With just a few laps to go, Kaden Honeycutt slid up into the wall and his title rival Layne Riggs snatched the win away in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Riggs now has seven wins this year, and 12 in his NCTS career. He is now just 17 points behind Honeycutt in the battle for the 2026 championship.
“I love that,” exclaimed Riggs after the race. “Let’s go guys. Let’s go! Thank you everybody. We really needed that one. Thank you for showing out tonight. Man, that was a hell of a battle there at the end with me and the 11. That was a lot of fun. So, thank you to everybody on this … This thing was fast tonight. I think I had to pass the 11 like three or four times. I think we got still work on pit road. That was definitely a weakness still, but kept driving to the front.”
Riggs said that he has “pressured himself” to get the win at Kansas and made a mistake, but he entered Charlotte with a different mindset. “Today, I didn’t have any pressure. I just went out and wheeled it. Ran it like a C-Fixed race on iRacing. Had a badass time. It was a great race.”
Christian Eckes finished second, Honeycutt fell back to third, Bayley Currey fourth, and Chandler Smith fifth.
Daniel Hemric, Landen Lewis, Andres Perez, Tyler Ankrum, and Justin Haley filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Stages 1 & 2
Mosack led the field to the green flag in his Kyle Busch tribute truck, but Honeycutt quickly found a way by. His title rival Riggs started back in 13th, but he made quick work of the field.
Partway through the stage, he ran Honeycutt down and after a spirited battle with a little contact, drove right on by.
Riggs went on to win Stage 1, followed by Honeycutt, C. Smith, Eckes, Mosack, Enfinger, Caruth, Tan. Gray, Crews, and Currey.
During the stage break, the pit road woes that have plagued Front Row Motorsports during the Chase continued as Riggs fell to fifth. His teammate Smith also suffered a penalty and had to go to the rear of the field.
Honeycutt dominated the stage, winning Stage 2 over Riggs, C. Smith, Caruth, Eckes, Crews, Currey, Tan. Gray, Enfinger, and Hemric.
Stage 3
Layne Riggs, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports
Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images
It was a very clean race as the final stage got underway, with Honeycutt continuing to control the race. However, Riggs ran him down and took the lead with 54 to go.
Back in the pack, Crews slid up into Mosack, sending both trucks into the outside wall. The race stayed green but both had to make a pit stop for repairs.
As the final round of green-flag pit stops got underway, a caution interrupted things as Friesen slammed the wall. He had to make repairs after an incident in qualifying, so it was his second incident of the day in the Kyle Busch tribute No. 52.
C. Smith, Caruth, Enfinger, Mosack, and Ruggiero were among several trucks who had pitted and now needed to take the wave-around.
In the pit stops that followed, Honeycutt took the lead back and held the top spot through the restart. There was a caution for Kris Wright, setting up another restart with Riggs trying to challenge Honeycutt.
Behind them, Caruth suddenly lost speed with an apparent tire going down, and it quickly escalated into a multi-truck pileup. Both Spire trucks of Caruth and Mosack were completely destroyed, and the race was red-flagged.
Honeyman, Ruggiero, and T. Hill were among those also collected in the wreck. The red flag lasted nearly 30 minutes for cleanup in Turns 3 and 4.
The race finally resumed with 15 laps to go, and Honeycutt immediately went on the defensive with Riggs pressuring. They drove all over the track, but the battle ended as Honeycutt slid up into the wall, opening the door for Riggs to sneak by and take the victory.
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