Layne Riggs beats Kaden Honeycutt to win NASCAR Truck Series race at Charlotte

Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Layne Riggs beats Kaden Honeycutt to win NASCAR Truck Series race at Charlotte

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Oct 9, 2026 7:41 PM ET

The entire complexion of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship battle changed with seven laps to go in Friday's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kaden Honeycutt had a 58-point lead over Layne Riggs as he led Riggs in the closing laps of the Ecosave 200, but unlike in the Sept. 26 race at Kansas, it was Honeycutt, not Riggs, who made the race-deciding mistake.

With the handling on Honeycutt's No. 11 Toyota fading, Riggs turned under Honeycutt as the latter slipped and hit the wall on the exit of turn 4 with seven laps remaining.

Riggs proceeded to pull away as Honeycutt faded to third. The victory, Riggs' seventh of the season, pulls him to within 17 points of Honeycutt with four races left in the season. The win gives him a series sweep of the races at Charlotte, as he also won at the 1.5-mile track on May 24.

The battle continues! @LayneRiggs99 claims the lead after @KadenWHoneycutt makes contact with the wall. https://t.co/F2nzopE3nU
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) October 9, 2026

"I loved that one," Riggs told Fox Sports. "Thank you to everybody. We really needed that one. That was a hell of a battle there at the end with me and the 11. That was a lot of fun. This thing was fast tonight. I think I had to pass the 11 three or four times. Kept driving it to the front.

"I just had a good run. At Kansas, internally, I pressured myself that I needed to go win. Today, I didn't have any pressure. I just went out and wheeled it."

Christian Eckes finished runner-up, with Honeycutt, Bayley Currey and Chandler Smith rounding out the top five. Daniel Hemric, Landen Lewis, Andres Perez, Tyler Ankrum and Justin Haley completed the top 10.

Notable results

Other notable finishers include Ty Majeski in 11th, Grant Enfinger in 12th, Regan Smith in 17th, Ben Rhodes in 21st and Gio Ruggiero in 26th. Polesitter Connor Mosack, driving a Kyle Busch tribute scheme, finished 33rd.

A celebration of life for Busch is to be held at 8 p.m. ET at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with coverage on FS1.

Chandler Smith (third, -77) and Eckes (fourth, -88) are the only other drivers within 100 points of Honeycutt for the points lead through 21 races. The Truck Series will return to action at Phoenix Raceway on Oct. 16.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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