by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Layne Riggs picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s FR8 208 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when his #38 Northside Hospital Ford finished 24th, then was disqualified after completing 133 of 135 laps.

The finish came in Riggs’ 8th series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 8th by disqualification, the 18th for the #38, and the 124th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 53rd by disqualification, the 58th for the #38, and the 1,028th for Ford.

Christian Eckes picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s FR8 208 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when his #19 NAPA AutoCare Chevrolet fell out with a brake issue after 50 of 135 laps.

The finish came in Eckes’ 93rd series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 6th for the #19, the 29th from brake trouble, and the 441st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 86th for the #19, the 167th from brakes, and the 1,925th for Chevrolet.

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated driver and team pairings for 2024’s Truck Series campaign has been second-generation racer Layne Riggs with 2022 series champions Front Row Motorsports. Taking the place of Zane Smith, who enters his first full-time Cup Series campaign, Riggs looks to take the step from part-time surprise to weekly competitor. Coming into this season, Riggs had made just six series starts with four different teams, but was a factor in nearly all of them. He was particularly fast at IRP, where he finished 7th in his series debut, then 3rd last year – his two best finishes to date.

Riggs looked for a fast start last week in Daytona, but his race was ruined after only 13 laps when he was caught up in the first pileup of the night, leaving him 33rd in the running order. Atlanta presented many of the same superspeedway challenges, but also a fresh start.

While Riggs qualified 13th for Saturday’s race with a lap of 171.111mph (32.400 seconds), the McAnally-Hilgemann team dominated the session. Christian Eckes in the #19 NAPA AutoCare Chevrolet ran the fastest lap in Round 1 and was joined in the Top 10 by all three of his teammates. In Round 2, Eckes dropped to 5th with a lap of 172.893mph (32.066 seconds) with the rest of the quartet filling the Top Five, led by first-time polesitter Daniel Dye in the #43 Champion Container Chevrolet. The others were outside-polesitter Tyler Ankrum in the #18 LiUNA! Chevrolet and 4th-place Jack Wood in the #91 Klotz Synthetics Chevrolet.

Just 33 trucks arrived to fill the field for the season’s second-straight superspeedway event, including a late entry by Floridian Motorsports’ #21 S I Yachts Ford driven by Mason Maggio. Securing the 33rd and final starting spot was Spencer Boyd in the #33 Latitude Aero Chevrolet. After the command to fire engines, 11th-place Jake Garcia stalled his #13 Quanta Services Ford, forcing others behind him to drive around him onto the track. Garcia received a push from an equipment truck and rejoined the field in his original spot. Bret Holmes also briefly dropped back from 24th in his #32 Precision Garage Door Chevrolet, but NASCAR had him get back to his proper spot for the green flag. No drivers were sent to the back for pre-race penalties.

When the green flag dropped, Boyd retained the 33rd and final spot, 4.157 seconds back of the lead, trailing the pack behind 32nd-place Taylor Gray in the #17 JBL Toyota. From the outset, Boyd said the left-front of his splitter was hitting the track hard. By Lap 3, he was 0.349 second behind original 32nd-place qualifier Keith McGee in the #22 More Core Ford and 5.359 behind the lead. On Lap 5, Boyd still caught and passed McGee, putting last year’s Atlanta last-place finisher to 33rd, 9.33 behind the lead and 0.473 behind Boyd. By then, the 32nd-place Boyd had lost touch with the pack, and was now 3.927 behind 31st-place Mason Massey in the #02 Anderson Power Services Chevrolet.

Over the next few laps, McGee continued to lose touch with Boyd. The interval grew from 1.806 seconds on Lap 6 to 5.889 on Lap 9 and 7.556 on Lap 10. On the 12th circuit, McGee’s spotter alerted him that the leaders were closing and told him to stay smooth. NASCAR also sent their own advisement to the #22 team. On Lap 14, McGee’s spotter told him to hold the inside line, and on Lap 17, he was lapped coming down the backstretch. Seconds later, as he entered Turn 3, McGee’s truck broke loose from the heavy winds blowing that direction. He kept his foot on the throttle and, despite driving through the grass, managed to steer his truck perfectly onto pit road. After a Lap 18 stop under yellow, McGee said he had a vibration, and made a second stop for the crew to check the lug nuts. By then, he was three laps down in last place.

Another driver who found trouble in the opening stint was Conner Jones, whose #66 Cincinnati Ford at first appeared to avoid slapping the wall in Turns 3 and 4. But as he came down pit road, the crew noticed significant damage to the right-front fender and passenger door. Joining Jones on pit road was Lawless Alan, whose #33 AUTOParkit Chevrolet had damage to the right-rear panel after spinning on the apron of Turn 4 not long after McGee’s spin. Alan took the 32nd spot with Jones not far ahead of him. On the Lap 22 restart, the 32nd-place Alan was already 6.186 seconds back of new 31st-place runner Ty Dillon in the #25 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet.

