Spoiler Again: Riggs Doubles Down With Bristol Truck Win

Layne Riggs (left) celebrates with his crew in victory lane Thursday at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Layne Riggs made sure his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series verse in the playoffs was the same as the first Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Riggs bested the Truck Series field – and its 10 championship-eligible contenders – for the second time in as many races, going back-to-back after dominating the closing stages of Thursday night’s UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics.

It took a dominant surge on a lap-121 restart for Riggs to get past then-leader Corey Heim, but once the second-generation driver from Bahama, N.C., put the No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 out in clean air, there was no stopping him.

Riggs led the final 80 laps – most among all drivers in the race – for his second career Truck Series win in 24 starts. He’s also the first Truck Series playoff spoiler in consecutive races since the inception of the elimination format.

“We have just learned so much with the trucks and my team. Dillon [], my crew chief, he’s bad ass. He works so hard at night … and we’re a young team. I think [our] average age is in the 20s, so it’s so amazing to be doing what we’re doing,” said Riggs.

“To be running fifth or 10th and then all of a sudden go back-to-back in the playoffs? Man, I wish I was in the playoffs so bad,” he added. “I think we’d be a real threat to win this championship.”

The first two 55-lap stages ran virtually without incident, with polesitter Connor Zilisch leading the first 41 laps before a three-way scrum between Zilisch, Heim, and Rajah Caruth ended in Caruth taking the first stage win of his career at the end of stage one.

Timmy Hill stayed out at the first stage break to lead the field back to green at lap 66, but was immediately overhauled by Heim, who led all but one lap from that point to easily capture stage two.

Coming to the finish of the second stage, Zilisch was spun out of the top 10 by quasi-teammate Nick Sanchez, stalling out in turn four and bringing out a quick caution flag to end the segment.

Layne Riggs (38) battles Corey Heim Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

It was at that point that Riggs’ truck came to life. He actually restarted on the outside of the second row, behind Heim’s leading Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, but immediately knifed his way to second in turns one and two and carried such a run of momentum on the outside lane that Heim couldn’t hold him back.

Riggs led by a half truck length at the flagstand, cleared Heim completely on lap 122, and never trailed again.

He survived two late restarts – one after a lap-157 incident between Kaden Honeycutt and Daniel Dye and a second after Jack Wood spun in turn four with 19 laps left – and pulled away each time.

Heim fell back into a battle with Caruth late, ending up second in a side-by-side battle to the line, with Caruth, Eckes, and Sanchez closing out the top five.

Sixth through 10th were Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ty Majeski, Stewart Friesen, and Tyler Ankrum.

William Sawalich, who started inside the top 10 after winning the ARCA Menards Series race and the ARCA East championship earlier in the day, faded to 11th by the checkered flag.

Sprint car and midget young gun Corey Day stayed on the lead lap all night and came home 18th.

Zilisch fought back to 19th after his issues at the end of stage two, while playoff contender Dye was six laps down in 32nd after his damage in the final quarter of the race.

With one race to go in the Round of 10, Eckes, Heim, and Sanchez are all locked into the next round on points, while Grant Enfinger is the last driver currently in on points, seven above the cutline.

Dye and defending series champion Ben Rhodes are the two drivers in jeopardy of elimination heading to the Kubota Tractor 200 at Kansas Speedway on Friday night, Sept. 27 (8:30 p.m., FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).