For a second time since the inception of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Playoff format, a non-Playoff contender stole the final spotlight in the Playoff opener as rookie Layne Riggs dominated the final stage and cruised to his first Craftsman Truck Series career victory in the LiUNA! 175 at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, August 25.
The 22-year-old, second-generation racer from Bahama, North Carolina, led the final 53 of 175-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in 16th place but methodically drove his way to the front, where he would spend the majority of the event running upfront with a bevy of Playoff contenders.
Then after notching a total of 13 stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Riggs flexed his horsepower at the start of the final stage period with 56 laps remaining to move into second place before he then muscled past Playoff contender Ty Majeski for the lead three laps remaining. With the lead in his sole possession, Riggs would maintain it for the remainder of the event and beat Majeski by one-and-a-half seconds to score his first elusive Truck Series career win.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 24, Playoff contender Ty Majeski notched his fourth Truck pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 122.556 mph in 29.815 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Tanner Gray, who posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 122.469 mph in 29.836 seconds.
Prior to the event, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth and Justin Carroll dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Ty Majeski rocketed his No. 98 Road Ranger/Soda Sense Ford F-150 ahead with a strong start from the inside lane and he retained the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Playoff contender Christian Eckes, who started behind Majeski on the inside lane, used every inch of the first two turns to muscle his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST past Tanner Gray’s No. 15 Dead On Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for the runner-up spot. As the field behind jostled for early spots, Majeski proceeded to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Majeski stabilized his lead to as high as six-tenths of a second over runner-up Eckes while Playoff contenders Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez made their way into third and fourth, respectively, ahead of Tanner Gray and Kaden Honeycutt. With William Sawalich, winner of the ARCA Menards Series event at Milwaukee earlier in the day, running in seventh, Playoff contenders and teammates Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Dye followed suit in the top nine while rookie Layne Riggs occupied 10th place ahead of Playoff contender Grant Enfinger.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Majeski extended his early advantage to more than a second over Eckes while Heim, Sanchez and Honeycutt followed suit in the top five ahead of Tanner Gray, William Sawalich, Ankrum, Daniel Dye and Riggs. Behind, Enfinger retained 11th place ahead of Matt Crafton, with Playoff contenders Ben Rhodes and Taylor Gray occupying 13th and 14th, respectively, ahead of Sammy Smith, Jake Garcia, Dean Thompson, Matt Mills, Chase Purdy and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth was up to 24th place after starting at the rear of the field while Bayley Currey plummeted to 36th place, dead last, due to pitting under green from the top-15 mark after getting squeezed into the frontstretch’s outside wall by Taylor Gray and Crafton that cut Currey’s left-front tire on the sixth lap.
Ten laps later, Majeski’s advantage was reduced to eight-tenths of a second over Eckes as Heim and Sanchez trailed the lead as far back as five seconds. Behind, Ankrum retained eighth place and was running two spots ahead of Dye while Enfinger, Rhodes, and Taylor Gray were running 11th, 13th, and 14ty, respectively. By then, Caruth was still mired in 23rd as Honeycutt continued to run as the highest non-Playoff contender in fifth place ahead of Tanner Gray and Sawalich.
Another 15 laps later, Majeski regained his wide advantage from early in the race as he was now leading by more than a second over Eckes. Behind, Heim continued to fend off Sanchez in third place, where the former was ahead of the latter by half a second, while Honeycutt retained fifth place ahead of Tanner Gray, Sawalich, Ankrum, Dye and Riggs. Meanwhile, Caruth cracked the top 20 as he was running in 20th place behind Matt Mills while Playoff contenders Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Taylor Gray remained in 11th, 13th and 14th, respectively.
Then on Lap 42, Eckes took advantage of Majeski getting mired behind lapped traffic, starting through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 before returning to the frontstretch, to move into the lead as he used the outside lane to overtake Majeski along with lapped competitors Bret Holmes and Chase Purdy. Eckes proceeded to stretch his advantage to more than a second just past the Lap 45 mark while Heim, Sanchez and Honeycutt trailed the lead as far back as six seconds.
