Layne Riggs led 156 of the 200 laps at Martinsville Speedway last Friday and was still in front with 12 to go when his own teammate, Chandler Smith, drove past him and won.
Riggs finished third. He goes to Homestead-Miami Speedway for Friday night's season finale 20 points behind Kaden Honeycutt, who finished 14th at Martinsville and saw a 43-point lead cut by more than half. They are the only two drivers who can still win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, and both say there is one way to do it.
"Our job is pretty simple," Honeycutt said Thursday. "Go out and win tomorrow."
Riggs said he is "going for broke."
The race, 134 laps on the 1.5-mile oval, starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, with radio on the NASCAR Racing Network. It ends the Chase, the seven-race playoff that decides the title, and either driver would be a first-time Truck Series champion.
Nick Sanchez of Spire Motorsports starts first, on the pole, ahead of Smith and Corey Heim, who won last year's title in the No. 11 truck Honeycutt now drives. Riggs starts fourth and Honeycutt fifth.
The wall
Twice this fall the championship has turned on the outside wall. At Kansas in September, Riggs was running second with two laps left when he brushed it and fell to 19th, and Honeycutt won and took the points lead. In the next race, at Charlotte, Honeycutt was leading with seven laps to go when his truck slid into it, and Riggs went by to win.
At Homestead, the fast way around is right against the outside wall, and a truck pays more for touching it than a Cup Series car does. "Us, if you just kiss the wall, it sucks you in," Riggs said. "Obviously we saw that at Kansas with me trying a little too hard."
Riggs plans to run up against it anyway. "I feel like I've been one that's been willing to get near the fence all year long," he said. Honeycutt would rather keep the wall in reserve. "So we'll try to save it for the end of the race if we need it," he said.
Speed and steadiness
Riggs, 24, of Bahama, N.C., drives the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports. His father, Scott Riggs, won five Truck Series races. Riggs has the speed: seven wins this season, the most in the series, including both Truck races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has also led more laps and won more stages, the bonus-point segments within each race, than anyone.
Honeycutt, 23, of Willow Park, Texas, drives the No. 11 Toyota for TRICON Garage and has won four races this season, the first Truck Series wins of his career. His edge is consistency: a 5.3 average finish in the six Chase races, the best among the 10 playoff drivers. Riggs has averaged 11.0.
Riggs doesn't argue the point. The format "definitely rewards consistency, which I feel like we haven't had the best of, which is why we're not in the points lead," he said. "And I think we've had more raw speed but the consistency hasn't gone with it."
Close, twice
Neither driver has won at Homestead, and Riggs has come close twice. In 2024, he was running second to Grant Enfinger when he ran out of fuel a lap from the end and finished 22nd. In March 2025, he took the lead with four laps left when Heim's truck lost power, and Kyle Larson, now the defending Cup Series champion, passed him two laps later.
Honeycutt's best finish in three starts there is 10th.
"We've traded blows throughout the season, throughout the Chase," Honeycutt said. "I think it'll be the same on Friday."