Layne Riggs reacts to missing out on Championship 4 via tiebreaker at Martinsville

Tonight, P3 wasn’t enough for Layne Riggs to make the final transfer spot in the NASCAR Truck Series Championship 4. He ended up in a tie with Kaden Honeycutt. Honeycutt won the tiebreaker by having the best finish in the round between the two drivers. Coincidentally, it was his P2 finish tonight at Martinsville that was the deciding factor.

While Corey Heim won his 11th race of the season tonight, the focus was on the cutline. 2nd to 5th were separated by only a single point by the time this race ended. It was quite a battle for that final spot in Phoenix.

Layne Riggs needed one more stage point, or just one more position on the track. That was all that separated him from racing for the Truck Series championship.

“Yeah, I was dejected even when I thought we were in at first,” Riggs said after the race. “I just don’t like racing that way, man. I’m hearing, ‘You gotta get one, you gotta get one.’ And everybody knows how it is. I mean, if I got the opportunity to get in for my team, I’m going to do it, even if I don’t want to do it the way I do. So, I mean, I got there at the end. I mean, I hate that I roughed up the 1 [Brent Crews], glad they still finished pretty good. But yeah, man, it all kind of started with that missed shift on that restart. I’m not really sure what happened.

“I’ve never missed a shift in a truck in my whole career. We do have some new transmissions, I guess I’m just not quite used to them yet. So, pretty upset about that. I think things could have been a lot different. But I mean, it all started at the Roval, getting turned around on Lap 1. Going to Talladega, having all the issues we had. So, definitely dejected. I would have been dejected even if we were in, in fourth. I just don’t like it, man.”

Layne Riggs misses out on Championship 4

Layne Riggs diagnosed the issues perfectly. He wasn’t able to fix those issues tonight. While it will sting now, there is a lot for Riggs to learn from this season going into 2026.

The Championship 4 will go on without Riggs. He has obviously been the second-best driver all season behind only Corey Heim and his historic season. Riggs has three wins this season, and at a track like Phoenix, he was going to be a real challenge for Heim.

Instead, Riggs missed out on Phoenix by one point. He even earned the fastest lap award for a bonus point tonight, and it wasn’t enough. Riggs pointed to his performances at the Roval and Talladega, and he’s right. If it weren’t for those performances and the incidents that happened in those races, Riggs moves on easily.

Tonight, Layne Riggs didn’t do what he had to do. He started on the pole, but had a bad restart early on that damaged his truck and other trucks. From there, the 34 team was playing catch-up. A great final restart still wasn’t enough to get that final spot over Honeycutt. Next season, Riggs is going to be a driver to watch.