Layne Riggs took the redemption for his Charlotte boos at Nashville. And it finally came during a heavily delayed truck race that finished in a last-lap marvel. 

With two back-to-back wins and 3 wins in total, Riggs was a happy man. The 23-year-old Front Row Motorsports driver expressed his joy after the win. “That’s how you win a NASCAR Truck race right there, boys and girls. I hope I put on a show for you guys.”

This was a response to the booing that happened when he won a rain-curtailed Charlotte race under a caution. Fans were upset with the nature of the race, which was postponed multiple times before being pushed to Sunday. Riggs was booed even when he pulled off the iconic Kyle Busch bow celebration. 

Naturally, that left a lasting want for redemption, which he finally achieved at Nashville just a week later, a place where he wanted to win all his life.

Riggs got after a clever strategic call to pit for four tires under a race-defining caution with a little over 30 laps to the race end in Nashville. 

Speaking on the strategy call, he said, “I didn’t want to fall back, but I don’t know what happened with that set of tires, but it was literally undrivable. Dylan(Cappello) made the right adjustments there. got me the tires, he got me the motivation, drove to the front.”

Riggs was 3rd with 7 laps to go and sat 3.5 seconds off Rajah Caruth in the lead. Caruth was driving the No.7 Spire/ Hendrick truck, which was slotted to be driven by Kyle Busch. Riggs made a winning pass on the final lap for the win. 

The win was a special one for Riggs, who comes from a racing family. His father, Scott Riggs, too, had an incredible record in Nashville. 

A Special Place Reserved for Riggs’ First Guitar

Riggs took his eighth victory in 65 truck races and his third this season. But this win at Music City will go down as a special one. After all, he grew up looking at his father’s three guitars and always wanted one for himself. 

Scott Riggs won the inaugural Truck Series race in 2001 at the Nashville Superspeedway, and he followed that up with O'Reilly wins in 2002 and 2003. 

Speaking about where his guitar goes, Layne Riggs said, “He’s got his trophy cases with his guitars in our basement. I’ve had to look at them my whole life. I usually take all of my trophies home to my place in Charlotte. But I think I’m going to take this one back and put it with his.”

The Riggs are now the first father-son winners in Nashville Superspeedway's race history. Scott Riggs was in victory lane to give his son, Layne, a hug before congratulating the entire Front Row Ford team.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason