Layne Riggs arrives at the Truck Chase with bad intentions

Layne Riggs capped his 2026 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series regular season with his series-best sixth win of the year, claiming the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon in a dramatic double overtime victory in the regular season finale.

The 24-year-old North Carolinian claimed a .293-second win over his Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith – Riggs’ pole-sitting No. 34 Front Row Ford leading a race high 106 of the 189 laps, including the last 71 through a pair of overtime restarts. It’s his 11th career Truck Series win.

“Statement win, this is awesome,” a grinning Riggs told a thrilled New Hampshire Motor Speedway grandstand, receiving cheers as he spoke about how much he loves racing in New England.

“Thank you to everybody at Front Row Motorsports and Ford racing. I thought I was off a little bit and thought I was in trouble,” Riggs said, of finishing second and third to NASCAR Cup Series regular Connor Zilisch who swept Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the race.

But Riggs credited his team with making the key adjustments to his truck to close out the race and the young talent took it from there in what’s been his most successful season of NASCAR competition.

“One, two, Front Row Motorsports, it’s in the name,” he added of his and Smith’s effort Saturday. “Let’s bring on the Chase. Only got seven [races] left. No mercy.”

Another big winner on the day was McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum, claiming the 10th and final position for the seven-race Chase that will decide the ultimate 2026 season champion. Ankrum persevered after his No. 18 Chevrolet suffered mechanical gremlins mid-race, dropped nearly a lap down but rebounded for a 16th-place finish in the 36-truck field.

Although disappointed with the struggles, the finish was good enough to give Ankrum a seven-point edge over veteran Stewart Friesen and an 11-point edge over Jake Garcia who were vying with him for the final Chase position. Both of those drivers led multiple laps, but ultimately, Ankrum’s points advantage coming into the race was enough cushion to keep him in that final championship transfer position. Friesen’s No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota finished fourth while Garcia’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford was 14th.

Ankrum was excited about making the Chase, but still visibly frustrated with an emotional day full of challenges to get to that point.

“It’s extremely rare you come to a place as fast as this and have no rear brakes and can’t fix the problem,” Ankrum said. “We’ve had adversities like this through the year, and I thought we were done with them. Luckily, Eddie D’Hondt, my spotter, gave me some advice [in the closing laps].

“Definitely did not want to come to New Hampshire and perform like that. Got lucky. Did not perform like we belong in the Chase,” he added, promising in a couple hours he would be able to, “Move on past this and go to the shop and improve and race for the championship.”

Friesen, whose fourth-place run at New Hampshire was his fourth top-five finish in the last five races, was proud of his team effort despite the near miss. A heart-breaking 36th-place finish at Richmond, Va. last week after an early-race crash, essentially made the mathematical difference.

“It was what it was, proud of the Halmar team,” the 42-year-old Friesen said. “We just didn’t bring enough speed all year. We battled today, [crew chief] Bruce [Cook] made a good call to get two tires and up in the front we got the balance pretty close and found a lane I could work with.

“It’s a bummer, I think we’re definitely at top 10 team, we just had some misfortune at Richmond last week and some other times throughout the season. We’ll just go back to work and keep building this team up and get better and better, I promise you that.. … We’ll go back to work and finish the year as strong as we can and bring better stuff for next year.”

TRICON Garage driver Kaden Honeycutt finished third in another remarkable competitive recovery – a tire went down in the opening stage, and he ended up losing a lap but battled back to his 11th top-five on the season. He’ll start the Chase ranked second in the reseeded championship standings, 25 points off Riggs.

Friesen was fourth with Zilisch rounding out the top-five in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – his effort coming the same week he announced big plans to move in 2028 to the championship Hendrick Motorsports organization in the NASCAR Cup Series.

His Spire Motorsports teammate, Tristan McKee continued his impressive work, the 16-year-old answering an eighth-place finish in his series debut last week at Richmond with a sixth-place showing in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet on Saturday.

Christopher Bell, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series New Hampshire winner was seventh with McAnally-Hilgemann’s Daniel Hemric, Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley and Niece Motorsports’ Parker Eatmon rounding out the top-10.

The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series takes a four-week break before starting its seven-race Chase run to the title. Joining Riggs and Honeycutt in that championship run are Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes, TRICON Garage’s Gio Ruggiero, ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, Hemric, three-time series champion ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes, and Ankrum will contend for the season trophy.

The title run begins Sept. 17 with the UNOH 250 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Riggs is the defending race winner.

RACE RESULTS