Exclusive: Layne Riggs Eyes Championship as He Hits 50 Truck Starts

Saturday afternoon, Layne Riggs will make his 50th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start in the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But before the driver, who secured his advancement to the Round of 8 of the Playoffs with a win a weekend ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, became a championship contender, he had to scratch and claw his way to a full-time driving opportunity in the NASCAR National Series.

"That was probably one of the hardest areas of my racing career so far, trying to get a full-time ride," Riggs explained in an exclusive interview with Racing America On SI.

The native of Bahama, North Carolina, credits longtime partner Infinity Communications for allowing him to land part-time deals with several organizations in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ranks, including Halmar Friesen Racing, Young's Motorsports, and Spire Motorsports, which began to put him on the radar for teams seeking a full-time driver.

However, it was a three-race NASCAR Xfinity Series opportunity with Kaulig Racing, which sealed the deal for Riggs to move into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series full-time in 2024. Riggs says that his father and former five-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race-winning driver, Scott Riggs, struck up a conversation with Jerry Freeze, the Front Row Motorsports General Manager, ahead of a start at Martinsville Speedway in October 2023.

"Dad was talking to some guy behind the trailer, and I went out there and had a conversation with him," Riggs said. "He turned and said, 'Hey, I'm Jerry Freeze. I run Front Row Motorsports,' He said, 'Do you want to run my truck next year?' I was like, 'Of course I do. That'd be great.' And he said, 'Well, I'll watch you see how you do tonight, and then we'll see if I call you or not.' And I was like, uh-oh. Enough pressure, right?"

Despite the lofty pressure of the moment, Riggs competed admirably in and around the top-10 all race long. However, in the closing laps, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed -- then teammates at Richard Childress Racing -- had an on-track skirmish, which cost Riggs, who was running around the top five, the finish that he deserved.

Riggs would finish 11th. Nervously, Riggs waited to see if he had done enough to impress Freeze. Spoiler alert: he did.

"[I] got the call the next week," Riggs recalls. "[Freeze] said, 'We want you, we just got to work out the logistics,' and he said, 'I just wanted to pressure you and see what happened. I was going to call you either way. No matter how you did.'"

As Riggs moved to the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 for the 2024 season, there were lofty expectations for the rookie driver, who had a top-five and two top-10s in six starts while competing part-time from 2022 to 2023. Out of the gates, Riggs struggled during his rookie season.

Through the opening nine races of the season, Riggs had more DNFs (two) than he had top-10 finishes (one). The rough start had the then 22-year-old wondering why he wasn't figuring things out.

"Yeah, I wouldn't say panic, but it was definitely like, I did question myself a lot, like, what am I doing wrong? Why can't I get it?" Riggs explained. "Like I've run well in the past. We've had some good runs. I just feel like we were always on the wrong end of the stick for stuff, and we had pretty good speed. I'd say like half the race we went to, we were competitive. Those races that we were competitive [in], they never really showed on the stat sheet."

Riggs started to get his footing mid-season, and one week after failing to advance into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, it all finally clicked. Riggs would score his first career win at The Milwaukee Mile. A week later, he'd take career win No. 2 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

"Getting the two wins inside the playoffs, like, that was just a big turnaround. It's like, okay, now I know what it feels like to win. I know what kind of feel I'm looking for, and you know, it just kind of, it just got easier after that," Riggs stated. "So just breaking through that ice was definitely tough, but I had faith in me, my team, and, you know, Dylan [Cappello] being so new, I mean, he was just as green as I was being a crew chief, trying to figure all that out. We just knew it was going to take a little time. We knew it was going to be tough, but we just kept staying devoted to each other, knowing that we all had the talent to do it. We just had to make it all happen at the right time."

While the back-to-back wins late in his rookie campaign were certainly a big deal, Riggs couldn't help but feel that the wins were bittersweet.

"Yeah, that was super gratifying. I mean, it stung a little bit because we weren't in the playoffs," Riggs noted. "It's like, man, these guys are bringing their best of the best. They're going for championships, and I'm out here just beating them. And it's like, man, if we had been in the playoffs, I think we would have gone to the Championship 4. So, yeah, I just felt a little left out. Like, man, one race earlier, we could have been in it, but at the same time, just glad that I was able to show that."

