Let it be known that I am not picking Layne Riggs to win Friday’s (Aug. 14) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway. Instead, I’m picking his main competitor for the championship and the man who enters Friday’s race 100 points back of Riggs in the standings: Kaden Honeycutt.
Both drivers are short track aces, but the TRICON No. 11 team won at Richmond last year with Corey Heim.
With that said, I’ll pose a question: Can Riggs lock up the regular season title and the No. 1 Chase seed on Friday?
The short answer is yes, though he’ll have to make me look stupid for not picking him in order to do it. A Honeycutt win could keep the No. 11 team within striking distance, which is technically 75 points, of Riggs going into the Aug. 22 regular season finale at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It should be noted that the No. 11 team and Heim also won at NHMS last year, while Riggs finished third.
Still, clinching the No. 1 Chase seed on Friday would save a week of headache for the No. 34 team going into the postseason and allow them to focus on simply winning at New Hampshire, or even potentially experimenting with adjustments or setups at the ‘Magic Mile’ ahead of the Chase.
Even if Honeycutt wins and scores a maximum 76 points by sweeping the stages and laying down the fastest lap of the night, Riggs could still clinch the regular season title by finishing second and scoring 18 stage points. With the way he and Honeycutt have been driving this year, a 1-2 finish in both stages and the race isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
If Honeycutt doesn’t win the race, of course, the math is much more favorable to Riggs. If he loses 23 points or less to Honeycutt on Friday, he’ll have the No. 1 seed sewn up. Even in a worst case scenario where Honeycutt maxes out on points and Riggs only scores one, he’d still have a solid 25-point cushion going into New Hampshire.
Suffice to say, the No. 1 seed is Riggs’ to lose. Honeycutt snagging it would take a miracle.
Other points standing tidbits
The bubble is very entertaining
It may not be the O’Reilly bubble, where three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates will be fighting for a postseason berth at Daytona on Aug. 28, but several big names are around the Truck cut line with two races left in the regular season. Stewart Friesen is trying to make The Chase after suffering a horrific injury last year, but only has a eight-point advantage over Tyler Ankrum. Ankrum’s teammate, Daniel Hemric, is in ninth and only has a 14-point buffer to the cut line.
Twelfth-place Jake Garcia (-32) fell off a cliff over the summer, and both Brenden Queen (-43) and Justin Haley (-59) are, barring a miracle, too far back to make a serious run at getting RAM and Kaulig a Chase berth in its return to the Truck Series.
The most entertaining battle in regard to Chase seeding on Friday will be between fourth-place Christian Eckes and fifth-place Gio Ruggiero, who are only separated by five points. Eckes has been solid this season but nowhere near as good as he was in 2024, when he and Heim duked it out for the championship in a wildly entertaining Truck Series season. The No. 91 team is a sneaky championship contender, but a win at Richmond on Friday would be quite the statement from Eckes.
Still, don’t be surprised if Friday’s race turns into a fun battle between Honeycutt and Riggs, with the former aiming to not let the latter off the hook with the No. 1 seed just yet.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.