Layne Riggs reignited his championship charge by outlasting points leader Kaden Honeycutt during an 11-lap dash to win the EcoSave 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, October 9.
The 24-year-old Riggs from Bahama, North Carolina, led three times for 47 of 134-scheduled laps in a competitive event where he bolted his way from starting in 13th place to assume the lead for the first time on Lap 15. After winning the first stage period, Riggs lost four spots on pit road during the first stage’s break period and could motor his way to a runner-up result in the second stage period behind Honeycutt. With the final stage period commencing with 66 laps remaining, it took Riggs 13 laps for him to reel in and overtake Honeycutt to return atop the leaderboard.
Amid Riggs’ late overtake as a cycle of green flag pit stops was looming for him, a caution that flew with less than 40 laps remaining featured Riggs being beaten off of pit road by Honeycutt as the latter proceeded to fend off Riggs and the competition through three restarts to steer his way to an apparent victory. Following the final restart with 11 laps remaining, Riggs reeled in and capitalized on Honeycutt getting loose amid defensive driving entering the frontstretch to reassume the lead with eight laps remaining. From there, Riggs motored away from Christian Eckes, Honeycutt and the competition to score a breakthrough victory in NASCAR’s backyard and remain within sight of Honeycutt for both the Chase lead and his championship hopes.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Connor Mosack qualified on pole position with a pole-winning lap at 180.234 mph in 29.961 seconds. Tanner Gray qualified in second place with a lap of 179.862 mph in 30.023 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Giovanni Ruggiero, Regan Smith and Stewart Friesen dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out and stacked up through the frontstretch as pole-sitter Connor Mosack briefly pulled away from the field. Seconds later, Kaden Honeycutt challenged Mosack for the lead from the outside lane. Amid a side-by-side duel with Mosack that last half a lap, Honeycutt managed to lead the first lap from the outside lane over Mosack.
Mosack would motor ahead of Honeycutt and lead the second lap despite having Honeycutt reeling in from behind. For third place, Rajah Caruth and Tanner Gray battled for the spot in front of a hard-charging Landen Lewis as Honeycutt went beneath Mosack to duel with the latter, side-draft and reassume the lead entering Turns 3 and 4 by the third lap. As Caruth reeled in on teammate Mosack for the runner-up spot, Honeycutt retained the lead by three-tenths of a second on the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 10 laps, Honeycutt was leading by six-tenths of a second over Mosack just before the latter was overtaken by a hard-charging Layne Riggs. Riggs, who started in 13th place, proceeded to reel in Honeycutt for the lead while Mosack, Caruth, Chandler Smith, Tanner Gray, Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger, Bayley Currey and Landen Lewis occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Brent Crews, Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Andres Perez De Lara, respectively. Meanwhile, Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum and Giovanni Ruggiero were the three lowest-running Chase contenders on the track in 18th, 23rd, and 25th, respectively, as Riggs continued to pressure Honeycutt for the lead through every turn and straightaway.
On Lap 14, Riggs rocketed past Honeycutt for the lead through the first two turns. After briefly sliding up through the turns, Honeycutt managed to draw alongside Riggs through the backstretch in an effort to reassume it. Despite both nearly making contact, Riggs managed to fend off Honeycutt’s challenge and lead the next lap. Riggs stretched his early advantage as high as six-tenths of a second over Honeycutt at the Lap 20 mark while Mosack, Chandler Smith and Eckes trailed in the top five ahead of Caruth, Grant Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Currey and Brent Crews, respectively.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Riggs captured his 12th Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Honeycutt trailed Riggs at the start/finish line by nine-tenths of a second while Chandler Smith, Eckes, Mosack, Enfinger, Caruth, Tanner Gray, Crews and Currey were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, five of 10 Chase contenders (Riggs, Honeycutt, Smith, Eckes and Enfinger) accumulated stage points from the event’s first stage period while the remaining Chasers that include Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Giovanni Ruggiero were mired in 13th, 17th, 18th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the field led by Riggs peeled off of pit road to pit for a first time. Following the pit stops, Honeycutt exited pit road first while Enfinger, Chandler Smith, Mosack, Riggs, Caruth, Tanner Gray, Currey, Crews and Eckes followed suit, respectively. During the pit stops, Eckes endured a slow pit service when he had issues navigating past Majeski to exit his pit stall.
