Layne Riggs claimed the pole position for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, October 31.
The event’s qualifying format consisted of a single-truck, impounded format, with each competitor cycling once around Phoenix in a bid to record the fastest time.
During the qualifying session, Riggs posted his qualifying lap at 134.796 mph in 26.707 seconds, which was enough for the 23-year-old native from Bahama, North Carolina, to claim the final pole position of the 2025 season. With the pole, Riggs, who inked a multi-year contract extension with Front Row Motorsports (FRM) two days earlier, recorded his fourth Craftsman Truck Series career pole, his first at Phoenix and his second in back-to-back events.
Riggs previously started on pole position during last weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway, where he then proceeded to finish in third place during the main event and miss the Championship 4 cutline on a tie-breaker. Despite not being eligible for the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series’ driver’s championship, Riggs is contending for the owner’s championship for his No. 34 FRM Ford F-150 team.
Riggs’ Phoenix pole occurred hours after his entry was penalized by NASCAR for violations that involved the discovery of an unapproved modification and the addition of a panel to the oil tank “that closes off the area between it and the floorboard.”
The violation was discovered during the pre-race technical inspection procedure. As a result, crew chief Dylan Cappello has been ejected, while engineer Jonathan Coates will be serving as Riggs’ interim crew chief for the finale. In addition, Riggs, who was allowed the qualify, will drop to the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty at the event’s start.
Amid the disappointment of surrendering his top-starting spot, Riggs was pleased with his qualifying performance as he strives to cap off the 2025 season with a fourth victory in his sophomore Truck Series campaign.
“I actually wasn’t expecting [the speed for pole position]. He continued, I feel like I messed up that lap a little bit, but I gave it my all there. I knew we’re gonna start in the back, but still just wanted to see the potential that we had, make sure that the adjustments we made from our mock qualifying run was better than it was. Great job by my crew, my engineer, Jonathan Coates. Me and him work on qualifying a lot.”
“Four poles this year for the No. 34 truck,” Riggs added. “That’s a great accomplishment. [I’m] Gonna try to make it exciting tonight. I wish we could stay up there [on pole position], but still just pleased with the speed even after all the changes we had to make.”
Riggs will share the front row with teammate Chandler Smith, the latter of whom posted his qualifying lap at 134.710 mph in 26.724 seconds. With Riggs’ penalty, Smith will be the competitor who will control the start and lead the field to the start of Friday night’s finale. Brent Crews qualified in third place with a qualifying lap at 134.635 mph in 26.739 seconds and he will share the second row with teammate Tanner Gray, the latter of whom qualified at 134.620 mph in 26.742 seconds.
Meanwhile, Kaden Honeycutt will be the highest-starting Championship 4 finalist in fifth place (134.595 mph in 26.747 seconds). He will share the third row with Corey Heim, another Championship 4 finalist and 11-time race winner of the 2025 season (134.474 mph in 26.771 seconds).
Ty Majeski, the reigning Truck Series champion and a Championship 4 finalist who was the fastest competitor during Thursday’s practice session, will start in eighth place (133.939 mph in 26.878 seconds). Lastly, Tyler Ankrum, the fourth Championship 4 finalist, will take the green flag from the 11th row and in the 21st-starting spot (132.734 mph in 27.122 seconds).
Rajah Caruth will start in seventh place alongside Majeski while rookie Giovanni Ruggiero and Ben Rhodes completed the top-10 starting lineup for the finale at Phoenix in ninth and 10th, respectively.
With 34 competitors vying for 34 starting spots, all of the entered competitors made the event.
Qualifying Results:
1. Layne Riggs, 134.796 mph, 26.707 seconds
2. Chandler Smith, 134.710 mph, 26.724 seconds
3. Brent Crews, 134.635 mph, 26.739 seconds
4. Tanner Gray, 134.620 mph, 26.742 seconds
5. Kaden Honeycutt, 134.595 mph, 26.747 seconds
6. Corey Heim, 134.474 mph, 26.771 seconds
7. Rajah Caruth, 134.078 mph, 26.850 seconds
8. Ty Majeski, 133.939 mph, 26.878 seconds
9. Giovanni Ruggiero, 133.854 mph, 26.895 seconds
10. Ben Rhodes, 133.546 mph, 26.957 seconds
11. Stefan Parsons, 133.333 mph, 27 seconds
12. Corey LaJoie, 133.323 mph, 27.002 seconds
13. Tyler Reif, 133.309 mph, 27.005 seconds
14. Jake Garcia, 133.141 mph, 27.039 seconds
15. Jack Wood, 133.102 mph, 27.047 seconds
16. Andres Perez De Lara, 133.067 mph, 27,054 seconds
17. Bayley Currey, 133.043 mph, 27.059 seconds
18. Cole Butcher, 133.003 mph, 27.067 seconds
19. Daniel Hemric, 132.974 mph, 27.073 seconds
20. Connor Mosack, 132.915 mph, 27.085 seconds
21. Tyler Ankrum, 132.734 mph, 27.122 seconds
22. Dawson Sutton, 132.553 mph, 27.159 seconds
23. Grant Enfinger, 132.514 mph, 27.167 seconds
24. Luke Baldwin, 132.431 mph, 27.184 seconds
25. Matt Crafton, 130.904 mph, 27.501 seconds
26. Toni Breidinger, 130.662 mph, 27.552 seconds
27. Spencer Boyd 130.425 mph, 27.602 seconds
28. Frankie Muniz, 130.307 mph, 27.627 seconds
29. Nathan Byrd, 129.576 mph, 27.783 seconds
30. Clayton Green, 128.461 mph, 28.024 seconds
31. Greg Van Alst, 125.843 mph, 28.607 seconds
32. Mason Maggio, Owner Points
33. Matt Mills, Owner Points
34. Caleb Costner, Owner Points
*Bold indicates Championship 4 contenders
The 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to occur on Friday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
