Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Team EJP 175 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Saturday, August 22, 2026
LAYNE RIGGS WINS SIXTH RACE OF 2026 AND EARNS TOP SEED FOR NCTS CHASE
- Layne Riggs won his sixth race of the season, a career-best, and is the top seed for the Chase.
- Ford has eight wins this season and has won six of the last nine events overall.
- Riggs has 11 career series victories, which is second on the all-time Ford list. Greg Biffle is Ford’s all-time leader with 16.
- Riggs has won five of the last nine series events, including back-to-back triumphs at Charlotte and Nashville.
- The win is FRM’s 23rd all-time and eighth in 2026, which is the most for the organization in one season.
- Riggs has six wins to go with Chandler Smith’s two.
- Overall, Ford has won 137 series races.
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150 – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – YOU SAID THE PIT CREW WON THIS RACE FOR YOU. “They were on it today. Richmond, we had to have some hard conversations and we really just had to get it all together and understand we’re gonna have to pick this up if we’re gonna win this championship, but, man, they came out today and did an excellent job. I’m really proud of my pit crew and everybody that trains them as well. Thank you to everybody that’s here. I love this racetrack. We had a good crowd today. I thought I was in trouble there for a little while. I got back to third or fourth-place and just really couldn’t do anything with the truck. I was just really, really tight, and we just couldn’t get the right adjustment, but that last adjustment that my crew chief and engineer made – Dylan Cappello and Jonathan Coates – was excellent all the way to the end. Thank you to Chandler Smith for running me really clean. It’s in the name – Front Row Motorsports – one-two. It’s really awesome to finish one-two with Chandler. They bring us great trucks. Thank you to Ford Racing for all their help. We’ve got Bare Knuckle Boxing on the truck. We got them another win. I think that’s three with them now, so I’m just super, super excited. This is awesome. I love this racetrack, love the fans here, the atmosphere. This is one I had circled on the calendar that I feel like I missed myself and we missed on setup last year. We came back swinging and no mercy.”
YOU CLINCHED THE TOP SEED, SO WHAT KIND OF STATEMENT DOES THAT MAKE? “A statement win. Everybody wants to go into the Chase with positive momentum. This is about as positive as it gets with a pole and a win. I think that everybody else, they’re definitely gonna try to go to work. We’re gonna work just as hard or harder than them guys and be ready for them. We’ve got seven really great tracks in the Chase that I’m really excited about. Six wins on the year. That’s an excellent statistic for us and this team and myself. Like I said, bring it on. I’m ready to win this championship.”
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Layne Riggs
2nd – Chandler Smith
11th – Ty Majeski
14th – Jake Garcia
17th – Cole Butcher
18th – Ben Rhodes
31st – Luke Baldwin
35th – Patrick Emerling
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 38 The Pete Store Ford F-150 – “Our No. 38 Pete Store Ford F-150 was good today. It was really good, just that last stop it felt like we went the wrong direction on our change. Between me not executing on pit road and maybe not making the right adjustment just put us back in the swamp. It wasn’t in the Lord’s Will for us to win this one. We’ll learn from it and move on.” THE CHASE STARTS NOW. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WHERE YOUR TEAM IS GOING IN? “I’m excited about it. I’m very excited about the opportunity to race for a championship, especially with this race team. I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.” TAKE US THROUGH YOUR DAY AND YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THE CHASE? “We were really, really good today. Our No. 38 Ford F-150 Pete Store was on a rail and then obviously Zilisch got around us there at the end of stage two and just racing each other, but was still really solid, just racing against a Cup driver. They’re used to aero blocking, so that’s all he was doing, so I was just learning that and probably needed a little change there for stage three and went the wrong direction on our change. The driver didn’t execute all that well getting in the pit box and ended up in the swamp. We just had to scratch and claw and get back up to getting a solid top three. I’m proud of the guys, proud of the effort and proud of the fast truck. It wasn’t in the Lord’s Will for us to win today, but, nevertheless, just super thankful at the end of the day to still be racing a truck for a living.”
JAKE GARCIA, No. 98 Quanta Services/Curb Records Ford F-150 – “We did a good job the first two stages getting stage points. I’m proud of our group. We brought a really fast truck. I think we were definitely a fifth-place truck, which is good. I feel like we made the most of it through the first two stages and in the third stage we made some mistakes. I got stuck in the back and it got hard to come through the field. We got close there and then I guess when those cautions started coming out the 18 gained some ground and we didn’t have much of a shot at the end.”
LAYNE RIGGS POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
LAYNE RIGGS: HOW WAS YOUR RACE TODAY? “Qualifying on the pole and track position here is so important like I talked about and led a lot of the majority of the first half, but I just got really, really tight and couldn’t really do anything. When you get tight at this racetrack you’re just stuck and you can’t go anywhere no matter how hard you try. Zilisch got by me. Chandler got by me. A couple guys got by me and we got back to fourth or fifth and I knew we needed some work. We made that first adjustment to start stage two and it didn’t really do anything for me. It kind of stayed the same, so we took a pretty big swing there at the end of the second stage to start the final. Those were the adjustments I needed. My pit crew did an amazing job today. We had some adversity leaving Richmond. We had some hard conversations with everybody to make sure that we’re on track to be championship worthy and they showed up and showed out today. We made spots on pit road every stop, so I’m just proud of those guys and everybody involved. Front Row Motorsports is putting quality content on the racetrack every single weekend. One-two with me and Chandler. It’s in the name, right? Front Row Motorsports. It’s an excellent day for the company. Another win for us and positive momentum going into the playoffs. A statement win.”
