Riggs wins in Truck Series street circuit debut

Layne Riggs won the OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 this Saturday at St. Petersburg, Florida, the first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on a street course in the category's 30-year history. Riggs started 28th in the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports and finished first ahead of Ty Majeski, but what happened in the final eight laps put a price on the victory.

Eight laps with the fuel light on

Riggs' fuel light came on with eight laps to go, forcing him to calibrate every brake application and every acceleration to keep the engine from stalling before the checkered flag. "The light was blinking, and I was almost sure I wasn't going to make it; I just didn't know how long it would last," he said after climbing out of the truck.

At that point, Riggs had already led over half the race and built a lead of more than two minutes over the rest of the competitors, but lapped traffic in the final 10 laps compressed the gap and allowed Majeski and Ben Rhodes to close in. On the penultimate lap, Majeski positioned his No. 88 Ford for ThorSport Racing to attack but overshot turn 13, the same corner where he had made an earlier mistake, and lost the opportunity.

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"That was probably the most fun I've had in a race car in a long time," said Majeski, the 2024 series champion, who started 22nd and led only two laps. "There are three good passing zones, and the track rewards discipline. I made a mistake in 13, the tires hopped, and I had to fight to get the position back."

Rhodes paced the first stage and seemed to have the truck to fight for the win, but fuel also limited him in the final laps. "That was all we had in the tank; I literally ran out of gas with two laps to go," said Rhodes, who now has two top-5 finishes in the first three races of 2026 and moved up to second in the championship. At Atlanta the previous week, Rhodes finished fourth after leading most of the race and running out of fuel under nearly identical circumstances. He has the speed to win but hasn't been able to close out races.

St. Pete's streets did allow passing

The question before the event was whether the series trucks, designed for ovals and permanent road courses, would provide a good show on narrow streets with concrete walls inches from the racing line. There were nine lead changes among five drivers, six caution flags, and passes in areas that didn't seem designed for them.

Riggs, who before today had run only four races on this type of circuit in his entire life, summed it up like this: "Everyone heard street course and thought there wouldn't be any passing or wheel-to-wheel action, but this was one of the raciest tracks I've seen in my time in the series." The passes within the top 15 proved him right. Kaden Honeycutt and Majeski accumulated the most quality passes during the race, and Christian Eckes, who finished 15th, passed more trucks than any other driver in the field.

The series shared the weekend with IndyCar, and the grandstands were full under a clear sky with a view of the St. Petersburg waterfront, a very different setting from the ovals where the category spends most of its schedule. "I don't know why we couldn't come back next year," Riggs said. "I couldn't believe how full the stands were."

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Franchitti, Hinchcliffe, and Braun vs. the regulars

The presence of three drivers with open-wheel and prototype resumes was the other angle of the event. Dario Franchitti, three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, drove the No. 1 Toyota for TRICON Garage but went a lap down with a late pit stop and finished 27th, paying the price of adapting to a 3,400-pound truck with less powerful brakes than an IndyCar Dallara or an LMDh prototype.

James Hinchcliffe, a former Indianapolis polesitter and full-time IndyCar driver for a decade, had a better result with the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, starting third and finishing tenth after losing positions as the series regulars found their rhythm in the second half. Colin Braun, a regular in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series, was the best of the three with a ninth-place finish from the 16th starting spot in the No. 25 RAM for Kaulig Racing.

"The headline is that a kid from the Bahamas raised in North Carolina won on a street course against some of the best in the world," Riggs said. "It's credit to the whole team at Front Row Motorsports and a shout-out to Joey Hand, who worked a lot with me in preparation." Hand, an endurance driver with extensive street course experience, advised Riggs in the week leading up to the race.

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The top four spots went to Ford

The first four positions were all for Ford, with Riggs, Majeski, Rhodes, and Chandler Smith, Riggs' teammate at Front Row Motorsports, who led seven laps and finished fourth in a relatively quiet weekend compared to his victory at Daytona but enough to maintain the championship lead.

Honeycutt rounded out the top five in a TRICON Garage Toyota, followed by Neice Motorsports teammates Landen Lewis and Andrés Pérez de Lara in sixth and seventh, maintaining the consistency that has characterized them at the start of the season. Daniel Hemric finished eighth for McAnally-Hilgemann, and Braun and Hinchcliffe closed out the top ten as the best among the guest drivers from other series.

Connor Mosack started from the pole and led the first six laps but finished 13th, an indication that on a street course, starting position matters less than on an oval. Of the top five qualifiers, only Rhodes, who started fourth, maintained a top-five position at the end. Riggs, Majeski, Honeycutt, and Smith all started outside the top 15.

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Smith still leads the championship

With three races completed, Smith has one victory and a lead of over 30 points over Rhodes and Majeski, who each moved up one spot in the standings. Giovanni Ruggiero, who had been second after Atlanta, dropped to fourth despite earning points this Saturday in a result that ended his streak of two consecutive races contending for a top-three finish.

Riggs made the biggest jump in the standings, from 23rd to fifth thanks to the victory, compensating for a late-race DNF at Atlanta due to mechanical issues that had left him 27th. Riggs accumulated the most laps led, the most fastest laps, the best driver rating, and the biggest comeback in the field.

The series returns on March 20th at Darlington Raceway for the Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Corey Heim, the 2025 champion, is the defending winner at that track.