Then on Lap 47, the event’s first caution period flew when Jayson Alexander got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 3, where his truck came to a stop. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Eckes pitted while Ty Dillon and Jake Garcia remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Eckes exited pit road first ahead of Majeski, Sanchez, Heim, Riggs and Dye, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Heim was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
With the caution period being extended towards the first stage’s conclusion period at Lap 55, the first stage period officially concluded under caution. As a result, Ty Dillon, who remained on the track, claimed his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Jake Garcia, who also remained on the track, followed suit in second ahead of Eckes, Majeski and Sanchez while Riggs, Dye, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray and Ankrum were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Enfinger, Rhodes, Caruth and Heim were mired back in 13th, 18th, 19th and 22nd, respectively, as they missed the first round of opportunities for stage points.
Under the stage break and extended caution period, select names including the leader Ty Dillon, Garcia, Stewart Friesen, Conner Jones and Chase Purdy pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
Amid an extended caution period, where Dexter Bean stalled on the frontstretch just past the Lap 60 mark, the second stage period started on Lap 62 under green as Eckes and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes muscled ahead of Majeski to retain the lead through the first two turns and from the inside lane while Riggs overtook Majeski for the runner-up spot entering the backstretch. As Eckes proceeded to lead the following lap, Riggs followed suit in second ahead of Majeski, Sanchez and the Gray brothers while Crafton was battling Dye for seventh place ahead of Ankrum, Honeycutt and Enfinger.
By Lap 70, Eckes maintained a narrow lead over Riggs as Majeski, Sanchez and Tanner Gray followed suit in the top five. Eckes would proceed to slightly stabilize his advantage to three-tenths of a second by Lap 75 over Riggs as Majeski, Sanchez and Tanner Gray continued to trail in the top five. Meanwhile, Heim, who restarted just outside the top 20 amid his pit road speeding penalty, was up to 14th place in his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro behind Rhodes while Taylor Gray, Dye, Crafton, Ankrum and Honeycutt rounded out the top 10 ahead of Enfinger and Dean Thompson. Amid the battles upfront for a majority of the Playoff contenders, Caruth was mired back in 20th place.
Ten laps later, Eckes retained the lead by half a second over Riggs, with third-place Majeski trailing the lead by a second and fourth-place Sanchez trailing by more than two seconds. Behind, the Gray brothers retained fifth and sixth, with older brother Tanner racing ahead of younger brother Taylor, while Dye occupied seventh place as he was two spots ahead of teammate Ankrum.
At the halfway mark between Laps 87 and 88, Eckes extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Majeski and Riggs as Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray, Dye, Crafton, Anrkum and Honeycutt followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Enfinger, Rhodes, Thompson, Heim, Sammy Smith, Ty Dillon, Matt Mills, Caruth, Garcia and Sawalich.
Through the Lap 100 mark, Eckes stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Majeski while Riggs, Sanchez and Taylor Gray trailed the lead as far back as six seconds. By then, Playoff contenders Dye and Ankrum were in sixth and ninth, respectively, while Enfinger, Rhodes and Heim trailed in the top 13. In addition, Caruth was mired back in 18th place behind Dillon and Mills.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 110, Eckes cruised to his ninth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Majeski followed suit in second ahead of Riggs, Sanchez and Taylor Gray while Dye, Ankrum, Crafton, Honeycutt and Enfinger were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Rhodes, Heim and Caruth were mired back in 11th, 13th and 19th, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of Riggs, Majeski, Sanchez, Dye, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Heim, Tanner Gray and Enfinger.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Eckes and Riggs occupied the front row. At the start, Eckes gained a brief advantage from the inside lane through the frontstretch until he went wide, which allowed Majeski to capitalize and clear Eckes off of Turn 2 with the lead. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch, Riggs then joined the battle for the lead with Majeski and Eckes, but Majeski retained the top spot as Matt Mills got sideways off the front nose of Caruth and hit the wall in Turn 3, though the race remained under green flag conditions. With Majeski leading Riggs for the following lap, Eckes fell back to third as he had Heim, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Sanchez and more trailing in from behind.
