The two men at the top of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night with very different agendas. Kaden Honeycutt wanted to protect his lead in the Chase. Layne Riggs wanted to take a bite out of it.
By the time the checkered flag waved, Riggs had done considerably more than nibble.
The driver of the No. 34 Ford powered his way to victory in Friday night’s race, repeating his win at Charlotte from May and cutting 20 points from Honeycutt’s advantage in the championship fight. It was a night that featured aggressive racing, strategic pit stops, a lengthy red flag and enough late-race chaos to make a demolition derby look like a Sunday drive.
And when the dust finally settled, Riggs was the one celebrating.
Honeycutt, the points leader entering the race, made his intentions clear early. Starting from the front row, he battled polesitter Connor Mosack before taking the lead on Lap 4. With the championship lead to protect, a strong run looked like precisely what the doctor ordered.
Riggs, however, had other plans.
Starting 13th, the defending Charlotte winner wasted little time working his way through the field. By Lap 15, he had stormed to the front and taken the lead, putting the two championship contenders on opposite sides of the equation.
Riggs spent the remainder of the opening stage working his way through lapped traffic, looking every bit like a driver who had unfinished business at the track. He eventually found enough breathing room to take the stage victory over Honeycutt by nearly a second.
That gave Riggs the first punch in what was shaping up to be a heavyweight fight for the championship lead.
But racing is a game of inches, and sometimes those inches are gained or lost while the trucks are sitting still.
Riggs led the field onto pit road at the end of Stage 1 but emerged in fifth place after his crew’s stop. Honeycutt, meanwhile, came away with the lead and brought the field back to green on Lap 37 to start Stage 2.
This time, Riggs couldn’t simply put his foot down and charge through the field as though the trucks ahead of him were parked at the grocery store.
He lost ground before eventually reclaiming second place from Rajah Caruth on Lap 51. By then, Honeycutt had built a 1.6-second advantage. Riggs began chipping away at it, but the leader held firm, denying Riggs a sweep of the stages by 1.2 seconds.
Honeycutt had managed to limit the damage, at least for the moment.
The next round of pit stops went more favorably for Riggs. He lost only two positions and returned to the track in fourth. His fortunes improved further when teammate Chandler Smith was penalized for an equipment violation, moving Riggs up to third for the restart.
Honeycutt once again led the field to green on Lap 68, but the final stage was where the fight really began to heat up.
Riggs moved into second by Lap 77 and, three laps later, finally caught Honeycutt. For the first time all evening, the championship rivals were nose-to-tail with the lead hanging in the balance.
Then, on Lap 86, the race took another turn.
Mosack and Brent Crews were battling for fourth when Crews got loose underneath Mosack. The resulting contact sent both trucks into the outside wall. No caution followed, and Crews was able to make his way to pit road.
With the leaders still needing to make their final green-flag pit stops, the race settled into a waiting game. Rajah Caruth became the first among the leading group to pit on Lap 97, seemingly setting the stage for the rest of the field to follow.
Stewart Friesen had a different idea.
Friesen struck the wall twice, with the second impact leaving debris scattered across the track. NASCAR threw the caution, ending the prospect of green-flag stops and giving the leaders an opportunity to pit under yellow.
For Riggs, the timing worked out nicely. He lost just one position during the stops and lined up alongside Honeycutt for the restart, putting the two championship contenders exactly where everyone wanted them: together, with the race on the line.
With 29 laps remaining, Honeycutt won the drag race to the restart line and took command. Bayley Currey held Riggs up long enough to give the leader some breathing room, but Riggs eventually worked his way into second and began hunting Honeycutt again.
For a few laps, it looked as though Riggs might have another charge in him. Then his truck appeared to lose some of the speed that had carried him to the front earlier in the evening. Honeycutt stretched his advantage to 1.5 seconds, while Currey began closing on Riggs for second.
Kris Wright provided a temporary reprieve for the pursuers when he hit the wall on Lap 114, bringing out the race’s fourth caution and wiping away Honeycutt’s hard-earned advantage.
Three laps later, the race went from tense to downright ridiculous.
Caruth suffered a flat tire entering Turn 3 on Lap 117. His Chevrolet slowed abruptly, triggering a multi-truck accident that collected eight trucks. Among them was polesitter Mosack, whose heavily damaged machine came to rest near the entrance to pit road with flames trailing behind it.
The wreck brought out the red flag with 15 laps remaining, leaving the championship contenders with precious little time to settle their differences.
After a red-flag stoppage of nearly 13 minutes and several additional caution laps, the field finally returned to green with 11 laps remaining.
Honeycutt held the lead as Riggs steadily closed the gap. With seven laps to go, Riggs was back on Honeycutt’s bumper and made his move down the frontstretch, giving the leader a shove as the two raced toward Turn 1.
The message was clear. Riggs wasn’t interested in settling for second.
Coming out of Turn 4, Honeycutt moved up the track to block the charging Ford but made contact with the wall. The impact slowed his truck just enough for Riggs to shoot past and take the lead.
This time, there would be no catching him.
Riggs powered away over the closing laps to secure his second Charlotte victory of the season, turning a night that began with a 20-point deficit to Honeycutt into a significant championship gain.
Christian Eckes finished second, just 0.596 seconds behind Riggs, while Honeycutt managed to salvage third after the late-race contact. Currey came home fourth, and Chandler Smith rallied from his penalty to finish fifth.
For Honeycutt, the night was a reminder that protecting a championship lead is one thing. Keeping a determined rival behind you when he’s got the faster truck is quite another.
Riggs arrived at Charlotte looking to chip away at the deficit. He left with the trophy, a second victory at the same track in a single season and 20 fewer points separating him from the top of the standings.
Honeycutt still had the lead.
But after Friday night, Riggs had made it abundantly clear that he intended to take it.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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