Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Faithfest 250 Qualifying — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Friday, July 17, 2026
RIGGS POSTS SECOND STRAIGHT POLE; FORD F-150 WILL LEAD THE NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES FIELD TO GREEN IN SATURDAY’S FAITH FEST 250
- Layne Riggs registered his second straight NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole and the sixth of his career this afternoon at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
- This marks the seventh pole for Ford this season. Riggs, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia have two apiece while Ben Rhodes has one.
FORD POLE RUNS IN 2026
Daytona – Ty Majeski
Atlanta – Jake Garcia
Rockingham – Jake Garcia
Texas – Ben Rhodes
Michigan – Ty Majeski
Lime Rock – Layne Riggs
North Wilkesboro – Layne Riggs
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Layne Riggs
9th – Chandler Smith
11th – Cole Butcher
15th – Jake Garcia
22nd – Ben Rhodes
27th – Ty Majeski
29th – Luke Baldwin
35th – Clayton Green
36th – Frankie Muniz
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 Infinity Communications Group Ford F-150 – POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
THOUGHTS ON THE POLE. “Track position here is very important. We didn’t have any last year. This is the first time we’ve qualified on the new surface here, so it was kind of throwing the dice for everybody. Nobody really knew exactly what we needed. A lot of people did mock qualifying runs in practice and mine did not go great at all. I was 10 out of 10 tight and would not even attempt to turn, so it was hard to tell my crew chief how much I needed to free it up because it was so tight you couldn’t even really put a number on it. I was still during my lap thinking, ‘We’re still way too tight.’ I still thought I was a four out of 10 tight with where I needed to be and snapping free off, so I thought we were gonna be an eighth to 10th place qualifying run. Supposedly, I got very lucky with a cloud, the timing of it all. The track wasn’t quite as slimy at the end, so that was good. I think if we would have gone out at the very end it probably wouldn’t have been the same result, but you’d rather be lucky than good, right?”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STARTING A RACE AND NOT HAVING GOOD TRACK POSITION VERSUS HAVING IT? “The biggest thing for us is just being able to manage the race, manage the pace and stage points. Last year, I didn’t get many stage points at all because we had to use both of the first two stages just to get to the front, so, for us, the world we’re in right now stage one is very important for my team, and I feel like we’re the best we can be right now. Hopefully, we can win stage one, it goes green and have a good pit stop and do it again in stage two. I’m hoping there’s not much strategy. Hopefully, it’s pretty straightforward for my sake, but even last year starting 28th I think, to work our way back up to the front I thought was pretty impressive on our speed and the team and myself and the 38 I thought we were the class of the field right there with the 11, and I think that’s probably the biggest same trend you’re gonna see tomorrow – the same numbers up front.”
IT SEEMS THE EXPECTATION IS TOMORROW WILL HAVE A LOT OF PUSHING AND SHOVING. ARE YOU GOING TO TIP-TOE AROUND EVERYTHING OR NOT? “I think that racing door-to-door with somebody is a chance to cut your tire. Somebody that’s not racing for points, which is a lot in the field, is probably not worth doing anything too risky with them. Be smart. If they want to do something stupid, just kind of let them go, but at the same time you’ve got race your race. You can’t just lay over on guys either. Every point matters, so it’s gonna be a balance. I think it’s gonna be so slimy, it’s gonna be less about racing the guy next to you and just racing the racetrack. I think back to my late model days in Wake County. Everybody thought Wake County was gonna be such a dirty, rough race and we went green the entire race, not one racing incident because everybody was just sliding around themselves. You were just trying to make your own lap versus racing door-to-door with the guy next to you. For me, I think the biggest trouble spot is just gonna be people getting loose under other people. You drive down into one and drive under somebody and just get really loose and when you do, you’ve got to go up the track to chase it and you just kind of push that guy up. I’ve struggled with that the past couple years being really loose in, and I feel like we’ve got it better. Hopefully for us, if I have to race somebody on the inside it won’t happen, and hopefully that won’t happen to me, either.”
TWO STRAIGHT POLES AND FIVE OF THE LAST SIX ON THE FRONT ROW. HAS THIS BEEN A POINT OF EMPHASIS FOR YOUR TEAM? “Yes, and I feel like we hit on it at the end of last year as well, just kind of what I needed. We qualified on the pole at Martinsville and Phoenix, the last two races of the season, had a lot of speed. We started the year off at speedways and mile-and-a-halves and usually the winner of the mile-and-a-halves don’t qualify on the pole, like a Kansas or an Atlanta or places like that – Vegas. When you’re full throttle, the guy that usually wins is the one that’s mid-pack qualifying because he wants the downforce and the guy taking the pole usually doesn’t have it. Now, we’re at more of the raw speed tracks. If you’re fast, you’re fast in qualifying and I feel like anywhere that we go like that, we’re always right up front.”
