Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Catching Up With Truck Series Winner Layne Riggs | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Catching Up With Truck Series Winner Layne Riggs | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

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  It is time to go lights out now with winner Lane Riggs from the
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  Craftsman Truck Series. Lane, you got a historic
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  victory. You got a first for you
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  personally, but man, any win is great.
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  But when you put those other two things together, man, that did
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  this, winning is just a good business, isn't it?
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  It was and winning. Winning is good for everybody,
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  good for everything and just great confidence booster.
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  And the biggest thing is there's two parts to it.
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  First part is just the redemption after the first two
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  rough races. We had, I mean, Daytona in
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  Atlanta, we didn't have a great truck.
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  We had bad luck, really, really down in points and just kind of
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  a man, just a shot to the heart after so much work over the
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  offseason to come out swinging and we just did it.
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  So to do that and then to go to somewhere so different in wild,
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  a street course of all things with my limited Rd. course
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  experience, that was my fifth ever Rd. course in my life.
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  It was just very, very satisfying.
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  It's like that first win feel and it was not first win in the
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  series, but just first win and something so different than what
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  I'm used to and what I normally do and what people expect me to
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  excel at. And I think that's just a
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  testament. Everybody at Ford Racing, Front
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  Row Motorsports and I gave a big shout out to Joey Hand.
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  He's been my Rd. course mentor and coach.
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  She is pretty much Ford Racing's road course guy that helps all
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  of us NASCAR guys go fast on the road courses.
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  So yeah, big shout out to him. It was a super big day for all
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  of us. And man, like I said, winning
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  fixes everything. So, Lane, the way we discuss,
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  I'm sorry, the way we crown a champion nowadays is a little
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  bit different, but the idea is still the same.
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  There still is just as much emphasis on winning, isn't
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  there? Because that's the way you get
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  the most points. For sure winning still means a
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  lot. 15 extra bonus points over second place, which is a lot,
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  but you're not locked in. So I don't think there's going
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  to be any complete wild cards that get to bump their way up in
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  points a lot. I mean, winning a stage is 10
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  points, so winning a race is an extra 15.
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  I, I think it's a good format. You're you definitely get
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  rewarded for winning. It's definitely worth taking the
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  risk to win over just being content with second or third.
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  But at the end of the day, you still got to be consistent and
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  the guys that are winning those races are going to be the ones
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  that are probably up there anyways.
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  So yeah, I just wanted to make sure that I'm good on all
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  aspects of tracks. Any type of racing we go to, I
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  want to make sure I'm strong yet and try to get as many points as
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  possible. You still got to be really
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  consistent at the end of the day if you can't pull off the win.
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  Lane there's a lot of people that race in NASCAR's three top
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  series and never even get the win.
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  I know the big pictures, the championship, but when you got
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  that first Truck Series victory, what, what did that do for you
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  to cross that line from competitor to winner?
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  It just for myself, it just proved that I deserve to be
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  here. And I feel like a lot of that,
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  my first couple truck races, those couple of O'reilly's races
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  that I ran, it was always just trying to prove to everybody
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  that I deserve to be in NASCAR. I deserve to be a national
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  series driver. And starting 2024, my first full
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  time year for Front Row Motorsports, didn't really start
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  off like I wanted it to be. Just there's a really big
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  learning curve. I mean, the biggest curve I'm
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  ever going to have to have in my life.
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  When you go from short track late models all the way to
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  racing at Daytona at mile and a halfs, it's a lot different
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  style and a lot to take on. So once I got the first win in
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  my rookie season, it's like, OK, that's the stamp of approval.
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  I I can do it. I approved it.
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  Everybody knows it now. And then we went back and backed
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  it up and went back-to-back at Bristol and both of those in the
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  playoffs. It's like, OK, now I'm putting
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  myself up there. I should I should be finishing
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  up front winning races all the time now.
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  And it's it's great when your goals and expectations are high
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  right now. I feel like this year winning
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  keeps me content and and not winning makes me want to push a
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  little bit harder to make sure we can the next.
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  Weekend. You know one thing, Lane, I
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  think people just don't get about racing.
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  And sometimes you hear these comments from the fans that yet
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  your daddy was a Cup level driver and your last name is
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  Riggs. But but it all ends there,
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  doesn't it? It it ends when when you get
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  behind the wheel because your last name can't wheel the car,
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  money can't wheel the car, good looks can't wheel the car.
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  You still have to have the talent to do it and you got to
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  do it on your own even though you have a family involvement,
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  right? For sure, and you know, he's
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  helped me a lot along the years, but I didn't have that same kind
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  of connection and that I guess straight away shot to get that
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  opportunity. I had to work for it and prove
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  it for myself. It wasn't guaranteed.
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  Oh, you know, Lane's dad's this, he's going to get an opportunity
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  full time. I I was still a very lucky guy
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  and feel like I had to put in the work, prove it, show the
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  trophy, show the championships at the lower levels to get that
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  opportunity just like any other race car driver would.
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  You know, it's, it's great to have him around.
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  It's great to have connections and and know people, but at the
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  same time, it didn't really get me that much further than than
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  the next guy. So I feel like I created my own
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  destiny on my own. I'm not riding any coattails and
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  it's great to have him at the racetrack.
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  He actually wasn't going to go to Saint Pete and we needed
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  another spotter. So I convinced him to go and
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  thankfully he was there. So yeah, it's, it's just great
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  to keep the family tradition going.
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  Bahama, North Carolina, both of us are from got a lot of
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  hometown support from everybody and yeah, it's it's just awesome
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  having part of my life and and keep the tradition going for the
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  family. The rig's name.
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  Yeah, that's a heck of a spotter to have up there for you.
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  Another thing, Lane, that you're involved in that I think is
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  pretty cool. After you got the victory, we
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  had an opportunity to talk to some of the other people
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  involved in Front row right now on SiriusXM.
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  And I like the fact that this is the little team that could you
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  guys are building from the ground up and this is a slow but
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  steady process to where you guys are getting to be contenders
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  week in and week out. It must be pretty cool to be
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  part of something like that, that that has been built from
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  the ground up. It has.
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  And the progression from Front Row Motorsports here I'd say in
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  the past five years has been tremendous.
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  You know, the truck program started I think it was 2020 or
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  2021 with Todd Gilliland and then went to Zane and then now
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  me and you know, Zane Smith did win the championship in in this
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  truck and it is a championship caliper team.
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  And I don't look at our truck program as the little team that
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  could. I think our truck program is an
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  A+ grade A-Team. When we show up with the
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  racetrack now, I think that our Cup cars at front row are
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  definitely in that category. The little team that could and
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  we are building and we have three cars now.
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  That's that's a lot to take on. And everybody's doing a great
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  job in building and Bob Jenkins and Jerry Fries and the race
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  team, they're motivated, motivated, dedicated, and they
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  want to win races just as bad as anybody.
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  And you know, now with everything, the way it's going
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  nice and smooth, we're just slowly building that ladder and
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  just happy to be a part of a team that has so much passionate
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  for the sport. You know what I think is pretty
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  cool these days, Lane? I think just maybe about four or
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  five years ago it seemed like a lot of guys were doing one year
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  contracts with teams because the future was so uncertain.
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  But now when we see Zane's a good example of a longer term
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  contract, another team we heard last week about Carson Hosovar
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  with his turn with his team doing a much more long term
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  contract that that's got to be I think a little settling for a
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  driver to see that those things are happening, that things have
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  just stabilized a little bit over the last few years.
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  Yeah, it's good for those drivers that have those long
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  term contracts, but there's also the other side of it and it's
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  also filling up seats long term. And when you look at a guy like
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  Corey Hyman, everybody's been talking about him isn't even in
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  a full time ride this year, which is crazy to me, the things
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  that he's done. Pros and cons to all, but you
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  definitely want to be the guy that has that long term contract
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  for a competitive race team. And you know, hey, I'm I'm not
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  scared to buy this car, buy this house.
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  I know I'm going to have income for the next few years.
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  Race car driving is a very, I would say unstable job and you
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  never really know what your future holds.
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  But being with the team that believes in you and you believe
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  in them and you know that you can bank on each other to to
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  support each other for years to come is always a great feeling.
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  So Lane, is your career on track?
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  I know people get so involved sometimes in talking about, OK,
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  I want to do this many years in the trucks, then go to O'Reilly,
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  then go to Cup. But but there's so much outside
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  forces that determine how fast somebody moves up are.
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  Are you on track from where you wanted to be?
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  Are you ahead of the game, behind the game a little bit?
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  How has your career path been in terms of what you expected?
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  I'm having fun, that's all that matters to me, and racing in the
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  Truck Series and making it being my job to race full time, that's
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  all I could ever ask for and anything else is just going to
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  be a cherry on top, you know, I'm really happy with what I'm
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  doing right now. Third year in the Truck Series.
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  This should be my breakout year. I think that we should win the
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  championship this year just with the natural progression that
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  we've had so far. Sure, anything can happen, but
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  it's a lot different than it was back in the day.
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  Back in the day, it's like you race trucks for two years, you
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  race O'Reilly for two years and then you go to the Cup Series
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  and it's like if you didn't do that, you didn't succeed.
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  And it's just so much different nowadays that you can jump up,
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  you can jump down, you can bounce all around.
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  And it's not really a set progression level.
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  You have to do these steps and a lot of Times Now I feel like you
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  either go trucks to Cup or you just go straight to O'Reilly to
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  Cup. I feel like that progression of
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  trucks, then to O'Reilly, then to Cup just isn't really a thing
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  anymore. And it's not really worth having
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  to relearn it all in a different series that isn't that much
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  higher up on the ladder than each other.
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  I look at, you know, Truck and O'Reilly kind of at the same
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  level but different, and then you look at Cup as way up the
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  ladder. That's where everybody in those
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  series want to be. And I think that that jump from
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  either truck or a rally straight to cup is is something that's
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  becoming more and more normalized.
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  And, you know, that's my goal here.
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  I'd like in the near future to, you know, become a cup series
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  driver. But at the same time, I'm
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  willing to wait for that right opportunity, wait till the
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  time's right. I just don't want to get stuck
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  if you know what I say. I don't want to get stuck
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  forever and just be labeled as a Truck Series guy and that
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  doesn't people don't even look at is giving the opportunity.
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  I want to keep the progression going, but I'm having a lot of
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  fun doing what I'm doing right now.
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  You had a lot of success as well, Lane.
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  A lot of wins under your belt and also an early victory this
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  year. Lane.
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  One of the things you talked about was how hard you worked.
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  You mentioned Joey Han with Ford and you mentioned working on the
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  road course program like that. What was it all SIM time?
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  Was it watching videos? What went in to making you get
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  this improvement, get this victory?
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  Really all SIM time for me. We've been working on the
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  simulator myself, Joey and my engineer, we've been working on
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  that since December. We go in the simulator every
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  week at Ford Racing and not being as many Ford teams, we get
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  a lot of time in the simulator pretty much as much as we would
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  want to. And I use it all and I try to
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  just perfect myself, get better. And it's like every every week,
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  it's like, all right, we we're going to work for three hours on
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  other stuff. But in the in the last 30
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  minutes, we're going to make sure you run some Saint Pete
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  laps just so you can get comfortable and feel good about
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  it. And I felt like when I showed it
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  to the racetrack, a lot of people that I saw in practice,
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  they didn't know where they were at.
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  They didn't know which direction the track turned and like they
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  didn't even know the layout that well.
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  For me, I was not even having to really think about it.
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  I would just go out there and just drive like I was in the
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  simulator and it all paid off. So just big dividends to
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  everybody at Ford Racing, my engineer and Joey, that we put
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  in that effort. It's great to see your effort
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  pay off. A lot of times you work really
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  hard towards something and the and the outcome isn't any better
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  if you just would have not even tried.
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  But it's great when you put in the effort and you see the
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  results from it. It's a lot more rewarding.
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  So Lane, you mentioned someone a moment ago about going for the
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  championship this year. And I think racers are are
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  realists. Of course, everybody wants to go
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  be the fastest in practice, sit on the pole and win the race and
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  win every stage. We know you can't do that.
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  But I think when a driver says that you're you're running for
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  the championship, it's because you feel that you really can.
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  And I think you guys are really barking up the right tree when
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  it comes to that. Yeah, I think so too.
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  And yeah, we all want to be the fastest every lap on the
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  racetrack. But it's kind of funny.
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  A lot of the fans don't really understand with the Truck Series
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  how that trade off of speed versus handling works.
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  You look at a track like Kansas Speedway, If I qualify in the
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  top ten at Kansas, I'm nervous because I know my truck's
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  probably not going to handle that well.
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  I think about last year it was myself and Corey, we qualified
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  like 26th and 27th and we were running 1/2 on like lap 20.
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  So a lot of people, they look at the qualifying results and
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  they're like, oh man, it's they're not good.
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  They qualified in the back. And it's it's funny because we
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  all know we're like, oh, we're going to be up front at the end.
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  Those guys that qualify the top five, they're going to be
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  struggling and lacked a couple of them.
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  So yeah, it it's funny. You can't do it all.
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  It's a trade off. If you want to win the race,
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  you're probably not going to qualify that well on the bigger
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  tracks, the ones that error matters and that, you know, the
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  error versus handling trade-offs there.
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  But yeah, we want to be the best at everything.
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  And you know, boy, these days, when you look at where the Truck
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  Series has come, I, I'm not going to say the Truck Series
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  was ever bad, But when you look lane these days at how deep this
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  series is that the kind of caliber drivers and teams that
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  are going. I mean, every once in a while
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  you guys are having to deal with the with Kyle Busch and Ricky
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  Stenhouse and Carson Hosavar and all those guys and that it's no
• 14:03
  guarantee these days. Now granted, Kyle Busch did win
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  a couple weeks ago, but there's no guarantee these days that
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  just cuz you're a Cup champion, you're going to win in the
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  trucks and I think that speaks volumes about the competition
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  level. It does.
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  The competition is really high and a lot of those Cup guys are
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  running a lot of races this year and that makes it difficult on
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  us because we are points racing now.
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  It comes down to the last lap. You're running side by side with
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  those guys. They're going to do whatever it
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  takes to win the race, but they don't even care if they wreck
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  out, you know, say they reckon the last like going for the win,
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  who cares? We are points racing.
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  It really matters for us. So they really have the
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  advantage when it comes down to racing situations that putting
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  ourselves in bad spots. They can put us in bad spots and
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  we just kind of have to defend and and be careful they can go
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  for it, which is the, you know, more advantage to them.
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  But it's good for us. We we like racing with those
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  guys. It shows that, you know, when
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  they come down, we're competitive with them.
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  We have speed. We, we're race car drivers too.
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  We, we can do it. And at the same time, if you do
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  beat them, everybody's like, oh man, you beat Kyle Busch, you
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  beat Stenhouse, you beat all these guys that are so fast in
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  the Cup series. And it's like, oh, I guess, I
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  guess they can do it if, if they did move to Cup.
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  So it's, it's great. And we just, we learn a lot from
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  them. They teach us so much.
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  I mean, I think about 2025 myself, you know, Kyle Larson
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  ran I think 3 races. It was like, I know Homestead
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  was one of them because I followed him at Homestead and I
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  could not believe how close he was running to the wall.
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  And I followed him and followed him.
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  And through the race I picked up like 3/10 just watching his line
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  and following him. And we came down to, you know,
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  finished 1-2 at the end of that race with him last lap battle.
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  So yeah, it's good for us. It really develops us as drivers
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  to make us better. You know, if we're a bunch of
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  mediocre drivers out there racing against each other, we're
• 15:52
  not going to get much better. But when you bring in the
• 15:55
  competition and something to shoot for, it really makes us
• 15:58
  push ourselves to be better. You know, one thing lane I
• 16:01
  haven't heard a lot about, but we, you know, but us on the
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  outside looking in aren't, aren't driving the trucks.
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  You know, there was a lot of criticism in the beginning of
• 16:09
  the past couple of years that, you know, the trucks was just a
• 16:12
  free for all and everybody was wrecking everybody else and and
• 16:15
  no one was using any manners behind the wheel.
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  If you can have manners in a race.
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  But it it seems like that's calmed down a bit.
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  Is that, is that the level of the, again, the caliber of the
• 16:25
  driver that's in the trucks right now or is it still pretty
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  rough out there? I think that the Truck Series
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  has definitely had a rebirth and that Phoenix championship race
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  in 23 and 2023, that was the moment that everybody's had to
• 16:42
  sit down and say this is not what it's going to be like.
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  The series and NASCAR has done a great job to try to really pound
• 16:49
  that in our heads and and understand that this is not what
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  we're here for. We spend too much money to do
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  this. We look like clowns out here
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  when we race like they did in 2023.
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  And pretty much that was right when I was coming in and I felt
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  like just watching those races previously through the years, it
• 17:07
  was like, man, this is going to be really rough coming into the
• 17:09
  Truck Series going to be tough. But I feel like ever since then,
• 17:11
  people have just tried to clean it up a little bit and, and I
• 17:14
  feel like it's just progressively gotten better.
• 17:17
  We still got work to do. It's not perfect.
• 17:18
  No series is perfect, but I really think that people are
• 17:22
  putting more respect to the Truck Series because of the
• 17:25
  etiquette that we have on the racetrack now, and this new
• 17:28
  point system is going to do nothing but just make that even
• 17:30
  better. I think for all three series, I
• 17:32
  don't know if we've quite seen it yet, but I think when it gets
• 17:36
  down to the points later in the year, every point matters.
• 17:40
  People are going to be a little bit more aware of the moves
• 17:43
  they're making, the risk they're taking.
• 17:44
  That risk versus reward is a lot stronger now than it used to be,
• 17:47
  and I think that's going to play into the etiquette for sure.
• 17:51
  Well, Lane, I tell you, it was great to see you get that
• 17:53
  victory, man. You got a piece of NASCAR
• 17:55
  history, a little bit of personal history.
• 17:57
  Congratulations, man, and I always appreciate talking to
• 18:00
  you. Let's check back in throughout
• 18:01
  the course of the year, man, as you keep climbing up the points
• 18:04
  totem pole there. And best of luck running for
• 18:06
  this championship. Yeah, thank you guys.
• 18:09
  Always good to talk to you all too.
• 18:11
  So hopefully we're next time we're talking we're I got a
• 18:13
  trophy sitting behind me again. Awesome, and I bet we will.
• 18:16
  I bet we will. Thanks, Lane.
• 18:18
  Thank you.