The 21-year-old Layne Riggs encapsulates the late Ken Squier, saying “Common men doing uncommon things.” The son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Scott Riggs, Layne has forged his own path, mainly taking to the short tracks of the south as so many others like him do.
The difference? Layne Riggs whipped all the other common men on the racetrack, and now he’s in a premier ride in the top three series of NASCAR. The young North Carolina native signed a deal with Front Row Motorsports to compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2024, equaling Riggs’ first full-time opportunity in a national series.
“We just had to make sure I took advantage of every opportunity I had,” Riggs said. “I’ve always lived off part-time deals, especially in the Truck Series. I even got those three races for Kaulig in the Xfinity Series, but I think it really goes back to winning the (NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series) championship in 2022. I was very successful there, and it gave me the opportunity to get more Truck Series races the next year. Kevin Harvick gave me the opportunity to drive his late model at Martinsville, and we started talking to Jerry, (from Front Row Motorsports) just kind of shooting the breeze behind the trailer before the race. He called back that next Monday and said, “We want you for next season, we think that you’re the guy and you’re the candidate to drive our truck.”
Riggs says his number one goal for the season is to get to victory lane for the first time in his national series career, but he’ll have to go to school quickly.
“I know that I have the people around me, and I know I have a good enough team. Obviously, I have really big shoes to fill. Zane (Smith) went back to back at Daytona which is going to be my first race. I’ve never run on a superspeedway before in my life, so I’m going to have to learn very quickly. He (Zane Smith) is undefeated at COTA. That truck has won every race at Circuit of the Americas and I’ve never run a road course in my life. So the two places he (Zane) was very strong at, I have zero experience at.”
However, Riggs says he feels confident about his team’s ability to match his strong suit – the short tracks.
“There’s a lot of short tracks and tracks that I’m familiar with on the schedule this year,” Riggs added.
Despite the fact that 2024 will be Riggs’ first in a top-3 series, there’s one big mentor that he can lean on – his father, NASCAR veteran Scott Riggs, who won nine races combined in the Truck & Xfinity Series and ran 208 Cup Series races over a NASCAR career that spanned 15 years.
“It makes it easier for me, is all,” Riggs said, “when I asked him what having a veteran racer so close to him does.”
“He’s still Dad. When I was younger, I went to all the Cup races with them, and it’s funny, I always thought, ‘Doesn’t everybody’s dad drive race cars?’ This is normal for a kid like me. But it’s been great. When he was getting out of it, I started getting into it. In my whole 10 or 11 years of racing, he’s only ever missed two races. It’s been a great bond, working on the late models, working on the cars in the shop after school, building the cars. He would (be my) crew chief on the weekends. He says now he’s worked himself out of a job,” Riggs jokes. “He’s worked so hard and pushed so hard to get me to this level, that now he doesn’t have a job anymore.”
That mentorship, combined with a boatload of pure talent has pushed Riggs to a level few common men reach. Now, it’s up to the young driver to do uncommon things and distinguish himself from the hungry pack in 2024.