Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Team EJP 175 Qualifying — New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Friday, August 21, 2026
RIGGS WINS FOURTH NCTS POLE IN THE LAST FIVE RACES
- Layne Riggs continued his qualifying hot streak by capturing the pole for this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
- It’s the fourth pole in the last five races for Riggs, who had his streak of three straight end last week.
- This marks the ninth pole of the season for Ford.
POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150 – “I felt like we were really good in practice. We’ve just been working hard in the Ford Racing simulator to get better here. Last year, just kind of came in blind and didn’t know what I needed. My only experience was Milwaukee, which is similar to this place, and IRP. When I got here, it was drastically different, so we were kind of out to lunch last year. I say out to lunch, we ran about third all day which, for us, is a bad day. That’s great for how high our goals and expectations are set right now, but we’ve really worked hard in the simulator to get better, and I feel like everything we did there really translated over, so I’m super excited about that. Hopefully, it will translate over into the race. I feel like this place is kind of like a Phoenix one and two, the way you have to drive it. After I kind of honed in on that, knew how I’m good at Phoenix and what I’ve got to do there – and some setup things, just a lot of stuff like that, that I feel like we didn’t really hit on last year that we did this year. I’m super excited. We’ve got Bare Knuckle Boxing on the truck. The black and red truck always looks great on the racetrack, super mean, so thank you to everybody at Front Row Motorsports for building fast stuff. I feel like I can go out there and just run nice, smooth, consistent laps and the speed always comes with it, which is a super great feeling for a driver.”
ARE THERE THINGS THAT CAN TRANSLATE FROM PLACES LIKE WILKESBORO AND IRP TO A PLACE LIKE THIS? “Yeah, our short track program I feel like we’re really strong. I think we were a little off at Richmond and it’s something that our program has been trying to get better, but haven’t really hit on what we exactly need to go fast there. I feel like the tracks we are strong at are definitely similar to this place. Phoenix, we won at Milwaukee. I got my first win there. IRP and a lot of places like that, that I feel like we can definitely translate and take notes to and kind of hone it in on why we’re fast and really just figuring out and capitalizing on it.”
WHERE DO EVALUATE WHAT YOUR FUTURE LOOKS LIKE. IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE BACK WITH THE TRUCK PROGRAM IN 2027? “Yeah. I’m really excited. I’m chasing a championship right now. That’s my 110 percent focus – trying to win this championship for Front Row. I know that Zane got one a few years ago, and I’ve had to look at pictures of him holding that trophy in the lobby at Front Row for a long time now. I’ve gotten to see his accumulated win banners and that’s one thing I really want to do. I’m excited about our future. I think Front Row Motorsports has given me great equipment, great opportunities to go fast and race and just have fun doing it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.”
IT WAS SURPRISING TO SEE YOU GUYS WERE OFF LAST WEEK. DID YOU HAVE SOME HARD DISCUSSIONS AMONG THE CREW THIS WEEK? “My guys are motivated no matter what. We all really hype each other up. We do a great job and have great morale in the truck shop. It’s always very inviting to come in there and have a good feeling. That doesn’t change if we run good, if we run bad. We had some issues on pit road last week and those are more of the harder conversations we had. I felt like we had top three speed there before we had our issue, but once you get back in the pack and had to take the wave, we never really saw the results. We made slow gains on Richmond, but that’s a very unique racetrack. Some teams have the knack there, some teams don’t. I feel like we’ve been a top five truck every time we’ve gone there, we just have never had that cutting edge speed that I have at some other tracks. We’re still working on that, but hopefully the truck program will get that figured out. No matter what, my guys are always motivated and ready to go – win every race we go to.”
DO YOU FEEL THAT FOR YOUR GROUP YOU NEED ONE MORE STATEMENT DAY BEFORE THE CHASE? “I don’t think we need to. I’d love to. I think that anytime you can win and be the most recent winner going into the Chase, going into breaks. I feel like after our IRP win, we went into that long break. It’s always good to be the most recent winner. It’s almost a month later once you get back to the racetrack is always a good feeling, but no matter what I don’t think we have to prove anything to anybody. I think everybody knows that we’re the guys and we’re really strong right now and the tracks that are in the Chase, Front Row does a great job and I feel like I’ve gotten really good at tracks that are specifically those. I’m excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity right now. We’re peaking at the right time and everything is going our way, and I couldn’t be more happy and excited.”
HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY MAJOR DIFFERENCES FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR IN THE TRACK? “It definitely slowed down a little bit. I feel like the track was a little bit slicker than last year. I’m not quite sure apples to apples what the weather conditions were. I felt like in three and four, the bumps are obviously getting worse every year and just kind of slicker everywhere. We tune. We adapt for that. Everybody is racing on the same racetrack, so, for us, there aren’t really any big changes going in. I love this racetrack. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve played it on iRacing for years. I love the lines you have. You’ve got the seams to play with, different lanes. The trucks run really good right around the bottom where they used to put that PJ1 or sealer or whatever it was back in the day that made some speed. I feel like we can kind of move around and run pretty equal lap time everywhere, so I’m hoping for a good race tomorrow – good and entertaining for the fans.”
YOUR TRUCK APPEARED SOLID THROUGH ONE AND TWO. GOING DOWN THE BACKSTRETCH, DID YOU KNOW YOU HAD SOMETHING FOR THEM? “You never really know exactly. I knew my one and two was pretty stout. I was pretty happy with that. Last year, I made a terrible mistake and I drove it in until I saw Jesus and I’m sure we were up probably half-a–second and was looking really good, and we got the exit and it did not come to fruition. It was something I had to learn. I did some studying and just tried to figure out what I needed for qualifying here. I feel like I ran a nice, smooth, 95 percent lap, no slips, no wiggles. Like I said, I think I left a little bit on the table. I feel like somebody could have done a little bit better job than I could have. I knew it was smooth and fast and consistent, but I guess our truck was definitely on top and prevailed.”
DO YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO VIEW THE CHASE AS A CHAMPIONSHIP OR BUST MENTALITY? “I do, and I felt the same way last year even going up against Corey. He had all those wins. I feel like we kind of the same time of year we started getting strong, competing with him head to head on a weekly basis and I felt kind of the same way and we ended up not even getting to Phoenix just with circumstances. It’s a different format this year, for sure. At each of those seven races in the Chase have equal weight to them. You have to treat all seven of them like we would treat Phoenix last year. You can’t lock your way in and have this happen or say, ‘Oh, we’re already locked into the next round.’ No, all seven, when we get to Bristol, that has equal weighting as it has to Homestead and we just have to be on kill every single race. Hopefully, we can get some stage points tomorrow and lock up the number one seed. That will take a little bit of pressure off of us for that, just fully go on kill mode for the Chase and make sure that we make no mistakes.”
A LOT OF PEOPLE FEEL IT’S HARD TO EVALUATE TALENT IN THE TRUCK SERIES. HOW DO YOU, WHEN COMPARING YOURSELF TO COREY HEIM OR CARSON HOCEVAR, DO YOU VIEW YOURSELF IN A SIMILAR LIGHT? “Right now, we have it all. I feel like those guys also had really good equipment before they moved on and I feel like I’m just kind of getting set up in that same similar situation. I don’t know what that will look like in the future. I don’t know if I’ll have the same results right off the bat. I don’t know how well I’ll adapt whenever that day might be, but I do have confidence in myself and I feel like if those guys can do it, I can do it because I feel like they had just as good of equipment as I did. I feel like I’ve had good equipment, but I’ve really matured over the past six months to a year just with my mentality, my hot head behind the wheel, just a lot of things that I feel like I needed to clean up as a driver and I had to really work on, and now I don’t really feel like I have to think about it. It just kind of comes naturally, and I think I’ve kind of calmed down some as a driver. I don’t need to be driving for my career, driving for my life, trying to prove everything to everybody every single lap. I can go out here and run those 90-95 percent days, have good trucks and show my maturity. Like I said, I hope that all translates.”
THIS TRACK CAN PUNISH ON LONG RUNS. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU ANTICIPATE WHEN THE RACE STRETCHES OUT? “I think once it does stretch out, passing is gonna be difficult. Each lane is so good that it’s hard to complete the pass if you’re pretty similar in speed on trucks. You’ve really got to be faster than somebody since both lanes are so good. I think managing that clean air. Track position is gonna be very important on pit road. Obviously, we’ve had some issues here recently and really hoping that we can clean that up and have some nice, solid pit stops and at least come out where we come in the pits, whatever that may be, and just let me go to work on the racetrack. Track position is everything. That’s all we race for is track position all day. When you keep it, it makes your day a whole lot easier and that’s what we’re gonna be focused on doing.”
WHAT HAS HELPED THE GROWTH IN MATURITY YOU TALKED ABOUT EARLIER? “I feel like I went wrong a lot. I think my big wakeup call was at Darlington last year. I’m leading the race. I’ve got Corey in my mirror and I know he’s probably faster than me at that moment. I was just driving for my life, trying to prove to everybody that I can do it, I can beat him, I can do this, and then smoked the fence and wrecked out leading the race. That was a big wakeup call. It’s like, ‘I don’t need to do that.’ If I’m not the fastest truck, just do what the truck will give you. If I’ve got a fifth-place truck, finish fifth. I don’t have to be a mad man and go crazy and wreck people and wreck myself potentially and possibly finish third. It’s just not really worth it, so I just feel like looking at the bigger picture, the more races I have under my belt, the more comfortable I feel. I feel like I don’t have to get tense inside or over-do things. I kind of just let it all work out on itself and I’ve got enough confidence in my ability that it’s all gonna work out on the speed end. I think time, maturity and just the amount of races I’ve run, it just really helps. I know a lot of people ran ARCA coming up, ran a lot of years in trucks. I didn’t have any of that. I went straight from the short tracks of late model racing straight to the big stage at Daytona and that was a really big wakeup call, and probably the biggest jump I’ll ever make in my racing career for just how much different it is. My team has done a great job. Everybody around me – my teammates, even my Cup teammates just trying to help me out and mature as a driver. Like I said, I just have a lot of good people around me. They all want the best for me and they give me really good advice.”
WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE THIS YEAR WITH THE HIGH CONFIDENCE YOU HAVE TO BE AS CONSISTENT AS YOU ARE? “Confidence is everything in this sport. You can be really slow and have a lot of confidence and probably make up for some stuff, so that’s what it’s all about. I’ve always had confidence in my ability. It’s just confidence in putting it all together and making sure I make those right decisions, just the small things that I feel like I had to work on as a driver. Right now, when our trucks are as fast as they are. My crew chief knows exactly what I need. He’s growing as well and this is only his third year crew chiefing anything, so we’re both really growing and maturing and know exactly what we need. It’s all just coming together right now. When you have fast race trucks, you show up everywhere, you feel like you run up front at most tracks, so that’s just momentum. The confidence and the momentum of this sport all kind of go together and that usually creates results, so I’m just really excited and happy that all of that is on my side right now at the moment.”
