CONOCRD, N.C. — Layne Riggs’ confidence is high, and it should be.
Riggs has won back-to-back NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races and holds the series point lead as it heads to Michigan Int’l Speedway to race on Saturday.
Riggs drove his Front Row Motorsports Ford-150 to victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway.
“I’m gonna dedicate it all to my team here at Front Row Motorsports,” said Riggs. “They’ve done an amazing job building these trucks for Chandler (Smith, teammate) and I. We’re really trying to process and work together through this new body change over the off-season. The guys in the fab shop have been doing a great job. They’ve just built a lot of raw speed into our trucks that we’re able to take to the race track.
“Charlotte, we hit it pretty close and got the track position and were able to win. Nashville, we’ve always been strong at Nashville, but with everything going on with my confidence, knowing what I need to go fast with the trucks that have speed built into them, with Dylan (Capello) just being more comfortable as a crew chief making the right adjustment calls, we’ve been able to look a little bit further ahead. Being proactive instead of just reacting to things at the racetrack is really big, but, overall, both of our trucks have shown a lot of speed and that’s all thanks to these guys who work here at this race shop.”
Riggs, who is in the midst of his third Truck Series season, believes he’s gained a lot of experience that has helped his team thrive. The son of longtime racer, Scott Riggs, is an eight-time winner in the Truck Series
“I feel comfortable driving the truck. I feel more comfortable being on the edge of the tire, prolonged through the corner. I know what my limits are now, and I can run a lot closer to that edge comfortable,” Riggs explained. “Like I said, I think that comes from confidence, from winning and just from experience in the seat. It’s finally all paying off.
“And when I talk about experience it’s not just me, it’s my team too,” he continued. “In 2024, a rookie driver in myself, Dylan Cappello, my crew chief, was a rookie crew chief. We didn’t know what we were doing. We were just out here racing and figuring it out as we went – an entire rookie team that I now feel like has become kind of a staple in the garage as one of the best there.
“I’m just really proud of everybody and all of the hard work they’ve been doing, not just from the success at the race track, but everything here in the race shop that leads up to it.”
Riggs, 23, only has one race under his belt at Michigan’s high-speed, two-mile track.
“The trucks at Michigan are basically like Cup cars at Atlanta,” Riggs said. “The leader is never gonna be able to break away from the pack. You have to be pack racing the entire time, but it’s not like Daytona or Talladega where you’re two or three-wide in a pack holding it wide open.
“You still have to have handling and you still have to lift in the corners, but there’s a lot of straightaway time and a lot of throttle time, so it’s gonna be a big trade off between how much handling and downforce do you want to bring versus that raw speed.”