The second stage period started on Lap 37 as Honeycutt and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Honeycutt motored his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry ahead of the filed while the field fanned out through the first two turns. As the field continued to fan out from the backstretch and cycling back to the frontstetch, Honeycutt led the next lap while Chandler Smith, Enfinger, Caruth, Riggs and the rest of the field followed suit. Amid the battles around the field, Eckes utilized aggressive moves that involved executing three-wide moves to move up to fifth place by Lap 40. Behind, Riggs, who endured a slow pit service during the first stage’s break period and restarted in fifth place, dropped to seventh place while Honeycutt led by six-tenths of a second by Lap 40.
At the Lap 45 mark, Honeycutt stretched his advantage by nine-tenths of a second over Caruth while Chandler Smith and Riggs, both of whom trailed the lead by a second, reeled in Caruth for the runner-up spot. As Eckes trailed by two seconds in fifth place, Caruth fended off challenges from Smith and Riggs to retain the runner-up spot as they were all racing within two-tenths of a second from one another. Behind, Gray overtook Eckes for fifth place as Crews, Currey, Enfinger and Hemric occupied the remaining top-10 spots, respectively. With Caruth remaining in second place for the Lap 50 mark, Honeycutt retained the lead by more than a second.
Two laps later, Riggs executed a bold slide job move in front of Caruth for the runner-up spot entering the frontstretch. Riggs’ move caused Caruth to bump-draft Riggs, which nearly got the latter sideways, but Riggs started to motor away from Caruth as the latter was challenged and overtaken by Smith through another slide job move from Smith entering the frontstretch on Lap 54. With Caruth dropping to fourth place, Gray trailed in fifth place while Riggs and Smith retained second and third, respectively, on the track. Meanwhile, Honeycutt led by more than one-and-a-half seconds.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Honeycutt captured his seventh Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Riggs followed suit in second place by more than a second while Chandler Smith, Caruth, Eckes, Crews, Currey, Gray, Enfinger and Hemric were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, six of 10 Chasers (Honeycutt, Riggs, Smith, Eckes, Enfinger and Hemric) racked up the event’s second round of stage points while the remaining Chasers that include Ankrum, Ruggiero, Rhodes and Majeski were mired in 12th, 19th, 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, the field led by Honeycutt returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Honeycutt retained the lead by exiting pit road first while Chandler Smith, Caruth, Riggs, Enfinger, Mosack, Currey, Ankrum, Landen Lewis and Crews followed suit, respectively. During the pit stops, Smith was penalized and sent to the tail end of the field due to equipment interference.
With 66 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Honeycutt and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out and stacked up for a full cycle as Honeycutt retained the lead. As Honeycutt retained the lead over Caruth, Riggs navigated his way up to third place with 65 laps remaining. Amid the tight battles at the front, Enfinger, Currey, Crews and Mosack fiercely battled for fourth place before Currey prevailed with the spot. Mosack was left to battle Enfinger, Crews and Eckes (the latter of whom was rallying from a slow pit service) for fourth place while Honeycutt led by half a second over Caruth and by eight-tenths of a second over Riggs with 60 laps remaining.
Then with 57 laps remaining, Riggs overtook Caruth for the runner-up spot. By then, both were trailing the leader Honeycutt by within half a second before Riggs drove towards the rear bumper of Honeycutt’s entry a lap later. During his charge, Riggs tried to get to Honeycutt’s right-rear area with a strong move towards the outside wall entering Turns 3 and 4. After scraping the wall and having his run foiled while Honeycutt moved up the track to stall Honeycutt’s momentum, Riggs executed his exact move for the next lap. For the latest time, he managed to draw even with Honeycutt as they dueled for the lead with 54 laps remaining. With the momentum on his side from the outside lane, Riggs motored ahead and reassumed the lead by the next lap. With Caruth losing distance and trailing the two championship leaders by one-and-a-half seconds, Riggs led Honeycutt by half a second with 50 laps remaining.
Two laps later, Brent Crews, who was racing in fifth place, pitted under green after he slid up the track through the first two turns and ran into the side of Mosack amid a tight battle. The contact cause both drivers to hit the outside wall, with Crews sustaining heavier right-side damage to his No. 1 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry. With the event remaining under green flag conditions, Riggs was leading by six-tenths of a second over Honeycutt with 45 laps remaining. Caruth, Mosack, Currey, Eckes, Enfinger, Hemric, Lewis and Justin Haley trailed in the top 10 while Chandler Smith, who was trying to rally from his pit road penalty during the second stage’s break period, was up to 15th place.
Then with 41 laps remaining, Mosack pitted for fresh tires and to have the right-side damage from his entry assessed. Four laps later, teammate Caruth pitted from third place. Chandler Smith also pitted with Caruth before Enfinger, Landen Lewis and Ruggiero pitted another lap later, seconds before the caution flew due to Stewart Friesen hitting the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4, having both half of his splitter along with the right side damaged and his right-front wheel flattened. During the latest caution period, the lead lap field led by Riggs pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Honeycutt exited pit road ahead of Riggs while Currey, Eckes, Tyler Ankrum, Perez De Lara, Haley, Hemric, Daniel Dye and Ty Majeski followed suit, respectively.
The next restart with 30 laps remaining featured Honeycutt maintaining a strong start from the inside lane through the first two turns as teammate Currey overtook Riggs for the runner-up spot. Honeycutt led the next lap while Riggs battled and overtook Curry for the runner-up spot. While Riggs proceeded to reel in Honeycutt by half a second with 25 laps remaining, Currey, Eckes, Ankrum, Hemric, Daniel Dye, Perez De Lara, Majeski and Haley were mired with the top-10 mark.
Following a caution that flew with 22 laps remaining due to Kris Wright hitting the first turn’s wall, the next restart with 17 laps remaining featured Currey pushing teammate Honeycutt ahead of Riggs from the inside lane. As Honeycutt retained the lead over Riggs, Currey and a fanned-out field from the first two turns and the backstretch, the caution returned when Leland Honeyman Jr. got right-rear turned by Caruth exiting the backstretch. The contact caused Honeyman to spin up towards the outside wall. Ahead of Honeyman’s incident, more carnages ensued through Turns 3 and 4 as Caruth, who had a flat tire when he dropped off the pace and turned Honeyman, was piled into n eight-truck wreck that involved Ruggiero, Timmy Hill, Luke Baldwin and teammate Mosack, the latter of whom had fire blazing from his entry while trying to drive back to pit road.
The latest multi-truck carnage prompted NASCAR to place the even in a red flag period for 12 minutes and 58 seconds. With the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, the field restarted under green with 11 laps remaining as Honeycutt and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Currey pushed teammate Honeycutt ahead of Riggs for a second consecutive launch which enabled the Honeycutt to motor ahead and lead for a full circuit. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Daniel Dye got turned and he spun through the frontstretch’s infield. Despite spinning and coming to rest towards the apron in the first turn, he managed to continue without drawing a caution.
As the laps dwindled with less than 10 laps remaining, Honeycutt maintained a steady lead over Riggs, but Riggs reeled in the latter through every turn and straightaway. Then with seven laps remaining, Honeycutt got loose and barely scrubbed the outside wall entering the frontstretch. This allowed Riggs, who had reeled in towards Honeycutt’s rear bumper through Turns 3 and 4, to execute a crossover move and reassume the lead for the following lap. Eckes would then overtake Honeycutt for the runner-up spot a lap later while Hemric and Currey trailed in the top five, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Riggs, who led steadily over a hard-charging Eckes, remained in the lead by half a second over Eckes. With Eckes unable to reel in, Riggs was able to cycle his No. 34 BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150 entry smoothly around Charlotte Motor Speedway for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and won by nearly six-tenths of a second over Eckes.
With the victory, Riggs notched his seventh NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career victory in his 75th series’ start, his second consecutive win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the 12th of his career. Riggs also delivered the ninth victory of the 2026 season for Front Row Motorsports and the 10th for Ford.
