In A Nutshell
Layne Riggs recovered from a spin on lap 1 to take the win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series UNOH 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday night (Sept. 11).
The win locks Riggs into the Round of 8, joining Corey Heim in doing so. It’s also back-to-back fall Bristol victories for the 23-year-old. While Riggs didn’t lead the most laps thanks to the lap 1 spin, it became clear by the end of stage one that the No. 34 was not going to be denied.
The Top Truckers at Bristol Motor Speedway
Winner: Layne Riggs
Polesitter, Stage 1 Winner, Fastest Lap (15.658 seconds, 122.544 mph: Jake Garcia
Stage 2 Winner, Most Laps Led (122 of 250): Corey Heim
Biggest Mover: Ben Rhodes (started 19th, finished second)
Top Storylines of the Race
- Only one driver performed double duty on the day, competing in both the Truck Series race and the ARCA Menards Series national/East combination race hours earlier. That was Brent Crews, who won the ARCA race before immediately strapping into a truck.
- Two drivers who have made a name for themselves on the short-track scene made their NASCAR national series debuts at Bristol — coincidentally, both of them are Canadian. Those drivers were Treyten Lapcevich, the 2023 NASCAR Canada Series champion, driving the No. 02 for Young’s Motorsports, and ASA Stars National Tour ace Cole Butcher, driving the second part-time Halmar Friesen Racing No. 62 truck. Butcher finished 23rd, outperforming Lapcevich, who finished 32nd.
- Rookie of the Year contender Frankie Muniz remains sidelined with a distal radius fracture from falling off a ladder. Mason Maggio once again drove the No. 33 Reaume Brothers Racing truck in Muniz’s stead.
- With 37 trucks on the entry list, that meant the race would have a driver fail to qualify for the first time since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Unfortunately, Clay Greenfield was the odd one out and was sent home. Ironically, Greenfield was a driver who was able to qualify for the race at Daytona.
The Winning Move
To understand how Riggs won the race, we have to go all the way back to the first lap of the race.
Riggs started seventh, but after one lap, he was last due to contact with Corey Day. Riggs found himself on the bottom of a three-wide situation and clipped Day, sending the No. 34 sliding.
Riggs and his Front Row Motorsports team never quit, and it was a quick rebound as Riggs finished in the top 10 at the end of stage one to gain stage points.
From there, Riggs continually worked his way to the front, engaging in a fierce battle with season-rival Heim, which the No. 11 won to pocket yet another playoff point.
Riggs then took the lead in the final stage from Butcher, who stayed out on a strategy play, on what would be the final restart of the race. Despite a lengthy battle with Ben Rhodes, Riggs was able to hang on and pull away for the victory.
Playoff Rundown
Riggs and Heim were two of just a few playoff drivers without issues at Bristol. Riggs’ teammate Chandler Smith had some sort of electrical issue that caused him to finish 14 laps down. Polesitter and stage 1 winner Jake Garcia had an issue with power and finished 31 laps down.
Grant Enfinger was busted for speeding on pit road on the final stop of the night and had to start from the rear, from which he never truly recovered. Tyler Ankrum was turned by Kaden Honeycutt right at the beginning of stage two, again from which Ankrum couldn’t truly recover — though Honeycutt did approach Ankrum after the race and apologized.
All that to say, aside from the four playoff drivers who finished in the top five, as well as Rajah Caruth (who stayed out of trouble despite a 15th-place finish), it seemed to be a rough night for the other half of the playoff field.
Therefore, heading into the final race of the Round of 10, Riggs and Heim are about the only drivers truly safe, because they’re locked in on wins. Though some are likely feeling more confident about their chances of moving on than others.
Smith and Garcia are the two on the outside looking in, with Caruth sitting as the last driver in the Round of 8 as it stands. Garcia trails Caruth by just 14 points, while Smith is a slightly-more-dire 24 points back.
But if one of those two end up going to victory lane next week, who knows how the points will shake out.