Fast forward to the here and now, and last week's triumph at Bristol Motor Speedway, Riggs' third win of the 2025 season, is a poignant reminder of how important those back-to-back wins, which included a win at the 0.533-mile Bristol, were. A year later, they are legitimate championship contenders, and at this point, Riggs would feel disappointed if he didn't head into Phoenix Raceway in a couple of months as one of the four drivers fighting for the championship.

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume that we're gonna make it to the Championship 4. That's the goal. And I think anything less than that would definitely be disappointment," Riggs said. "But just getting to Phoenix, having the opportunity to race for a championship, is the main goal. And if the cards align that day, if everything goes right and it works out, that's amazing. But if not, hopefully, if it doesn't work out, we can say it was because something out of our control happened. You know, we just don't want to beat ourselves and take ourselves out of contention to do it."

That brings us to career start No. 50 this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. While Riggs can race pressure-free as he has already secured a spot in the Playoffs Round of 8, Front Row Motorsports will be bringing a brand new No. 34 truck to the track this weekend to tackle 'The Magic Mile', and as long as everything goes well, this truck is expected to be the one he uses at Phoenix for the championship race.

"I've never been to New Hampshire, but I already know I love that track. Just running the sim. I mean, it's very similar to Milwaukee, which is where I got my first win, kind of has that same feel as an IRP. I mean, you don't quite get out to the outside wall, but just like that flat kind of paper clip-ish shaped racetrack. Man, it's just right up my alley," Riggs explained. "So yeah, I'm super excited about it. We're taking a brand new truck. Hopefully, it's the same one we run at Phoenix. I think that New Hampshire is really going to be a telltale to see who's who and who has the upper hand going into Phoenix."

If Riggs ends up hoisting the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship trophy, it very well could be because of what he and crew chief Dylan Cappello learn this weekend in their first-ever trip to Loudon, NH, together.

Layne Riggs NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Career Stats

But if he does win the title, he'll likely have to go through Corey Heim, who has had a season for the ages. With five races remaining in the year, Heim sits at eight victories, just one away from Greg Biffle's all-time series record of nine.

Riggs and Heim have fought hard against each other several times this season, including earlier this year at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where Riggs made contact with Heim on the final lap while battling for the lead. The contact sent Heim spinning out, and after the race, Heim confronted Riggs on pit road.

While Riggs says he holds no ill feelings toward Heim, he knows that there's a chance that Heim could still be looking to exact revenge from the last-lap incident at North Wilkesboro, and if they find each other in a battle for the championship at Phoenix, it could be time for Heim to cash in the payback.

"I don't really know. I feel like there's definitely hard feelings there, at least him towards me, but you know, I just try to block it all out," Riggs said. "I feel like we just race on the racetrack. We race each other hard. I feel like we're always racing against each other because we're, I feel like, the top two drivers in the series right now. So we just naturally find ourselves on the racetrack. But I respect him. I respect the talent he's got, the speed they've got, and I'd hope it's the same both ways."

Regardless, it looks like it's shaping up to be an incredible finish to the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, as two of the most talented drivers in an astonishingly talented crop of young drivers, looking to make their way to the NASCAR Cup Series someday, are seemingly set to battle it out all the way through Phoenix.

While Heim has shown the talent capable of competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, he remains on the outside looking in for a full-time ride in that series, and appears to have the same status for the 2026 season. What does the future hold for Riggs?

Riggs admits that he doesn't feel like he's quite ready, yet, to make the leap to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time, but he feels like he could be ready soon.

"I do feel like I need, at least another year in trucks or Xfinity, whatever the path is. But, you know, I'm planning on running the 34 truck again next year as of now," Riggs said. "So yeah, I feel like I just need a little bit more time. I'd like to make some cup starts, you know, do some part-time stuff with the team. kind of working on stuff right now for next year, hopefully. I mean, nothing's done yet or even really in talks. That's the goal, to try to branch out, make some starts next year, either Xfinity or in Cup."

If Riggs can run another full-time season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series next season and can get some part-time starts under his belt in the NASCAR Cup Series, the driver feels relatively confident that he could be ready for full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition going into the 2027 season. Provided he acclimates well to the NASCAR Next Gen car in the Cup Series.

However, there is time for Riggs to figure all of that out. For now, the focus is on the task at hand, which is collecting another win this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and then ultimately working his way to Phoenix Raceway with a chance at competing for his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.