Then with 53 laps remaining, Riggs battled and overtook Majeski to lead for the first time through the backstretch. Riggs proceeded to lead by half a second in his No. 38 Zorn Compressor & Equipment Ford F-150 over Majeski with 50 laps remaining as Eckes, Heim and Sanchez trailed in the top five by less than three seconds. By then, nine of 10 Playoff contenders were running in the top 13 while Caruth, the lone Playoff contender who was not running inside the top 13 on the track, was mired back just within the top-20 mark.
With 40 laps remaining, Riggs stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Majeski while Eckes, Sanchez and Heim trailed in the top five by as far back as four seconds. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray trailed in sixth place by five seconds while Ankrum, Rhodes, Tanner Gray and Dye were scored in the top 10 ahead of Crafton, Honeycutt, Enfinger, Sawalich and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Caruth was mired back in 19th place in front of Dean Thompson.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Riggs extended his advantage to a second over runner-up Majeski as Eckes, Sanchez and Heim were running in the top five, with the latter three trailing by more than four seconds. Behind, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Rhodes, Dye and Tanner Gray followed suit in the top 10 while Playoff contenders Enfinger and Caruth were mired back in 13th and 17th, respectively.
Five laps later, Riggs continued to lead the race ahead of eight Playoff contenders and by a second over his closest challenger Majeski. Riggs would proceed to retain the top spot by seven-tenths of a second over runner-up Majeski with 15 laps remaining while third-place Eckes trailed in third place by one-and-a-half seconds
With 10 laps remaining, Riggs, who was being mired in lapped traffic and had his steady advantage steadily decreasing over the last several laps, continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Majeski while third-place Eckes continued to trail by one-and-a-half seconds in third place ahead of Sanchez and Heim. Heim would then be entangled in a battle for fifth place with teammate Taylor Gray and Ankrum while Dye, Rhodes and Crafton trailed in the top 10.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Riggs stretched his advantage back up to a second over runner-up Majeski as Majeski had Eckes trailing him by nine-tenths of a second. By then, fourth-place Sanchez trailed by three seconds while Taylor Gray, who persevered in his late battle against teammate Heim and Ankrum, was running in fifth place and trailing the lead by six seconds.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Riggs remained as the leader by one-and-a-half seconds over Majeski. With Majeski unable to quickly narrow the deficit, Riggs, who was mired within no lapped traffic that could stall his momentum, cycled his Ford smoothly around the Milwaukee circuit for a final time before he streaked back to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag in his 23rd series’ start.
With the victory, Layne Riggs, the leading Rookie-of-the-Year candidate who did not make the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs, became the 125th competitor overall to win in the Craftsman Truck Series division, a list that includes his father and former NASCAR competitor, Scott Riggs. He also joined Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth as competitors to record their first Truck victories in 2024 and he notched the ninth Truck career victory for Front Row Motorsports, with the team winning for the first time since Talladega Superspeedway in October 2023 with Brett Moffitt. The victory was also a first for rookie crew chief Dylan Cappello.
Prior to his first Truck career victory, Riggs had only notched four top-five results while ending up with 10 results of 18th or worse through 16 starts in his rookie campaign. Riggs’ Milwaukee victory, which made him the spoiler of the day as a non-Playoff contender, resulted in the 10 qualified Playoff contenders missing their first shot of automatically transferring past the Round of 10 to 8 by not winning the Playoff opener.
The only thing that went wrong for Riggs’ first victory was the driver dislocating his shoulder while standing atop his roof and pumping his fists in the air and in front of the Milwaukee fans after claiming his checkered flag. Nonetheless, Riggs would receive assistance from his No. 38 pit crew to climb back down from his truck’s roof as he then proceeded to celebrate both on the frontstretch and in Victory Lane.
“I don’t even know how to describe [the first win],” Riggs said in Victory Lane on FS1. “The biggest thing I can do is just thank Zorn that was on the truck this weekend. It’s their first race. It’s awesome for them. Thank you to [team owner] Bob Jenkins, [general manager] Jerry Freeze for letting me drive this [No. 38] truck. I mean, it’s been no surprise that we’ve had a terrible year. It’s been an awful year. I’ve learned so much, though, and I went through my rookie season. After the start, I thought there’s no way we were going to get a win. We do the best we can, but we’re just learning for next year. I knew in practice, this [truck] was pretty awesome. [Me and my team] have a good time together and we’re a family now.”
