Layne Riggs faced a gut-wrenching end to his playoff run in Friday’s Slim Jim 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway after losing a tiebreaker for the final Championship 4 spot. The intensity of the points battle left Riggs believing he had secured a position in the next round, only to learn after the race that the tiebreaker had placed Kaden Honeycutt ahead, resulting in the much-discussed Layne Riggs playoff elimination.
Pressure Builds in Final Laps as Championship 4 Slips Away
The battle for the last transfer position was fierce during the overtime restart, with Riggs racing hard against Brent Crews and managing to overtake him for third place. He ultimately finished just behind Honeycutt’s No. 52 Toyota, in a situation that forced aggressive driving tactics that Riggs admitted went against his preferred style for the sake of his No. 34 team’s playoff ambitions. At just 23, Riggs found himself having to maneuver more forcefully than he would have liked in pursuit of a championship opportunity at Phoenix Raceway.
“I don’t like racing like that,”
said Layne Riggs.
“I want to race straight up how it’s supposed to be, but I’m hearing, ‘you’ve got to get a spot, got to get one.’ I’m going to do what my team tells me to do to get in this championship. I don’t want to rough up guys that have done nothing to me in the past. I don’t like racing like that.”
– Layne Riggs, Driver
Despite briefly believing he had made the cut, the final tiebreaker calculation delivered disappointing news. The tiebreaker rule sent Honeycutt to the Championship 4 due to his best finish in the Round of 8, though Riggs tried to find solace in an otherwise strong season.
“We thought we were the tiebreaker winner. I got told that we were in and I was still upset. I just don’t like how those races finish like that. You have to do what you have to do. That’s not my kind of mentality and I don’t like doing that. Either way, we’ve had a great year all the way around.”
– Layne Riggs, Driver
Playoff Tension Amongst The Favorites at Martinsville Speedway
Corey Heim, who entered Martinsville with a commanding season performance, scored his 11th win of 2025 by leading the final circuits with determination. While Heim’s victory was decisive, the main storyline focused on the points battle between Honeycutt, Riggs, Tyler Ankrum, and defending series champion Ty Majeski. Both Ankrum and Majeski managed just enough to edge out the tied pair by a single point each, while Honeycutt’s finishes through the round gave him the all-important tiebreaker edge over Riggs.
Honeycutt credited his spotter for keeping him focused in the tense closing moments.
“All [spotter, Chris] Lambert told me was to not lose a spot and fight like hell,”
said Kaden Honeycutt.
“I didn’t do the best job of executing the restart and Corey did an excellent job of executing. Just had to hold on and hoped that everything worked out. Thankfully it did, and now we get the chance to go have fun next week and try to mix it up.”
– Kaden Honeycutt, Driver
Ankrum, who eked into the final four, expressed the toll the night took on him, both physically and emotionally.
“This doesn’t freaking cover stress, man,”
Tyler Ankrum said.
“Next time I do it, I want to have a win or 30 or 40 points in the bank. … I’m definitely going to try to find a way to chill out tonight.”
– Tyler Ankrum, Driver
Majeski, meanwhile, fought through significant brake wear, falling back in the final laps before rallying to a seventh-place finish that cemented his advancement.
“You’re just trying to do what you can to get every spot you can,”
Majeski noted of the race’s conclusion.
“For the most part, everyone raced pretty clean. There was some bumping and banging to try to advance to Phoenix, which is to be expected, but it didn’t turn into a [expletive] like we’ve seen in the past with some of the other series.”
– Ty Majeski, Driver
Pivotal Missed Shift Rain on Riggs’ Playoff Parade
Riggs was a strong presence early on, leading the opening 27 laps and finishing sixth in Stage 1, earning him five points. However, a missed shift on a restart proved costly, costing him multiple positions and undermining his overall points total at a critical stage. That single mechanical slip likely set the tone for Riggs’ unfortunate evening and ultimately contributed to his playoff elimination.
Reflecting on the moment, Riggs said,
“I don’t know what happened – I’ve never missed a shift in a truck with these transmissions, ever,”
Layne Riggs added.
“It would just not go into third gear, fourth; it wouldn’t go into gear no matter what I did. I’ve never had that problem before. It summarizes our Round of 8 of things that could have happened.”
– Layne Riggs, Driver
Championship 4 Set for Phoenix After Martinsville Heartbreak
As a result of the events at Martinsville Speedway, Corey Heim will enter the Championship 4 for the third consecutive year and remains a dominant favorite, while Ty Majeski continues his own streak of competing for the title. For both Kaden Honeycutt and Tyler Ankrum, Martinsville marked their first advancement to the championship round, adding new names to the title fight. The disappointment surrounding Layne Riggs playoff elimination highlights the razor-thin margins that define postseason racing, illustrating how quickly fortunes can shift in the Craftsman Truck Series.
All four finalists now prepare for the upcoming Phoenix Raceway event, where a new champion will be crowned and contenders like Heim, Honeycutt, Ankrum, and Majeski will battle for supremacy after surviving the intensity and unpredictability of the playoff system.
