Riggs Outduels Honeycutt Late For Charlotte Truck Win

Layne Riggs (34) duels Kaden Honeycutt Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/SWN photo)

By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor

CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 9, 2026) – It wasn’t easy on him, and certainly wasn’t as dominant as his win in May, but home hero and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship contender Layne Riggs completed a season sweep of Charlotte Motor Speedway in thrilling fashion Friday night.

After starting 13th due to a tough qualifying lap and charging forward three separate times, Riggs made the decisive move exiting turn four on lap 128, slicing underneath Honeycutt’s Toyota as it tank-slapped the outside wall in a desperate attempt to stay ahead in the waning moments of the Ecosave 200.

The Bahama, N.C., native and University of North Carolina at Charlotte engineering graduate then led the final seven laps for his series-high seventh victory of the season, trimming Honeycutt’s point lead in the process.

Riggs’ 12th career Truck Series victory overall moved him to within 17 points of Honeycutt in the Chase standings, with four races remaining in the quest for a championship.

Points weren’t on Riggs’ mind in the immediate aftermath and victory celebration, however. His jubilation was from winning in front of his local fans and friends, as well as being able to put two tough races that opened the Truck Series Chase firmly in the rear-view mirror.

“That was a hell of a battle there at the end with me and the 11 (Honeycutt),” said Riggs after a smoky burnout on the frontstretch. “That was a lot of fun. 

“I think I had to pass the [No.] 11 three or four times (after losing spots in the pits). We’ve got to still work on pit road. That was our weakness still, but I kept driving to the front.”

Riggs’ biggest redemption arc came from a week ago at Kansas Speedway, where he hit the wall trying to chase down Honeycutt that day, ending up 19th instead of having a chance at celebrating victory.

“At Kansas, I was up there, and internally I pressured myself that I needed to go win. Today, I didn’t have any pressure. I just went out and wheeled it.”

Riggs roared from 13th to the race lead in just 15 laps, winning stage one with relative ease, but pit-road struggles throughout the night forced him to battle back over and over again.

Dropping back as far as seventh in stage two allowed Honeycutt to win that segment, even as Riggs eventually clawed his way back into second place, setting the stage for a no-holds-barred second half.

Three crashes inside the final 35 laps – including an eight-truck melee in turn three following a lap-118 restart – gave Riggs every chance to take the fight to Honeycutt, even while the latter mustered enough short-run speed after shoves from TRICON Garage teammate Bayley Currey to seem untouchable.

But Honeycutt wasn’t untouchable, and Riggs proved it with his gutsy, race-winning move.

Honeycutt ultimately dipped to third at the checkered flag, passed by McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes for runner-up honors, and admitted afterward he was probably in his own head a little too much during the heated battle.

“I don’t know how the heck I saved that,” Honeycutt said of his near-spin while trying to defend the lead. “Just seeing the replay, I wish I hadn’t been air-blocking him as much as I did. It just took away what I was trying to do.

“I just focused on him too much. I should have run my own race.”

Behind Honeycutt, Currey – the normal truck chief for the No. 1 TRICON Toyota – finished fourth in TRICON’s No. 5 entry and was the best of the non-Chase drivers in Friday night’s field.

Riggs’ Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith completed the top five, followed by Daniel Hemric, Landen Lewis, Andres Perez De Lara, Tyler Ankrum and Justin Haley.

Five Kyle Busch tribute schemes took the green flag Friday night for the Truck race, which preceded the emotional public celebration of life for the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and all-time Truck Series wins leader, who passed away in May just before Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte.

Two of those trucks – the pole-winning No. 7 of Connor Mosack and his Spire Motorsports teammate Rajah Caruth in the No. 77 – fell victim to the lap-118 chaos that erupted when Caruth had a sudden problem and broke momentum down the backstretch.

The Halmar Friesen Racing entries of Stewart Friesen and Leland Honeyman Jr. also crashed out of the race, leaving only Hemric’s No. 19 to reach the checkered flag with a paint job honoring Busch’s 2007 Delphi colors from the NASCAR Busch (now O’Reilly Auto Parts) Series opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Truck Series teams head next to Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway for a 150-miler at the one-mile desert oval, airing Friday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

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