Layne Riggs lost the NASCAR Truck Series championship before Homestead

Layne Riggs may have officially lost the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship on Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway after a 32nd-place finish due to a flat tire early in the race, but in actuality, he lost it at Kansas. 

Layne Riggs lost the NASCAR Truck Series championship in September

After a 32nd-place finish at Bristol to open the Chase, Riggs had a chance to win the second race of the postseason until he got into the wall late. Instead, Riggs finished 19th and Honeycutt won the race and had a massive 75-point day. 

A win at Charlotte kept Riggs in the hunt, as did Honeycutt's 14th-place finish at Martinsville — his first result outside of the top 10 since North Wilkesboro on July 18 — but Riggs entered Friday 20 points back of Honeycutt and with no margin for error. 

Over the course of the seven-race postseason, Honeycutt made up a total of 108 points on Riggs, who was the No. 1 seed and had a 25-point advantage on Honeycutt going into the Chase. 

As Riggs noted, the final result of the championship is no reason for he or the No. 34 team to hang their heads. Riggs still won seven races this season and will be in the mix for the title again next year. 

But when it mattered most, the No. 11 team was more consistent when it needed to be, and to rub salt in the wound, Honeycutt went and took the race win on Friday, too, wrangling it away from Christian Eckes, who had the dominant truck of the final stage. 

Honeycutt had 19 top 10s and 16 top fives on the season to Riggs' 15 and 13, respectively. While Riggs had seven finishes outside the top 20, Honeycutt had only four. 

For the first time since 2015, each and every position and point truly mattered in a Truck Series season, and while he didn't win as much as Riggs, Honeycutt was clutch when it counted and capitalized on the mistakes Riggs made. 

That, as it turned out, was the difference in the championship.