Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Sober or Slammer 200 Qualifying
Friday, August 29, 2025
RIGGS GETS PLAYOFFS STARTED BY PUTTING HIS F-150 ON THE DARLINGTON POLE
- Layne Riggs recorded his second pole of the season and second of his career this afternoon at Darlington Raceway.
- Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith made it a 1-2 Ford front row by finishing second.
- Ford’s other two playoff contenders, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia, qualified eighth and 13th, respectively.
Ford Qualifying Results
1st – Layne Riggs
2nd – Chandler Smith
8th – Ty Majeski
13th – Jake Garcia
21st – Ben Rhodes
22nd – Matt Crafton
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 Clew Ford F-150 – WHY IS IT SO CHALLENGING AT DARLINGTON TO WIN THE POLE? “The most challenging part is trying to manage your expectations of how much grip you’re gonna have. We started off practice in the mid-thirties and we fell off into the thirty-threes by the end of practice and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Alright, you’re gonna have to go run in the twenty-nines on your first lap. You’ve got one shot at it and you don’t know what it’s gonna feel like, so just go give it all you’ve got.’ Just being ready for that and being prepared, running laps in the simulator, looking at previous races, having confidence in your truck that it’s gonna be under you when you can drive it that hard, and I feel like we finally got to that point as a team that they know what it takes to let me go out there and go fast, so I was trembling when I came in. No matter where you qualify, you’re probably trembling at this track. We hold it wide-open all the way through three and four and one and two to start, and then just lift for a split second in three and four on the end of the lap. I maximized it. I knew it was gonna be a pretty stout lap, and I actually didn’t know that I got the pole until after I got out of the truck. The radio, the spotter and the crew chief kept talking over each other. I kept asking, I said, ‘Where did we qualify?’ And they would both answer, so I didn’t know where I was. I assumed when the cameras come over I assumed we got the pole.”
THE TOP FOUR ARE SEPARATED BY SIX HUNDREDTHS OF A SECOND. ARE YOU EXPECTING IT TO BE A DOGFIGHT AT THE FRONT ALL RACE LONG? “Darlington is just gonna have natural separation with dirty air and managing, but I do think, especially the top three. Those are my three picks who have the best shot to win coming into it, so I think from here on out the rest of the season it’s gonna be a dogfight, especially between us three and maybe have some other contenders here and there. I’ve got a lot of confidence. You can’t even see the difference in the top three to the eye. I would rate us all pretty equal. I think we all felt like we had the exact same lap, so it’s just nice to be up front and get that little extra bit to be on the pole and be able to control and manage the race. Having track position here is super important and just being able to maintain that and you feel you have a little bit more of an edge and can control strategy when you’re out front.”
DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM CHANDLER’S LAP? “No. It happened so fast. They’re pretty much sending us out half-a-lap from each other. I think Chandler was just slowing down by the time I was going out, so I told him I said, ‘If you don’t have intel for me by the time I’m rolling out, don’t bother me with it and just let me go run my lap.’ So, I didn’t actually get any intel. I stuck to my plan and did exactly what I was planning on doing coming into the weekend and it worked out.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT DARLINGTON IN THE PAST YEAR TO WIN THIS POLE TODAY? “Wow, a lot. I feel like last year our result didn’t show the day that we had. It was really the first track that we ran well at last year. We ran in the top five all day. Coming here for the first-ever time at a bigger track was pretty intimidating, but I remember in practice I just loved it right off the bat. I’m like, ‘This place is so gritty and so hardcore, old-school racing.’ It’s right up my alley for my driving style and just having a lot of throttle control and just managing the fall off and trying to manage your tires. I’ve got a lot of confidence. We’ve got a good package here. We’ve obviously perfected it over the past year, but we’re actually pretty similar to where we were last year and just the experience I have on bigger tracks with dirty air, making speed and just how myself and my team have been able to mesh together. Now, it’s just showing in results.”
DID YOU HAVE TO SPEND MORE TIME DURING PRACTICE WITH ONE AND TWO OR THREE AND FOUR? “I feel like I was struggling with both ends, honestly in practice. I actually corded both of my rear tires in practice. I was just super, super loose and pretty much we just got so far behind that no matter what adjustment we made we were still gonna be too loose. We just kind of took our notes and knew where we needed to be. During the race, it’s definitely gonna get freer. In the simulator, we worked a lot on connectivity and connectivity from one and two to three and four. Our whole setup package really revolves around that. We can adjust balance around the whole track, but we can’t really connect a corner to another during the race, so I was very happy with the connectivity from end to end. We’ve just got to get that overall balance right and I know that we’ve got the tools to do that. Everybody tonight has to go back to the hotel room and marinate on it. I’m excited about it.”