“[My shoulder] hurts like a mug, but hey, it was worth it,” Riggs jokingly added. “It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, but it ain’t going to slow me down.”
Behind Riggs, Ty Majeski, the pole winner who led 45 laps and was a local hero of the venue as a native of Seymour, Wisconsin, settled in second place as he fell short of winning three races in a row in recent weeks while Eckes, the 2024 Truck Series Regular Season Champion who led a race-high 71 laps, came home in third place for his ninth top-three result of the 2024 season.
Amid the disappointments of not winning the Playoff opener and automatically transferring into the second Playoff round, both Majeski and Eckes continue to set their sights on transferring to this year’s Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway and contending for their first series championship.
“I think the fact that we missed [the setup] as bad as we did and we were as close as we were is super encouraging,” Majeski, who is 44 points above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, said. “That means we have a lot of speed in our trucks. It’s just up to us to hit the package right. [Crew chief] Joe [Shear Jr.] and I put our heads together to come up with our Phoenix [Raceway] package and come up with some changes to it, to try and make it better for Phoenix. [I] Don’t know that we got there quite yet, but super proud of the run we’ve had the last three races. We’re hitting on all eight cylinders right now and super proud of everybody. Everybody back at the shop has been working hard over the course of the Olympic break, into Richmond and into Milwaukee here to get our trucks better. We’re seeing that improvement and I feel good about where we’re at. We’re poised to make a pretty good run here, so we got to keep it going.”
“I was leading on the bottom [lane] and [the truck] bottomed out for the first time all day,” Eckes, who leads the Playoff standings and is 60 points above the cutline, added. “It shot up the racetrack and just couldn’t recover. I was way too tight. [I] Felt like it was going to build tight and it did and we just weren’t aggressive enough on adjustments. Proud of everybody, but definitely a pretty big missed opportunity. We’ll see what happens, but disappointed in that.”
Nick Sanchez rallied from a late retirement at Richmond Raceway two weeks ago by finishing in fourth place while Taylor Gray muscled his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to a strong fifth-place result.
Playoff contenders Tyler Ankrum, Corey Heim, Daniel Dye and Ben Rhodes finished sixth through ninth, respectively, while Matt Crafton came home in 10th place.
Notably, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger ended up in 13th place behind Kaden Honeycutt while Playoff rookie Rajah Caruth capped off his long afternoon in 17th place behind Sammy Smith.
There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured two cautions for 22 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Layne Riggs, 53 laps led
2. Ty Majeski, 45 laps led
3. Christian Eckes, 71 laps led, Stage 2 winner
4. Nick Sanchez
5. Taylor Gray
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Corey Heim
8. Daniel Dye
9. Ben Rhodes
10. Matt Crafton
11. Tanner Gray
12. Kaden Honeycutt
13. Grant Enfinger
14. William Sawalich
15. Jack Wood
16. Ty Dillon, six laps led, Stage 1 winner
17. Sammy Smith
18. Rajah Caruth
19. Dean Thompson
20. Stewart Friesen
21. Jake Garcia, one lap down
22. Conner Jones, one lap down
23. Chase Purdy, two laps down
24. Matt Mills, two laps down
25. Timmy Hill, two laps down
26. Bret Holmes, two laps down
27. Mason Maggio, two laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, three laps down
29. Bayley Currey, three laps down
30. Dexter Bean, three laps down
31. Marco Andretti, five laps down
32. Thad Moffitt, six laps down
33. Matthew Gould, six laps down
34. Justin Carroll, eight laps down
35. Lawless Alan – OUT, Suspension
36. Jayson Alexander – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Christian Eckes +60
2. Ty Majeski +44
3. Corey Heim +41
4. Nick Sanchez +34
5. Taylor Gray +13
6. Tyler Ankrum +13
7. Daniel Dye +9
8. Grant Enfinger +2
9. Ben Rhodes -2
10. Rajah Caruth -4
With the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs underway, the next event on the schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, for the UNOH 200, which will serve as the second Round of 10 event. The event is scheduled to occur on September 19 and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
