Layne Riggs earned the No. 1 seed for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase that Tyler Ankrum eked into with the No. 10 seed.
LOUDON, N.H. -- Layne Riggs earned the No. 1 seed for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase that Tyler Ankrum eked into with the No. 10 seed.
Riggs earned his sixth win of the 2026 NCTS season Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The driver of Front Row Motorsports' No. 34 Ford led 106 of 189 laps and won over teammate Chandler Smith in overtime.
TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 189): Riggs, Smith (led 10 laps), Kaden Honeycutt, Stewart Friesen (led four laps), Connor Zilisch (led 55 laps), Tristan McKee, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, Parker Eatmon.
- Honeycutt had a flat tire and finished 32nd, one lap down, in the first stage.
- Zilisch swept both stages.
- McKee earned his second NCTS top-10 in as many starts, at age 16.
- Bell came back from spinning on lap 132.
- Eatmon earned first NCTS top-10 in fifth career start.
The Race for the Chase
Ankrum made the Chase by seven points over Stewart Friesen and 11 points over Jake Garcia. He finished 16th while Garcia finished 14th and Friesen finished fourth.
Ankrum struggled all weekend but especially in the race. Multiple pit stops to diagnose a possible brake issue meant he ran outside of the top-20 for much of the race while Garcia and Friesen took swings at trying to get into the Chase from below the cutline.
Coming into the race, Ankrum was 20 points above the cutline, ahead of Friesen. Meanwhile, Garcia was 21 points behind Ankrum.
After finishing ninth and being the only driver on the cutline to earn stage points in the first stage, Garcia jumped to the lead during the stage break after his team made a two-tire call. Garcia led for a while and then maintained well enough to finish fifth in the second stage.
In the second stage, Friesen finished 10th and earned a stage point. The second stage break was his team's turn to take a swing at a two-tire call while Garcia went to the rear of the field with a penalty for pitting outside of the box.
Friesen restarted with the lead but quickly lost it to Layne Riggs. Still, Friesen was in a Chase spot over Garcia and Ankrum, who were well outside of the top-15.
However, Garcia and Ankrum weren't done. In the closing laps, they ate away at Friesen's advantage while Friesen lost positions. The gap closed all the way down to Ankrum being one point ahead of Friesen, who was tied with Garcia when a caution for Gavan Boschele wrecking sent the race into overtime.
The preceding green flag run brought many drivers to pit road but not Ankrum. He stayed out and finished 16th to claim the final Chase spot.
"It's very rare I get to come to a place as fast as this and you don't have rear brakes and you can't fix the problem," Ankrum said, noting spotter Eddie D'Hondt gave him advice that helped him manage the race. "I got lucky but I didn't perform how I wanted to."
2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Standings and Schedule
2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Standings
- Layne Riggs 2100
- Kaden Honeycutt 2075
- Chandler Smith 2065
- Christian Eckes 2060
- Gio Ruggiero 2055
- Ty Majeski 2050
- Grant Enfinger 2045
- Daniel Hemric 2040
- Ben Rhodes 2035
- Tyler Ankrum 2030
2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Schedule (with notes):
- Bristol Motor Speedway: September 17 (Chase driver Layne Riggs won last year)
- Kansas Speedway: September 26
- Charlotte Motor Speedway: October 9 (Chase driver Layne Riggs won in the spring)
- Phoenix Raceway: October 16 (Kaden Honeycutt's No. 11 team won last year)
- Talladega Superspeedway: October 23 (Chase driver Gio Ruggiero won last year)
- Martinsville Speedway: October 30 (Kaden Honeycutt's No. 11 team won last year)
- Homestead-Miami Speedway: November 6 (Kaden Honeycutt's No. 11 team led the most laps last year)
