ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – On an afternoon that seemed to be all about Corey Heim, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs produced some late-race drama in Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway.
Heim won the first two stages and led 178 of the 200 laps. He had almost no challengers most of the day and looked to be building a victory margin of several seconds.
Instead, Heim’s Tricon Garage truck lost some of its edge in the closing miles because of steering issues, and Honeycutt and Riggs were there to try and turn the tables. Heim still won, but Honeycutt, also in a Tricon truck, was a heartbeat behind in second by 0.090 seconds. Riggs surged to get a close third, only 0.461 seconds behind the winner.
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For Honeycutt, the seasonal climb continues. He has three consecutive top fives – fifth at St. Petersburg, fourth at Darlington and second on Friday.
“I caught him (Heim),” Honeycutt said. “I don’t really know what I should have done differently to win the race. I feel like it’s so narrow down there. I couldn’t have run into my teammate. It’s unfortunate that we were down there together. But it’s awesome that we keep on climbing.”
Honeycutt said late-race changes to his truck gave him a shot at catching Heim.
“At the end of it, we made a really good adjustment, and that made it a lot better, a lot more drivable for me,” he said. “I think that’s ultimately how I was able to run him down in the long run. So we just need to figure out how to be a little better at the end.”
Riggs, who has a win and a third in two of the past three races, said the tangle of lapped trucks near the finish made decisions difficult.
“You don’t know what they’re going to do,” Riggs said. “Here, you have to commit so early. You can’t switch lanes once you commit to whatever one you’re going to run. I was expecting them and wanted them to go to the bottom, so I was going to kind of run the top and try to keep the momentum, but hindsight is always 20-20.”
Riggs said the drivers he raced around most of the day had better restarts and ran well on short runs, but his truck ran smoother during longer stretches.
“Everybody else around me could really fire off well, but I’d be at the best at the end of the run, so I just need to figure out what we need to do to be better there,” he said. “Overall, though, I feel like we had a fifth- to seventh-place truck and we finished third with it. I’m smiling.”