But it was Jones who first came down pit road on Lap 24, needing a fender brace on his damaged right-front. He returned to the track three laps down the next time by, taking last from McGee. Adding insult to injury, Jones was immediately penalized for driving through too many pit boxes, owing a pass-through. Once this was done, he cut down a right-front tire on the damaged fender, forcing still another stop when Stage 1 ended on Lap 31. “How many laps down are we?” asked Jones. “Probably fucking 60,” said the team, who were now six laps back. Jones’ crew had him come in once more for further fender repairs with duck-billed pliers, and told him to run the high lane on the Lap 37 restart.

When the green flag came back out, Jones was warned of a truck slowing ahead of him. This appeared to be Ty Dillon’s #25, which came down pit road for an unscheduled stop, dropping him two laps down into 32nd, moving McGee up to 30th. Dillon then cleared the “Crash Clock” from what was apparent wall contact that forced the stop. By then, the 31st spot fell to an equally frustrated Christian Eckes. After his strong qualifying run, Eckes led twice for 20 laps and won Stage 1, but as early as Lap 25 reported his brakes were starting to fail. He made a pit stop for repairs, but the issue still wasn’t solved, catching the eye of NASCAR. Eckes dropped to the tail end of the field, then on Lap 50 was shown slowing down the backstretch as the caution fell for Daytona last-placer Thad Moffitt’s accident in Turn 3.

As Moffitt’s #43 Petty’s Garage Chevrolet received repairs, NASCAR ordered Eckes to pull behind the wall to address the brake issue. By Lap 53, NASCAR relayed this message more firmly, saying “Turn the 19 into the next opening – take them to the garage,” and told the crew to report to the NASCAR hauler after the race. Crew members had to lean their full body weight back to keep the truck under control as it rolled down the slight incline into the garage area. We need to cap it off inside the truck,” said Eckes’ crew. This same caution saw Jones incur still another penalty, keeping him in last and seven laps down, four laps behind Eckes. Eckes climbed from the truck, and took last from Jones on Lap 57. On Lap 62, Eckes was interviewed by the FS1 crew, whose graphic indicated he was out of the race. In reality, NASCAR didn’t declare him out until Lap 68. Declared out at the same time was teammate Jack Wood, who crossed the nose of Bret Holmes coming off Turn 4, then lost the front splitter as he slid the #91 through the grass. Wood soon slipped to 32nd.

Jones only climbed to 30th by the checkered flag, though he gained a lap to come home six laps down to race winner Kyle Busch. The one truck he passed belonged to Bayley Currey, who early in the race had a loose upper-right corner of the windshield on his #41 AutoVentive / DealBadger Chevrolet. The resulting gap between the windshield and roof caused three-quarters of the roof to suddenly fly off around Lap 96, the debris bouncing off the roof of Ty Dillon’s already damaged #25. Currey made it safely to pit road, but was eliminated due to the missing part, listed as “damage” in the final results. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Ben Rhodes after late-race issues on his #99 Campers Inn RV Ford dropped him out of contention.

As for the other two McAnally trucks, Tyler Ankrum enjoyed his best run in years, finishing 2nd in both stages and leading seven times for a race-high 46 laps, but slipped to 7th in the run to the finish. Two spots behind him came polesitter Daniel Dye, whose 9th-place run after finishing 10th was his second career top-ten finish, still ranked behind his 6th-place performance last fall in Talladega.

Layne Riggs, meanwhile, finished two laps down in the 24th spot, completing the Bottom Ten. Curiously, after the end of Stage 2 of the afternoon’s XFINITY race, his hauler was the only one still sitting in the garage. The reason was an issue in post-race inspection. Just like at Homestead last fall – and Currey’s #41 in this very race – the truck was found with loose windshield fasteners. Riggs was thus disqualified, bumping Eckes out of the 33rd spot and Ben Rhodes out of the Bottom Five. Currey was not disqualified for his own issue, though NASCAR reported they would speak with the team later this week.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the second time in four races that Front Row Motorsports’ #38 has been disqualified due to an infraction relating to a loose windshield. In what was also the most recent last-place run by the #38, Zane Smith was disqualified from 2nd place at Homestead on October 21, 2023. The number hadn’t finished last in a Truck Series race at Atlanta since Dennis Setzer had rear gear trouble after 2 laps on August 31, 2012.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

33) #38-Zane Smith / 133 laps / disqualified

32) #19-Christian Eckes / 50 laps / brakes / led 20 laps / won stage 1

31) #91-Jack Wood / 57 laps / crash

30) #41-Bayley Currey / 96 laps / damage

29) #66-Conner Jones / 129 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Faction 46, Front Row Motorsports (1)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet, Ford (1)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP