LONG POND — Layne Riggs’ second visit to Pocono Raceway was a lot more enjoyable than his first trip.
Riggs took the lead when two of the top contenders had issues late and led the final 20 laps to win the 16th annual Miller Tech Battery 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday evening at Pocono Raceway.
It is Riggs’ first win of the season in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford and punches his ticket into the Truck Series playoffs over the final seven races. It also is his third career Trucks win in 43 starts.
He joins his father as a Pocono winner. Former Cup Series driver Scott Riggs won an ARCA Series race at the 2.5-mile triangular track in June 2004.
“I was two years old then. I’ve looked at that trophy on top of the basement refrigerator for a long time, so it’s really cool to kind of bring all that back together,” Riggs said. “Also, the connection to South Boston Speedway and the Mattioli family. Racing there and getting the Late Model championship there in 2022 that ultimately propelled me to my opportunity to race at a national series level. To now win at their sister big track is a real feat.”
Last year in his Pocono debut, Riggs crashed his primary truck during practice and finished the race 30th in a backup truck.
“I like this place now. I didn’t really like it last year, not because of the facility but because of our luck,” Riggs said. “But it made it all worth it. The bad experience last year, the way it was kind of a dismal day, it was all worth it being able to have the performance that we had today. I feel like our trucks are a lot better. We came with a lot different package than we did last year. We’re just getting smarter as a race team and figuring out what it takes to be better at all of the tracks, not a certain select couple.”
Tanner Gray placed second to Riggs in the No. 15 Toyota, 3.640 seconds back. Kaden Honeycutt was third in the No. 45 Chevrolet, followed by Brandon Jones in the No. 1 Toyota and Daniel Hemric in the No. 19 Chevrolet.
Series points leader and last year’s race champion Corey Heim appeared to have the truck to beat, leading 48 laps. However, a flat tire just before the final restart with 20 laps to go cost him a shot at his fifth victory of the season.
Then, on that restart, another fast truck driven by Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar was penalized for a restart violation.
“It was very odd. A lot went on in a 25-30-second range,” Riggs said. “My spotter asked me if the 11 (Heim) had a flat. From the left side, no, but it was on the right side. I hated that for them. They had a good race going, probably the best truck in the race. I was excited to battle it out at the end with them, so I hate that that didn’t work.”
There was some confusion coming to the restart zone over who was the control truck, Riggs or Hocevar.
“At the last second, my spotter said, ‘You’re the control truck,’” Riggs said. “Right when he said that, he took off. So I took off, too. Just a lot of confusion. I really hated that it ended like that. I really wanted to battle it out with him there at the end. We had the better long-run truck versus him. I think it would have been a little more gratifying of a win if it would have been a straight-up pass at the end. But racing is a lot about luck. We were good and we had a little bit of luck on our side today. Rather be lucky than good.”
As the race wound down, Riggs ran some of the fastest laps in the race to comfortably take the checkered flag ahead of Gray.
“I felt like I was at least matching lap times for a second there,” Gray said. “Then he just kind of pulled away from me. From what it seemed, he and the 11 (Heim) were the best trucks all day. I don’t know if we had the pace to match them. We weren’t too far behind. Just happy to have a solid day. We’ve kind of struggled the past month or so. It just feels good to finally put a full day together.”
In qualifying earlier Friday afternoon, Riggs led the way with a lap of 169.409 mph in 53.126 seconds. It was his first career pole.
On the opening lap of the race, Riggs, Heim and No. 2 qualifier Honeycutt went three wide into Turn 2 with Heim emerging as the leader, where he stayed for the first 18 laps before pitting right before the end of the first stage.
Cody Dennison caused the first stage to end under caution when he hit the wall in Turn 1 on Lap 19. Riggs won Stage 1.
Stewart Friesen elected to stay out during the caution between stages and led when the green flag dropped to start Stage 2 on Lap 27. But Heim passed him exiting Turn 3 to take the lead and stay there the rest of the way to win the second 20-lap stage. It is his 12th stage win, setting a single-season record.
Rajah Caruth did not pit during that caution period and was in the lead when the third and final stage started on Lap 47. But again, Heim reclaimed the lead before the lap was completed.
On Lap 48, the caution flag flew for a crash in Turn 2 involving Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, Clayton Green, Dawson Sutton, Conner Jones and Ben Rhodes. Just as the race restarted on Lap 56, the yellow came out again when Jake Garcia spun in Turn 1.
It was during the final lap of that caution, as the field came around preparing to take the green, that Heim radioed to his crew that he had a right rear flat tire and was forced to surrender the lead.
With Riggs becoming the seventh driver to win, just three of the 10 playoff spots remain for nonwinners with four regular-season races remaining. Enfinger is 50 points above the cutline, Honeycutt 45 and Ty Majeski is on the bubble, 10 points ahead of Garcia.
“We had a good day today. Unfortunately, we didn’t have winning speed to go up there and race with the 11 and the 34,” Honeycutt said. “But still a great job by our guys. One more nonlocked-in guy won today, so we’ll definitely have to work hard to make sure we can do that the next couple weeks.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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