Grant Enfinger made a triumphant return to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series by outlasting the competition through a three-lap shootout and winning the second annual LiUNA 150 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, on Saturday, July 11.
The former Truck Series regular-season champion and ARCA Menards Series champion from Fairhope, Alabama, led twice for five of 100-scheduled laps in an event where he started in 12th place, accumulated a combined 10 stage points at the conclusion of the event’s first two stage periods and navigated his way through a series of late carnage to work his way to the front.
Despite being outdueled by Giovanni Ruggerio during a late-race restart with 14 laps remaining, Enfinger capitalized on the final one with three laps remaining to retain the top spot for the event’s remainder. Following a late challenge by Landen Lewis, Enfinger did not slip up and had enough to achieve his first checkered flag in 40 races and gain momentum towards his Chase hopes.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Layne Riggs secured his first Truck pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 99.115 mph in 53.683 seconds. Connor Mosack started alongside Riggs on the front row with a lap at 99.014 mph in 53.738 seconds. Prior to the event, Ben Rhodes and Colin Braun dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Layne Riggs muscled his No. 34 Wheelhouse Racing School Ford F-150 entry ahead of Connor Mosack and the field as he led through the first four sets of turns while the rest of the field behind jostled and scrambled early for spots. Within the battles, Kaden Honeycutt battled and overtook Mosack for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Riggs, who retained the lead through the course’s remaining three turns, led the first lap while Thomas Annunziata, Landen Lewis and Ty Majeski trailed in the top six, respectively.
Over the next four laps, Riggs stabilized his early advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Honeycutt, the latter of whom was the fastest competitor on the course, while third-place Mosack trailed by more than a second. As Annunziata and Lewis occupied the remaining top-five spots, Majeski, Giovanni Ruggerio, Danie Hemric, Jake Garcia and Chandler Smith trailed in the top-10 mark while Grant Enfinger, Andres Perez De Lara, Tyler Ankrum, Parker Kligerman, Ben Maier, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, Dawson Sutton, Tanner Gray and Corey LaJoie were mired in the top 20, respectively.
Through the Lap 10 mark, Riggs continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Honeycutt while Mosack, Lewis and Annunziata remained in the top-five mark ahead of Majeski, Ruggiero, Hemric, Garcia and Smith. Meanwhile, Ben Rhodes and Colin Braun, both of whom started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entires, were up in 23rd and 27th, respectively, while Louis Foster, an NTT IndyCar Series competitor for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing who is making his first NASCAR national touring series career start, was mired in 22nd place in front of Rhodes. In addition, Graham Doyle, a sportscar competitor who is driving the No. 5 Toyota entry for TRICON Garage, was racing towards the rear of the field in 32nd place.
By Lap 15, Riggs maintained a steady lead of four-tenths of a second over Honeycutt as Honeycutt reeled in the leader through every turn and small straightaways. Amid Honeycutt’s challenges, Riggs slightly built his lead back up to eight-tenths of a second on Lap 20. Behind, Mosack trailed the lead by nearly four seconds in third place, and he had Lewis slowly reeling in from behind in fourth place. In addition, Annunziata retained fifth place by three seconds over Majeski, with Majeski and the rest of the field trailing by double digits. Meanwhile, Riggs stretched his lead to nearly two seconds over Honeycutt by Lap 25.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Riggs, who was mired in lapped traffic, captured his sixth Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Honeycutt followed suit in second ahead of Lewis, Mosack and Annunziata, while Majeski, Ruggiero, Hemric, Grant Enfiger and Perez De Lara were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 25 of 33 competitors were scored on the lead lap while Mini Tyrrell, Kris Wright, Jackson Lee, Brenden Queen, Frankie Muniz, Graham Doyle, Wesley Slimp and Josh Reaume were lapped by Riggs.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the entire field led by Riggs pitted non-competitively and retained their respective running positions as they entered pit road. During the break, all teams were given three minutes to make services to their respective trucks.
The second stage period started on Lap 35 as Riggs and Honeycutt occupied the front row. At the start, Honeycutt challenged Riggs in a side-by-side duel through the main straightaway, but Riggs used the preferred inside lane to motor ahead of Honeycutt and retain the lead. With a variety of on-track battles ensuing within the field, Riggs also maintained a steady lead through the course’s six turns as he led the next lap. Over the following four laps, Lewis trailed by nearly two seconds in third place while Annunziata and Mosack occupied the remaining top-five spots over Majeski, Ruggiero, Enfinger, Hemric and Chandler Smith. At the front, Riggs held a lead that was only a tenth of a second ahead of Honeycutt.
