UPDATE: Layne Riggs failed post-race inspection due to a faulty bed cover. As a result, Riggs has been disqualified and will officially be credited with a 31st-place finish. Riggs also loses the bonus point for setting the joint fastest lap of the race as well as his stage points. Front Row Motorsports has not commented on the DQ.
Carson Hocevar held off a hard-charging Layne Riggs in the closing laps to claim his fifth-career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Kansas Speedway.
The victory didn’t come without a fight. Contact with Riggs sent both drivers sliding into the wall between turns 1 and 2 on the last lap, but third-place William Byron was too far back and Hocevar was able to recover first and get to the finish line to claim the win.
Riggs settled for second after his valiant late charge fell just short. The second-generation star chased Hocevar down by riding the high lane in the closing laps, but couldn’t get back to the gas first when contact slowed them both on the last lap.
Byron came home third, while Corey Heim overcame a late penalty to finish fourth. Giovanni Ruggiero completed the top five after a solid run, with Stewart Friesen, Brandon Jones, Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt and Grant Enfinger rounding out the top ten.
A chaotic opening lap led to a familiar face taking the lead, with Heim surging forward as defending champion Ty Majeski slowed behind him and Tyler Ankrum made significant contact with the wall. While Majeski would have to pit for what turned out to be a flat tire, he would quickly catch a break when a caution flew at lap 4 for a Dawson Sutton spin.
As Heim set sail out front, another caution flew towards the end of stage one when Luke Baldwin contacted the wall. Heim pitted and pulled nearly all other lead lap drivers with him, setting up a two-lap dash to the end of the stage. In the end, Heim held off Rajah Caruth, Enfinger, Hocevar, and Chandler Smith to claim the playoff point.
While chaos defined the race’s opening stint, the second segment played out much more by-the-book. Heim led from the jump through a caution for a Cody Dennison spin with 10 laps left in the stage. It was then that a slow pitstop for Heim due to a broken pit gun allowed Hocevar to gain the race lead for the first time.
Although Enfinger temporarily slipped past him on the ensuing restart, Hocevar would rebound to claim the lead and take stage two.
When the final stage began, Hocevar held the lead while Heim fought hard to regain lost ground. With the final pit cycle fast approaching, Heim had worked his way back up inside the top five and into contention for the win.
With Hocevar appearing to fade over the long run, several frontrunners behind him opted to pit a lap sooner to try to capitalize on Hocevar’s struggles and cycle out ahead of him with an undercut. But those plans were foiled when a Frankie Muniz spin prompted a caution with those drivers on pit road, just after Hocevar ducked in for his service. This caution pinned those drivers in pursuit of Hocevar a lap down, forcing them to take the wave around and restart at the rear of the field.
Hocevar held serve up front on the restart while Byron, Friesen, Enfinger, and others gave chase. Heim would encounter yet another setback as a restart violation and the subsequent pass-through penalty sent him to the back of the field. Luckily for Heim, a quick caution for an incident involving Connor Mosack and Bayley Currey caught him up to the field with a short run to the checkered flag to regain ground.
As Heim barreled through the field back towards the top-ten once the green flag flew, it was Riggs who was marching his way to the front. In the closing stages, the Front Row Motorsports star disposed of Friesen and Byron to set his sights on Hocevar in the final 10 laps.
Making time right up against the wall, Riggs closed fast on Hocevar and finally got within striking distance as the leaders took the white flag. With a big run into turn one, Riggs ducked below Hocevar as the Spire Motorsports star pinched him down into the corner. The pair came together from there and Hocevar survived for his first NASCAR national win since 2023.
The Truck Series will be back in action at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 17.
