ty Dillon
- Sammy Smith (OP)
- Rajah Caruth (P)
- Dean Thompson
- Stewart Friesen
- Jake Garcia
- Connor Jones
- Chase Purdy
- Matt Mills
- Timmy Hill
- Bret Holmes
- Maurice Maggio
- Spencer Boyd
- Bayley Curry
- Dexter Bean
- Marco Andretti
- Thad Moffitt
- Matthew Gould
- Justin Carroll
- The Outlaw Alan
- Jayson Alexander