On Lap 44, a caution flew due to Majeski wheel-hopping, getting loose and hitting the curb in the first turn before he went off the course and wrecked his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 entry into the tire barriers. The incident occurred as he was racing in sixth place. At the time of caution, Riggs was leading by four-tenths of a second over Honeycutt. During this caution period, select names like Chandler Smith, Cole Butcher, Stewart Friesen and Mini Tyrrell pitted while the rest led by Riggs remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 50 did not last long when Landen Lewis, who restarted on the second row and tried to dart to the right behind Riggs, was turned by Mosack when Lewis briefly stepped out of the gas due to being blocked by Riggs and left an opening in between himself and Annunziata. The contact between Lewis and Mosack as Lewis, who was checked up Riggs and tried to turn back to the left, was turned into the right side of Annunziata. Lewis was then sent spinning through the frontstretch’s grass while Mosack, who kept his entry straight despite making additional contact with Lewis’ spinning entry, sustained rear-end damage after he was rear-ended by Ben Rhodes. At the moment of caution, Honeycutt managed to emerge ahead of Riggs. During the caution period, Ruggiero, who carved his way up to fourth place, strategically pitted along with Eckes.
During a three-lap shootout to conclude the second stage period, Honeycutt and Riggs dueled for the lead entering the first turn. The latter two remained dead even before Honeycutt managed to motor ahead through the fourth Right Hander turn. As a variety of on-track battles ensued with dirt getting kicked up the course and several competitors bumping against one another for spots, Honeycutt retained the lead for the next lap.
At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 60, Honeycutt captured his second Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Riggs settled in second ahead of Enfinger, Hemric and Perez De Lara while Ankrum, Kligerman, Garcia, Tanner Gray and Cole Butcher ended up in the top 10, respectively. By then, 24 of 33 starters were scored on the lead lap. During the second stage break, some like Cole Butcher, Ruggiero, Friesen, Corey LaJoie and Colin Braun remained on the track while the rest led by Honeycutt pitted non-competitively.
With 36 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Butcher and Friesen occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out and jumbled up as both Butcher and Friesen dueled for the lead through the first four turns until Butcher muscled ahead with the lead. As the field continued to bump and jostle for spots while Kris Wright got turned and wrecked in the guardrails through the No Name Straight, Friesen assumed the lead through the frontstretch during the next lap when Butcher dropped off the pace. The caution flew seconds later due to debris on the course and coming off of Wright’s wrecked entry. At the time of caution, Butcher, who fell off the pace due to a spotter communication, was ruled the leader from NASCAR’s timing and scoring.
During the latest caution period that was extended due to fluid left all over the course, the event was then placed in a red flag period for seven minutes and 52 seconds to have the fluid cleaned up. When the red flag lifted and the event restarted with 26 laps remaining, Butcher, who was being pushed by Ruggiero entering the first turn, tagged Friesen and sent the latter for a spin through the first turn. Friesen’s incident generated more chaos within the pack as more competitors, including Riggs and Honeycutt, all spun. Amid the chaos, Ruggiero emerged with the lead ahead of Annunziata while Butcher, Lewis and Enfinger were in the top five. Ruggiero proceeded to lead the next three laps ahead of his hard-charging teammate, Annunziata, while Lewis carved his way into third place ahead of Enfinger and Butcher. Meanwhile, Friesen, Honeycutt and Riggs were mired in 17th, 19th and 20th.
With 22 laps remaining, the caution returned due to Chandler Smith, who was multiple laps down due to a rear gear issue, stopping on the course in Turn 4. During the caution period, runner-up Annunziata retired from competition and pulled his entry off the course just near the pit road entrance due to his entry erupting in flames. Annunziata, who managed to escape his blazing entry under his own power, would be transported to a nearby medical facility for further evaluation.
Following an extensive caution period, the event restarted with 14 laps remaining as Ruggerio and Enfinger occupied the front row in front of Lewis and Garcia. At the start, Ruggiero dueled with Enfinger through the first turn until the former managed to motor ahead of the latter. As Ruggiero led through the next three sets of turns, Enfinger retained the runner-up spot over Lewis and Garcia while Braun navigated his way into the top-five mark. Ruggiero led the next lap amid a variety of on-track battles, bumps and late jostling of spots ensuing within the field. During the late on-track actions, Tanner Gray sent Braun spinning from fifth place in the sixth turn as Butcher also got sideways and nearly collided into Braun’s entry. Meanwhile, Honeycutt navigated his way back into the top-10 mark as Ruggiero retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.