Prior to Charlotte, Riggs trailed Kaden Honeycutt in the Chase standings by 37 points. By winning at Charlotte, the former shaved off 20 points of the latter’s lead as Riggs has four races remaining to continue to shave the deficit and be in contention of his first Craftsman Truck Series championship.
“I love that one. Let’s go, guys!” Riggs said on the frontstretch on FOX. “We really needed that [win]. Man, that was a hell of a battle there at the end with me and [Honeycutt]. That was a lot of fun. This [No. 34 Ford] was fast tonight. I think I had to pass [Honeycutt] like three or four times. We gotta still work on pit road. That was definitely our weakness still, but kept driving it to the front. I just had a good run. At Kansas, internally, I pressed myself that I needed to go win, Today, I didn’t have any pressure. I just went out and wheeled it, ran it like a C-Fixed race on Iracing. I had a badass time. It was a great race.”
Christian Eckes settled in second place while Kaden Honeycutt, who led a race-high 85 laps compared to Riggs’ 47, settled in third place. Amid the disappointment of being outdueled by Riggs, Honeycutt was left pleased with his run as he continues his late charge for his first championship.
“I thought [the battle] was awesome,” Honeycutt said. “We went down to [Turn] 1. I think [Riggs] was trying to decide to go bottom or top, and I defended it. I don’t know how the heck I saved that. That was pretty wild. Just seeing the replay, I really wish I shouldn’t have been air-blocking him as much as I did. I think I just took away what I was trying to do and just focused on him too much and just should have ran my own race. [I] Wasn’t up close enough to the wall and just got free. Me and him kept swapping back and forth. I think as far as an adjustment standpoint, I thought we were getting there. I just didn’t know what I needed to go faster. We’ll dissect it. Definitely hate that I lost second there, at least, but yeah, good stage points, good stage win today.”
Bayley Currey notched a strong fourth-place result for his second consecutive top-five result in two Truck Series start with TRICON Garage while Chandler Smith navigated his way to a fifth-place result. Daniel Hemric, Landen Lewis, Andre Perez De Lara, Tyler Ankrum and Justin Haley completed the top 10 in the final running order.
With six Chase contenders (Riggs, Eckes, Honeycutt, Smith, Hemric and Ankrum) finishing in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Giovanni Ruggiero ended up 11th, 12th, 21st and 26th, respectively.
The third Craftsman Truck Series’ Chase event of the 2026 season at Charlotte generated eight lead changes for three different leaders, and five cautions for 28 laps. In addition, 22 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
- Layne Riggs, 47 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Christian Eckes
- Kaden Honeycutt, 85 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Bayley Currey
- Chandler Smith
- Daniel Hemric
- Landen Lewis
- Andres Perez De Lara
- Tyler Ankrum
- Justin Haley
- Ty Majeski
- Grant Enfinger
- Brenden Queen
- Dawson Sutton
- Mini Tyrrell
- Corey LaJoie
- Regan Smith
- Cole Butcher
- Tanner Gray
- Brent Crews
- Ben Rhodes
- Luke Baldwin
- Matt Mills, one lap down
- Spencer Boyd, one lap down
- Kris Wright, four laps down
- Giovanni Ruggiero, five laps down
- Josh Reaume, eight laps down
- Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident
- Jake Garcia, 14 laps down
- Leland Honeyman Jr. – OUT, Accident
- Rajah Caruth – OUT, Accident
- Timmy Hill – OUT, Accident
- Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident, two laps led
- Conner Jones – OUT, Handling
- Stewart Friesen – OUT, Accident
- Clayton Green – OUT, Overheating
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
Following the third Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Kaden Honeycutt continues to lead the standings by 17 points over Layne Riggs. The rest of the 10-Truck Chase field is displayed below.
Chase Standings:
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Layne Riggs -17
- Chandler Smith -77
- Christian Eckes -88
- Daniel Hemric -109
- Giovanni Ruggiero -115
- Ty Majeski -116
- Ben Rhodes -136
- Grant Enfinger -140
- Tyler Ankrum -153
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Chase schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, October 16, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