Rookie Report
Rookie of the Race: Connor Mosack continues to make the Rookie of the Year battle interesting! A seventh-place finish for the No. 81 led all the rookies, and his finish, combined with stage points earned, results in Mosack closing the gap on Rookie of the Year points leader Gio Ruggiero by another two points. The performance Mosack showed Thursday is enough to earn him this week’s Rookie of the Race.
No. 1 — Brent Crews (24th)
No. 02 — Treyten Lapcevich (32nd)
No. 2 — Clayton Green (36th)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger* (26th)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero* (13th)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton* (17th)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz* (out with injury)
No. 35 — Greg Van Alst (29th)
No. 44 — Andres Perez* (eighth)
No. 62 — Cole Butcher (23rd)
No. 74 — Caleb Costner (35th)
No. 77 — Corey LaJoie (ninth)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack* (seventh)
*Denotes 2025 Rookie of the Year contender
One Big Takeaway From This Race
This was the first time in a very long time (at least that I can remember) where, despite leading the most laps, Heim didn’t come up with the win on speed alone.
There have been plenty of times this season where Heim has led the most laps and lost the race due to something outside of his control, particularly crashes. But Bristol was one that Heim lost on pure speed. He couldn’t hold a candle to Riggs once the No. 34 got ahead of him.
For the first time seemingly all season, the No. 11 team looked beatable.
Maybe it’s an instant overreaction to the race — after all, Heim still managed to pocket another stage point and still had pace before he got mired in traffic. But that’s just it — Heim isn’t used to racing through traffic because he’s always no lower than second or third.
Who’s to say that if Heim makes it to Phoenix and loses the title, it’s because he got caught in traffic and couldn’t pass them? It’s not like he was put back there due to a mistake by his pit crew or a spin — Bristol was just a product of other guys playing strategy and the pure speed of Riggs’ truck.
Again, maybe it’s an overreaction. But if Heim comes up short of the title just because he gets mired in traffic and can’t battle for the lead, we can point back to this race as a foreshadowing event.
Meanwhile, Riggs showed from his lap 1 spin-to-win that if Front Row Motorsports gives him a truck like he had at Bristol, then watch out, because Heim may have some serious competition for the title.
Talkin’ Truckers
Rhodes charged from 19th to second for much-needed positive result:
Daniel Hemric (fifth) and Caruth (15th) discuss how comfortable they feel in their playoff standings heading into the final race of the Round of 10:
Andres Perez (eighth) and Bayley Currey (19th) discuss a night full of highs like Perez’s eighth-place finish and lows like Currey’s last-lap spin:
Honeycutt (12th) and Ankrum (20th) have no hard feelings going forward after the two came together early in stage two:
Paint Scheme of the Race
It pains this LSU fan to recognize an SEC rival, but Dawson Sutton’s Tennessee Volunteers truck is just too beautiful.
With very few exceptions, Rackley W.A.R. usually shows up to the track with a blue and white truck sponsored by Rackley Roofing and W.A.R. Shocks.
At Bristol, located just over 100 miles from Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, where the No. 15 Volunteers will host the No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 13), Sutton and Rackley donned a very different look, repping bright orange and white to show support for Saturday’s home team.
Rackley W.A.R. once had a shop in Centerville, Tenn. (which is still home to W.A.R. Shocks), so it makes sense that the team, along with the Lebanon native Sutton, wanted to run this beautiful paint scheme.
Oh, and did I mention that ESPN’s classic pregame show College Gameday is coming to Knoxville on Saturday? All the more reason for the No. 26 to support the Vols.
Sutton qualified 12th in this hot rod and finished 17th rocking the Rocky Top outfit.
Next Stop
For the first time since 2017, the Truck Series is going lobstah hunting.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., for 175 laps around the Magic Mile on Sept. 20. Christopher Bell won the last time the Truck Series raced there in 2017, but the restrictions on Cup Series drivers competing in lower series playoffs will prevent Bell from defending his race win.
Coverage for the EJP 175 will begin at approximately noon ET on Saturday, Sept. 20. FOX Sports 1 continues its exclusive television coverage of the Truck Series playoffs, while the NASCAR Racing Network continues its exclusive season-long radio coverage of the Truck Series.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.