Seconds later, the caution returned due to LaJoie, who was dropping oil, coming to a stop just off the course in the third left-hander turn area. The incident occurred after Dawson Sutton and Wesley Slimp went off the course just past the second turn as they appeared to slip from LaJoie’s oil trail. By then, Ruggiero was scored the leader over Enfinger, Lewis, Garcia, Kligerman and Tanner Gray while Honeycutt was up into seventh place. During the caution period, some including Mosack, Butcher, Braun, Sutton and Slimp pitted.
As the event restarted with three laps remaining, the field fanned out as Enfinger motored ahead of Ruggiero while Ruggiero briefly lost momentum while trying to block Lewis entering the first turn. As Lewis assumed the runner-up spot, Kligerman and Honeycutt battled Ruggiero for third place and Louis Foster spun in the second turn while Enfinger maintained a steady lead for a full lap. During the next lap, Honeycutt bumped teammate Ruggiero for a spin after the latter forced the former off the course in between Turns 2 and 3. Amid the contact, Honeycutt moved into third place while Kligerman and Eckes trailed behind.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained in the lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Lewis. While Lewis primarily remained dead-square behind Enfinger while challenging the latter for his first career victory, Enfinger did not slip through the course’s seven turns for a final circuit as he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Lewis.
With the victory, Enfinger notched his 13th career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division, his first ever on a road course event and his first since winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2024 (40 races ago). He also recorded the third career victory for CR7 Motorsports and the fourth for the Chevrolet manufacturer through 14 events in 2026.
Prior to the Lime Rock Park victory, Enfinger was five points below the top-10 mark in the championship standings. After the Lime Rock Park victory, he jumped two spots in the standings to ninth place and is 42 points above the cutline with four regular-season events remaining before the series’ Chase commences.
“I mean, honestly, [crew chief] Derek’s [Smith] given us great road course trucks all year long and sadly enough, this has been our best opportunity to win,” Enfinger said on the frontstretch on FS1. “It’s a road course, but we’ve had issues in all three of them. This time, we had our issues at practice and broke a shock. [The team] did an amazing job just getting us out there to qualify. We missed something with some suspension components a bit, but Derek did a good job for the race. I feel like we had some things play on our hand. I don’t think we could’ve beat [Honeycutt] and [Riggs] straight up.”
“I’d seen what happened in the ARCA race,” Enfinger added. “I didn’t want to line up third and push my way to the win. I know that’s common these days. I prayed about it, thought about, but I wanted to win straight up on the outside. Proud of that. A lot went into that decision. I didn’t want to go in there and purposely root him out of that way to win. We beat them on the launch, and I think we had a better [truck].”
Landen Lewis, the reigning CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion from Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, notched a career-best runner-up result in his seventh Truck start. Kaden Honeycutt rallied to finish third, while Parker Kligerman and Christian Eckes finished in the top five.
Daniel Hemric, Andres Perez De Lara, Tanner Gray, Stewart Friesen and Colin Braun completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Giovanni Ruggerio fell back to 20th place, while Louis Foster finished 21st in his NASCAR debut. In addition, Layne Riggs ended up as the first competitor a lap down in 23rd place.
This event featured nine lead changes among six different leaders and seven cautions over 39 laps. In addition, 22 of 33 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 14th event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Layne Riggs leads the standings by 44 points over Kaden Honeycutt, 154 over Chandler Smith, 155 over Christian Eckes and 164 over Giovanni Ruggiero. Riggs and Honeycutt are also the first two competitors to be guaranteed Chase berths this season.
Results:
- Grant Enfinger, five laps led
- Landen Lewis
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Parker Kligerman, 14 laps led
- Christian Eckes
- Daniel Hemric
- Andres Perez De Lara
- Tanner Gray
- Stewart Friesen, one lap led
- Colin Braun
- Cole Butcher, 11 laps led
- Brenden Queen
- Jackson Lee
- Justin Haley
- Dawson Sutton
- Wesley Slimp
- Kris Wright
- Connor Mosack
- Graham Doyle
- Giovanni Ruggiero, 21 laps led
- Louis Foster
- Jake Garcia
- Layne Riggs, one lap down, 48 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Mini Tyrrell, one lap down
- Tyler Ankrum, two laps down
- Frankie Muniz, two laps down
- Josh Reaume, two laps down
- Corey LaJoie – OUT, Engine
- Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Engine
- Chandler Smith – OUT, Driveshaft
- Ben Rhodes – OUT, Accident
- Ty Majeski – OUT, Accident
- Ben Maier – OUT, Electrical
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the Faith Fest 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 18, and air at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