YOU HAVE TO BE THE FAVORITE. IS THERE PRESSURE TO PERFORM WHEN YOU KNOW EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT YOU GOING INTO THIS THING? “I wouldn’t say pressure to perform. I like it. We obviously have a points lead still. It’s crazy. We won the race today and we lost a lot of points after the reset. A good day for us, but not good for the reset. We’re still 25 up right now, so that’s good going in there. I feel like all year long we’ve been a really strong truck. Obviously, the statistics are there for us and the team. I like the feeling of being the best. It makes everybody else know that you’re the guy to beat. They really look at you hard and try to study you, so it’s a great feeling and a position every race car driver wants to be in.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FACT YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A BREAK GOING INTO THE CHASE? “I feel good. I think for truck teams having a little break before that pretty quick stretch is good for us. We don’t have as many shop guys. Our road crew guys work on the trucks during the week. It’s a little bit different than the Cup teams that race every single weekend, so we need those weeks off to prepare at the shop to get better. And then it’s pretty hard and tough with back-to-back weekends a lot in the Chase, so having a break, I love winning going into breaks. You get two or three weeks to enjoy it and be the most recent winner for a while and then usually by that point I’m ready to get back to the racetrack and do it again. It’s good for all of us. It’s good morale for the team and one-two for the team is amazing. Chandler did an excellent job today. It made me feel good when I knew I had a teammate behind me there at the end and it wasn’t somebody that was gonna try to screw me over. He did a really good job of being a good teammate. I tried to help him get cleared to get second as well since he didn’t have the track position that we had. I’m just happy for the whole organization.”
WAS SIX WINS AN EXPECTATION FOR WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD DO AT THE START OF THE YEAR? “I mean, my standard was what Corey did last year. Versus his stats, so far I’ve underperformed. I think right now we’re pretty close on stats. I think he had two more wins right now at this point in the season, but I feel like we can do what he did through last year’s playoffs now the Chase, so I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the tracks coming up. I’m excited about where our team is at because I think it’s all positive momentum and all positivity within our group to do that. Like I said, I think that everybody that’s surrounding me in my circle is more than pleased, including myself.”
HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DO YOU HAVE AND HOW DO YOU KEEP FROM SAYING WE’RE OK AND GETTING COMPLACENT? “I wouldn’t say it added more confidence. I was very confident before this race. Like I said, Richmond we kind of stubbed our toe and looking back I’m glad that happened. We had a little bit of a wake-up call. We had a time that we had those tough conversations. We had a come to Jesus meeting with everybody and said we had to pick it up in all aspects with no errors. I can promise you that the champion this year will not be a team that makes mistakes. All seven of those races are equally weighted. When we go to Bristol, it has the exact same weighting as it does when we go to Homestead, so we have to treat all seven of them like they are the championship race and everybody is on that page now. Like I said, a pole and a win. You can’t do any better than that. I’m confident. My team is confident. They’re pumped up. They’re excited. We’re in the best position you could possibly ask for right now.”
WHICH TRACKS OF THE SEVEN ARE THE MOST WORRISOME IN THE CHASE? “Talladega, 100 percent. Talladega. It’s 100 percent out of your control. If I just finish the race, I will be very happy. Martinsville is second on the list because it’s 50 percent out of your control because the guy four rows back hits that guy and dominoes into you and you’re spun around backwards. Our goal is to be fast enough where we can’t get wrecked. That’s all we can do.”
HOW WAS THE PRESSURE AT THE END OF THE RACE KNOWING YOU HAD EVERYONE BEHIND YOU, ESPECIALLY WITH THE 17 UNDER YOU? “Yeah, that was pretty scary. I knew that Gio is very hungry as a race car driver to win. He had a really good truck today, and I knew he was gonna go deep into the corner pretty hard. I did as well and I made sure to give him plenty of room on the bottom so he couldn’t at least try not to spin into me. My spotter, Josh Williams, did a good job. He’s like, ‘He’s spinning. He’s spinning.’ So I made sure to turn right and give him the room even if that possibly made us lose the lead for it. It wasn’t worth getting turned around for it, so I hated that happened to him. I know he’s trying his all to get another win. He’s a really talented race car driver, but besides that it’s all about restart prep, all my short track racing, all my experience coming into this. It’s just cleaning your tires up, how to manage older tires on restarts and wheel spin. I mean, here you spin the tires even in the trucks all the way down the frontstretch pretty much until you upshift to high gear. So it’s just managing that wheel spin, not getting excited. It’s really easy to get excited and spin the tires because you want to go faster than the guy next to you, but just running your race. I feel like my experience and my calmness definitely paid off today. I felt like a veteran.”
