Layne Riggs and Front Row Motorsports have got this qualifying thing figured out.
Riggs, driving the No. 34 Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150, laid down the quickest lap time in qualifying for Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series T-SPORT 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park, beating his teammate Chandler Smith by a half-tenth of a second.
The Bahama, North Carolina-native only posted one lap around the Indianapolis short track, clocking in at a 22.805 (108.292mph) to earn his seventh career pole in the Truck Series, and his third this season – all of which have come in the last three races.
“I was hoping my teammate wasn’t going to beat me there, we had a little plan after the first lap if we thought it was good enough, Dylan [Cappello] told me to pull it in, and I was hoping Chandler [Smith] didn’t beat me, so that was good. Both starting in the top three so that’s really strong.”
Riggs hasn’t started worse than fourth since Dover Motor Speedway in May, meaning he’s started on the first two rows for the last seven races – whether through qualifying or the metric.
“I guess I got this qualifying thing figured out, right now, road courses, ovals, we just really got the qualifying speed I need and just over the last couple of years its learning what I need to go fast for one lap, and just really capitalizing on it recently. Bare Knuckle Boxing, Ford Racing giving me the tools I need to go fast. Yeah, this is awesome, hope we can stay up front all night.”
Chandler Smith, winner of last weekend’s event at North Wilkesboro Speedway, will start on the outside of the front row for Friday’s 200-lap contest, with Nick Sanchez, running a one-off in the No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports, qualifying in third-place.
Christian Eckes and Stewart Friesen rounded out the top-five.
Kaden Honeycutt qualified in the sixth position, with Connor Mosack, Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski, and Andres Perez de Lara rounding out the top-10.
With 38 trucks on the premises for this weekend’s race at IRP, two drivers had to pack up and head home early, those being the No. 69 RAM of Jonathan Shafer and MBM Motorsports, as well as Justin Carroll, driving his family-owned No. 90 for Terry Carroll Motorsports.
The T-SPORT 200 will start Friday, July 24 at 8:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
