What a wild way to wrap up a regular season. Layne Riggs cemented his dominance in the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series by taking his series-best sixth win of the year at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. The 24-year-old North Carolinian didn't just win; he survived a dramatic double overtime finish to claim the Team EJP 175 in absolute style.
Driving the pole-sitting No. 34 Front Row Ford, Riggs led a race-high 106 of the 189 laps. That included the final 71 circuits through a nerve-wracking pair of overtime restarts, ultimately taking a 0.293-second victory over none other than his Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith. It marks the 11th career Truck Series win for Riggs.
"Statement win, this is awesome," a grinning Riggs told the crowd, though he admitted he thought he was in trouble early on after finishing second and third in the stages to NASCAR Cup Series regular Connor Zilisch, who swept Stages 1 and 2 in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Thankfully, his team dialed in the adjustments, and Riggs brought home a stunning one-two punch for Front Row Motorsports. "Let's bring on the Chase. Only got seven [races] left. No mercy," Riggs added.
Further back in the 36-truck field, the battle for the final postseason spot was pure tension. Tyler Ankrum of McAnally-Hilgemann Racing grabbed the 10th and final position for the seven-race Chase despite a nightmare afternoon. Ankrum's No. 18 Chevrolet suffered mechanical gremlins mid-race, dropping him nearly a lap down before he fought back to a 16th-place finish. That was just enough to secure a seven-point edge over veteran Stewart Friesen and an 11-point advantage over Jake Garcia.
It was a heartbreaker for Friesen, whose No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota finished fourth—his fourth top-five finish in the last five races. The 43-year-old put the blame on a lack of speed all year and a disastrous 36-th place finish at Richmond last week following an early crash. Meanwhile, Garcia's hopes in the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford faded to 14th after a costly penalty for pitting outside the box during the Stage 2 intermission.
Elsewhere on track, Kaden Honeycutt of Tricon Garage delivered a remarkable recovery in his machine, bouncing back from a flat tire in the opening stage that cost him a lap to finish third—his 11th top-five of the season. He heads into the Chase ranked second in the reseeded standings, 25 points behind Riggs. Tristan McKee, the 16-year-old driving the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, kept up his brilliant form with a sixth-place showing following his eighth-place finish in his series debut last week at Richmond.
Rounding out the top positions, Christopher Bell was seventh, followed by McAnally-Hilgemann's Daniel Hemric, Kaulig Racing's Justin Haley, and Niece Motorsports' Parker Eatmon in the top 10. The Craftsman Truck Series now enjoys a four-week break before the seven-race Chase kicks off at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, Sept. 17. Post-race inspection in the garage cleared Riggs as the official winner, though the No. 9 truck picked up a penalty for an unsafe lug nut, losing its pit selection for the opener.
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