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Layne Riggs pulls off win with last lap pass after dominating first two stages
Friday afternoon was filled with uncertainty around whether or not the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race would actually run on Friday as scheduled. Trucks hit the track for their practice session with rain drops falling, which only interrupted the session briefly. Qualifying was a different story, as rain would hamper the session with only 2/3 of the field setting times. Because of this, Layne Riggs being the points leader, would take the pole with Kaden Honeycutt starting alongside to close out the front row.
Track crews would get the track dry for drivers to stand for the national anthem, but immediately after the rain would start to fall from the sky as shouts to cover the trucks were called out by every crew up and down pit road. After the rain let up, drivers were called back to their trucks at 9:20pm local time and engines were fired at 9:40, followed by a healthy amount of pace laps to let the track drying crew finish their work.
At the drop of the green flag, Layne Riggs would jump out to an early lead and pull away from the field. Riggs would dominate a very uneventful Stage 1. Riggs would once again jump out to a quick lead, which would be negated by a caution on lap 56 for an incident with the No. 42 truck of Tyler Rief in turn 4. Stage 2 would prove quickly to be the most eventful stage of the race as the green flag would wave again on Lap 60 immediately followed by the caution flag being pulled out again before the field was fully out of turn 2 for an incident with the No. 25 truck of Carson Ferguson. Two more caution periods would mare Stage 2 keeping the field from getting too spread out, allowing for a lot of side by side racing and passing.
The final caution flag of Stage 2 on lap 79 would see Rajah Caruth and several other drivers, including Ross Chastain, dive to pit road to gain track position when the leaders would pit with the stage break. This early pit stop would pay off for Rajah Caruth and Ross Chastain as they would share the front row when the green flag flew for the start of Stage 3. Layne Riggs who had dominated the first two stages, would be relegated to starting 10th at the start of the final stage. Riggs would drop as far as 12th position early in the final stage when he had to come back down pit road to address an issue with a bad set of tires on the first caution of the final stage..
The first of two cautions in Stage 3 would come on lap 120 when the No. 11 truck of Kaden Honeycutt stopped on the track in Turn 4 after falling off the pace the lap prior. On the restart the No. 18 truck of Tyler Ankrum would give Rajah Caruth a big push on the restart sending him out to a distant lead of 10-15 truck-lengths before the yellow would wave for the final time on lap 129 for a loose tire at the end of pit road grass which came off of the No. 99 truck of Ben Rhodes.
After final restart Caruth would again jump out to a lead, however now being pressured by the No. 38 truck of Chandler Smith while Layne Riggs quietly made his way back to the front. Riggs would find himself in third position with 7 laps to go in the race and move into second with two laps to go, tracking down Caruth, who wanted to win this race as he was filling in for the late Kyle Busch. this hope quickly went away for Caruth when Riggs made a last lap pass for the win and would cross the strip 0.468 seconds ahead of Caruth. Ross Chastain, Chandler Smith, and Tyler Ankrum would round out the top 5.
“This was probably the best race truck I’ve ever had”, said Riggs. “I knew it in practice it was so dominant. It did everything I wanted it to”, he added.
The Allegiance 200 would see five lead changes among three drivers, and be slowed by eight cautions for 48 laps. Tonights victory marks Riggs third victory of 2026 and eight of his career, his first at Nashville Superspeedway.
