After dominating early and losing track position mid-race, a pit strategy gamble paid off for Layne Riggs, giving the No. 34 team their second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in a rain-delayed race during the early hours of Saturday (May 30) morning. It is Riggs’ third win this season, and seventh in his Truck Series career.
“Dylan (Cappello) made the right adjustments there, got me the tires, he got me the motivation,” Riggs told FOX Sports on the frontstretch after the race, praising his crew chief. “Drove it to the front.”
Rajah Caruth was leading in the closing laps, but was unable to hold off Riggs on newer tires. Caruth ultimately finished second.
“I was trying to make this thing as wide as possible,” Caruth said on the FOX Sports 1 broadcast.
Riggs’ teammate, Chandler Smith, finished third. Ross Chastain and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five.
Stewart Friesen, on the same strategy as Riggs, wound up sixth. Grant Enfinger and Christian Eckes finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Gio Ruggiero, another truck that took tires with 29 laps to go, finished ninth, with Daniel Dye finishing 10th.
Riggs started on pole and led every lap in stage one en route to the stage win.
Stage two opened with a spin from Tyler Reif. During the following restart, Carson Ferguson spun in turns 1 and 2. One lap after the next restart, Tanner Gray, Jesse Love and Jake Garcia tangled, inflicting heavy damage on each of their trucks. Despite challenges on the restarts from Kaden Honeycutt and Eckes, Riggs held onto the lead for the entirety of the second stage.
During the stage two caution, Riggs lost the lead in the pits due to other trucks staying out, as well as trucks not taking four tires. Caruth grabbed the lead on the restart. Honeycutt, a truck that had pitted during the stage break, was climbing to the front when his No. 11 truck lost power, bringing out the yellow when he stalled coming to pit road. With less than 30 laps to go, Riggs and a handful of other trucks came into the pits for fresh tires.
Caruth continued to lead until a caution for Ben Rhodes’ detached tire set up a restart inside of 20 laps to go. Chastain stayed on the outside of Caruth for nearly a lap before the No. 7 cleared Chastain. Smith overtook Chastain for second before he applied pressure on Caruth. Riggs moved into third and began to chase down the leaders. With eight laps to go, he was over two seconds back. With four laps to go, the No. 34 was within reach of the top two.
With two laps to go, Riggs moved his way into second. Caruth defended the best he could, but the tire disadvantage on the No. 7 was clear. Riggs sent it to the outside coming to the white flag, and sailed by Caruth in turns 1 and 2.
Riggs moves into the lead of the Truck Series standings, taking it from Honeycutt, who now trails by 37 points. Garcia drops outside The Chase cutoff, while Daniel Hemric has crept into the top 10.
2026 NASCAR Truck Series Nashville Results
The next stop on the truck series schedule is Michigan, where coverage will kick off on FS1 at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, June 6th.