HOW HAS THE TRACK CHANGED FROM RACING IN MAY VERSUS NOW AND COULD THIS BE A PREVIEW FOR SUNDAY’S RACE? “I think that it’s definitely gonna be very slimy compared to before. You’re gonna be fighting your own truck just to keep it straight, and I think it’s probably gonna move up a little bit quicker. I know that we moved up into that second groove last year decently quick and I think it’s gonna be even quicker this time and really protecting your right-rear quarterpanel. If somebody gets to your outside, it’s pretty much over for you. You’ve got to just resign the spot, so I feel like there’s definitely a little bit of strategy there for sure and maybe even a little bit of tire conservation just because of it being so easy to buzz them off the corner and slide them versus last year you could kind of abuse them and they’d kind of come back for you. This year is not quite the same, so a little bit more of an old-school short track feel, maybe a little bit more comers and goers, but it’s definitely gonna be a premium to have track position.”
HOW MUCH WILL TIRES BE A FACTOR TOMORROW? “I think more than last year, but if you pitted with 25 to go and you had to restart 20th, you’re not getting back to the lead. You’re not gonna be able to just drive through people, but say the whole field pits and you come out fourth, yeah, you have an advantage. It’ll be some, but it’s not gonna be a game changer on strategy. The guy starting tail end of the longest line is gonna drive through the whole field like a Darlington or somewhere like that. It’s getting better. More tire wear year after year. I tell you, it’s gonna take another four to five years to get it where we want it.”
HOW DO YOU BALANCE WANTING TO RACE IN CUP VERSUS COMPETE FOR A TITLE IN TRUCKS THIS YEAR? “All I can do is impress the right people and from everybody I talk to all I can do is just keep doing what I’m doing – getting poles and winning races and trying to impress everybody. That’s all I’ve got to worry about in a nutshell. If I just keep doing what I’m doing right here, hopefully the right opportunity will come to me.”
THERE ARE A LOT OF CUP GUYS IN THE FIELD TOMORROW. WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO BEAT THEM? “I love it when the Cup guys come down. It always just adds more competition. It adds more eyeballs to this series. A lot of the people in the industry and even fans, it’s a baseline for all regular season guys. If you have six Cup guys in the top seven and you’re one of those guys, it’s like, ‘He could be as good as them one day.’ It’s good when they come down and you can run against them and hopefully outrun them and impress people. It just adds another level and another layer to it, but at the same time it’s difficult for us guys racing for points because those guys don’t care if they wreck out at the end of the day. They’re going for the win and the win only, so you definitely have to be mindful of who you’re racing against, what the risk level is and respect level. Are they gonna respect our point situation or will they run over you just to get the spot or the win at the end of the day and just trying to pull it out in a dynamic situation.”
YOU AND HEIM HAD CONTACT HERE A YEAR AGO. HAVE YOU TALKED SINCE THEN AND HOW WOULD TOMORROW BE DIFFERENT IF THAT WERE TO HAPPEN WITH ANOTHER DRIVER? “I hope it doesn’t happen. We’ve talked. I’ve got a lot of respect for Corey. At the end of the year he deserved the championship last year for sure. He did a really good job and I’m really happy to see the success he’s had. He got the win at San Diego and I was really happy for him. It’s good for me to know that we raced a lot together and felt like people kind of put us on that same tier for talent level, and now he’s able to jump in the Cup Series and be so successful right out of the gate, it really makes me feel good and feel like I could do the same with the same given opportunity, so, yeah, hopefully I’m not really racing real hard with anybody tomorrow and everybody leaves here smiling. That’s the plan.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 38 QuickTie Ford F-150 – “It wasn’t bad. We struggled a little bit in practice and made a little bit of a gain in qualifying, so directionally it was good to see what direction we needed to go in for tomorrow and have the next day to dissect practice, dissect qualifying, what worked and what didn’t work. We’ll go back and look at some sim and come up with a good game plan for tomorrow. I think our No. 38 QuickTie Products Ford F-150 is solid. It needs to be a little bit better for sure, but I feel confident that we have a solid direction at least at where we need to go for tomorrow.”
