NASCAR News: Riggs wins NASCAR Truck race at Pocono

Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs converted his first career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series pole into his first victory of the season in Friday’s MillerTech Battery 200 at Pocono Raceway.

Riggs, driving the No. 34 Bare Knuckle Brawl Ford, took advantage of a cut tire and scrape with the wall by defending race champion Corey Heim of TRICON Garage to secure his third career victory. Riggs took control on Lap 61 of 80 and went on to a 3.64-second margin of victory over runner-up Tanner Gray of TRICON Garage.

“That thing was bad fast, especially that last run right there,” Riggs said. “I am on cloud nine right now. This is not one I had circled (on my calendar). Last year, we wrecked in practice, didn’t qualify and ran around dead-last all day, and today we were the best, so man, this is amazing.”

It was somewhat amazing that Heim did not wind up in Victory Lane for the second year in a row. He was dominant until his mishap, leading three times for a race-high 48 of the first 60 laps. He was able to return to the race, but finished 23^rd.

On the ensuing restart, the leader Riggs started on the inside and Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports on the outside. Hocevar cleared for the lead entering Turn 1, but was black flagged for jumping the restart. Hocevar was then forced to come to pit road to serve his restart violation penalty and handed the lead back to Riggs. Hocevar would go on to finish 13^th.

With Heim and Hocevar out of the way, Riggs took command of the race and quickly opened up a 1.124-second advantage over Gray. Riggs would lead the final 20 laps and was never threatened.

The runner-up, Toyota-powered performance by Gray matched his career-best finish while Niece Motorsports driver Kaden Honeycutt finished third. Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series regular Brandon Jones, driving for TRICON Garage, took fourth and Daniel Hemric of McAnally-Hilgemann Racing was fifth.

“We hadn’t been able to put together any solid races as of lately, so to have a solid day like that is refreshing,” Gray said. “In the past I’ve struggled here. We just haven’t been able to put races together, so it feels good to be able to do that today. It’s refreshing to have a good run, but at the same time it’s tough because we have to win to get into the playoffs and we were one spot away from it there. All in all I’m proud of everybody, but really wanted to be one spot better.”

Race Results

Fin	Str	No.	Driver	Team	Laps
1	1	34	Layne Riggs	Bare Knuckle Brawl Ford	80
2	5	15	Tanner Gray	Place of Hope Toyota	80
3	2	45	Kaden Honeycutt	DQS Solutions & Staffing Chevrolet	80
4	9	1	Brandon Jones(i)	Spectracide Toyota	80
5	19	19	Daniel Hemric	NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet	80
6	12	81	Connor Mosack #	NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet	80
7	15	38	Chandler Smith	Long John Silver’s Ford	80
8	13	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar International Toyota	80
9	16	98	Ty Majeski	Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford	80
10	8	71	Rajah Caruth	HendrickCars.com Chevrolet	80
11	6	17	Giovanni Ruggiero #	First Auto Group Toyota	80
12	17	66	Luke Baldwin	Farm Paint Ford	80
13	4	7	Carson Hocevar(i)	Delaware Life Chevrolet	80
14	24	91	Jack Wood	Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet	80
15	10	7	Patrick Emerling	Goat Power Bikes Chevrolet	80
16	7	77	Andres Perez De Lara	Telcel Chevrolet	80
17	14	9	Grant Enfinger	Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet	80
18	34	99	Ben Rhodes	Campers Inn RV Ford	80
19	27	33	Frankie Muniz #	Black Cat Fireworks Ford	80
20	21	42	Matt Mills	J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet	80
21	23	2	Nathan Byrd	RCA/Sonesta Chevrolet	80
22	29	5	Toni Breidinger #	Sunoco 94 Octane Toyota	80
23	3	11	Corey Heim	Safelite Toyota	80
24	28	69	Tyler Tomassi(i)	Ford	80
25	26	76	Spencer Boyd	CSI Asphalt/Malta Dynamics Chevrolet	80
26	18	18	Tyler Ankrum	LiUNA! Chevrolet	78
27	20	88	Matt Crafton	Ideal Door/Menards Ford	78
28	11	13	Jake Garcia	Quanta Services Ford	76
29	35	26	Dawson Sutton #	Rackley Roofing Chevrolet	48
30	33	22	Clayton Green	Vyper/Levrack Ford	47
31	22	44	Conner Jones	Bill’s Appliance Center Chevrolet	47
32	30	74	Dawson Cram(i)	Mike Harmon Racing Toyota	33
33	25	2	Cody Dennison	Flux Ford	18
34	31	6	Norm Benning	MDIA Inc. Chevrolet	10
35	32	28	Bryan Dauzat	FDNY Chevrolet	9