Layne Riggs closed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season with a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, securing the championship’s No. 1 seed before the seven-race Chase begins.
The 24-year-old started from the pole, led a race-high 106 of 189 laps and survived two overtime restarts to win the Team EJP 175 by 0.293 seconds over Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith.
The result gave Riggs his series-leading sixth win of 2026, the 11th of his Truck Series career and his first at “The Magic Mile” in two attempts.
Kaden Honeycutt finished third, followed by Stewart Friesen and Connor Zilisch, while Tristan McKee, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley and Parker Eatmon completed the top 10. NASCAR’s official race recap confirmed Riggs as the regular-season champion after his dominant afternoon.
Layne Riggs was ready for some lobster. 🦞😂 pic.twitter.com/uV03sDcyZ2
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) August 22, 2026
“This is awesome,” Riggs said. “Thank you to all the fans. They got a lot of people in the stands today, so thank you guys so much. Love coming up here. I’m ready for some lobster.”
Late adjustments return Layne Riggs to the front
Riggs controlled the opening 35 laps before Zilisch drove past him and won the first stage. The Cup Series regular remained in command during the second stage, completing a sweep of the two stages after leading 55 laps overall.
The No. 34 Ford became increasingly tight as the race progressed, allowing Zilisch and Smith to move ahead. Crew chief Dylan Cappello and engineer Jonathan Coates responded with adjustments that restored the handling before the decisive portion of the event.
“I thought I was off a little bit. I thought I was in trouble. Zilisch got by me, Chandler got by me. I was just really, really tight, couldn’t get it where I needed it, but my crew chief, Dylan Cappello, engineer Jonathan Coates, they made some excellent, excellent adjustments there at the end,” Riggs said.
Stewart Friesen used a two-tire pit stop to begin the final stage from the lead, but Riggs quickly took the position back and gradually built an advantage of more than one second.
Gavan Boschele’s crash in Turn 1 with six scheduled laps remaining erased that separation and sent the race beyond its advertised distance.
Giovanni Ruggiero challenged Riggs during the first overtime attempt. Still, he slid into him and spun in Turn 2, triggering a multi-truck accident that also collected Connor Mosack, Andrés Pérez de Lara, Dawson Sutton and Christian Eckes. Riggs escaped the contact before pulling clear of Smith and Honeycutt on the final restart.
“Thank you to my teammate, Chandler, for racing me clean there at the end,” Riggs said. “One, two for Front Row Motorsports. It’s in the name.”
Tyler Ankrum survives the final Chase battle
While Riggs settled the race at the front, Tyler Ankrum endured a chaotic afternoon to claim the 10th and final Chase berth.
He entered New Hampshire 20 points ahead of Friesen and 21 clear of Jake Garcia, but his position deteriorated when the No. 18 Chevrolet developed rear-brake trouble and dropped as low as 27th.
“It’s very rare you get to come to a place as fast as this, and you have no rear brakes, and we can’t fix the problems,” Ankrum said.
Garcia temporarily moved into the transfer position before receiving a penalty during the second stage break because the right-front portion of his truck was outside its pit box. Friesen then reached the provisional cutoff after taking only two tires and using the track position to run near the front.
The points margin continued changing during the closing laps until Boschele’s accident gave Ankrum another opportunity to recover.
He avoided the large crash during the first overtime and eventually finished 16th, which placed him seven points ahead of fourth-place Friesen and 11 above Garcia, who came home 14th.
However, Ankrum admitted that advancing did not erase his dissatisfaction with the performance.
“Definitely did not want to come to New Hampshire and perform like that,” he said. “Got lucky, did not perform like we belong in The Chase, so we got lucky.”
Friesen was equally direct after falling short despite his strongest possible response to a last-place result at Richmond.
“We just didn’t bring enough speed all year,” Friesen said. “It’s a bummer. I think we’re definitely a top-10 team, we just had some misfortune at Richmond last week and some other times throughout the season.”
The 2026 Truck Series Chase field is ready
Behind Riggs, the Chase will feature Honeycutt, Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Ankrum.
The points reset gives the regular-season champion a 25-point advantage over his nearest challenger and a 70-point cushion over the final qualifier. The championship field returns to competition at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 17.
Riggs said, “Let’s bring on The Chase. We only got seven left. Just no mercy.”
New Hampshire’s NASCAR weekend will end on Sunday with the Dollar Tree 301 Cup Series race at 2 p.m. ET on USA Network, with radio coverage through PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.