HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The Truck Series field gave a show under the lights in South Florida on a crisp, cool evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Kyle Larson rallied from outside the top 20 after a final-stage spin to take the lead with three laps to go and win the opening frame of his quest for a tripleheader sweep this weekend.
But that’s just one side of a late-race bonanza that saw Layne Riggs and Corey Heim dice and slice it up for the lead before Larson’s triumph.
Twice over, it appeared the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, driven by Heim, would prevail after clearing Ross Chastain for the lead with 30 to go. However, the engine shut off on Heim, allowing Riggs and Chastain to pass the 22-year-old driver. Heim got his truck cycled back to power and he stormed back out front with 11 to go … and then it happened again.
Down the frontstretch with four to go, Heim lost power a second time, allowing Riggs to take point. The No. 11 got rolling again, but only to settle for a third-place result.
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“Just no warning,” Heim lamented. “Engine would hard cut on me, go completely dark. The motor would have no power, and I’d have to fully recycle the power with my right hand. It’s about the most random and most recent sting, I guess, just having that good of a truck. Kind of reminds me of Charlotte last year. Everyone executed great. Everyone controlled what they could control tonight. Just, man, I don’t know why it had to happen with 15 to go. Fifteen more laps and we would’ve been totally fine.”
Heim led a race-high 78 laps and swept the first two stages to salvage not having a Homestead trophy.
One of the few drivers that was in the mix all night long was Riggs. With finishes of third and sixth in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports driver was in line for a productive top-five result to match his Las Vegas Motor Speedway run last weekend.
By the time the final stage got rolling, however, Riggs became a true player to score a statement first win of 2025, battling Chastain and Heim for the lead in the final 30 laps.
Both times Heim’s truck slowed, Riggs was the benefactor, and nabbing the lead with four to go appeared to be the golden ticket to the checkered flag and a playoff berth. But Larson, whose spin came from contact with the No. 34, had an absolute rocket in his No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and took the win away from Riggs with two laps to go, pinning Riggs to a runner-up result.
“I’m sure I’ll probably be more emotional when I go back and watch it but when you’re in the heat of the battle, you’re just so focused on your line just trying to keep all four wheels under you,” Riggs said. “You see stuff happening. Like, I knew I took the lead, but it’s not like ‘oooo, I took the lead,’ it’s just like, ‘OK, there’s another position. Just got to stay focused to the end’ and I got a little excited there a couple times racing for the lead, and got free and kind of spun my rear tires and got them hot and that definitely hurt us in the end.”
Riggs also discussed the tango with Larson that caused minor left-rear damage to the No. 34 truck.
“I think he just dive-bombed in there and got free up under me and hit me in the left rear,” Riggs said. “I’m kind of disappointed about it because it definitely took some speed out of the truck. Down the straightaways, it was just super draggy. That left-rear quarter panel is a super sensitive area on these trucks and we work really hard to make them have good shape to run good. I was at a deficit still, but we were still fast enough to run up front with the 11 and lead the thing.”
Heim’s Daytona win already put the No. 11 into the postseason, so both himself and Tricon co-owner David Gilliland are already looking ahead to what’s next with the goal in mind of making it to the Championship 4 at Phoenix for a third consecutive season.
“Our goal is Phoenix at the end of the year,” Gilliland said. “We’re going to focus on the positives out of here. Obviously, find out what happened and why it happened, and make sure it don’t happen again. Electrical issues are the worst, but I thought Corey held his composure well in the truck. It happened and he drove back up there and still had a chance to win if it wouldn’t have happened again, right? So to me, that’s what we’re working on. That’s what every race before Phoenix is about.”
As for Riggs, the 22-year-old is maintaining the stellar form he flashed at the end of 2024 and has already pocketed two top fives in the first four races this season compared to just one top 10 in nine races early the year prior. He sits eighth in driver’s points.
“I almost out-Larson’d the Larson,” Riggs said. “I was running the top all night long, and I think me and him were the only ones entering on the fence in [Turn] 1. I learned a whole lot tonight. I ran here last year, and I got kind of close to the wall, but just not really as close as we were tonight.
“Everybody looks at me as a short-track racer. He’s just a short track guy. But now, I think we’re proving that I can race at any of these race tracks. Even the road courses coming up, I’m looking forward to those. I’m showing that I’m a diverse driver and that I can make it happen anywhere.”