Last season, Corey Heim made Layne Riggs look like a one-trick pony. While Heim racked up 12 wins, dominating everywhere from Daytona to Darlington, Riggs managed just three (2 of which came at short tracks). Moreover, most of his weak tracks were the ones Heim conquered with ease. Daytona (P13), Texas (P28), Lime Rock (P13), the Roval (P21), and Darlington (P17). Each finish fueled the narrative that Riggs was nothing more than a short-track specialist.
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But 2026 is different. Riggs is clearly on a mission to rewrite that storyline, and his breakthrough win at St. Pete proves it. Now, with momentum finally on his side, he’s aiming directly at the perception Heim created and showing he’s far more than the label he was boxed into.
NASCAR race winner Layne Riggs sends a message
“It’s just a dream come true. I literally said this year, I just want to win a road course just to show I’m not just a short-track guy. What an awesome feeling!”
With those words, NASCAR race winner Layne Riggs summed up one of the most impressive performances of his young NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. The Front Row Motorsports driver didn’t just win Saturday’s inaugural St. Petersburg street race. He conquered it! The young guy from Bahama, NC, charged from a brutal 28th-place starting spot to the top of the board in a race filled with chaos, strategy swings, and late-race pressure.
Riggs led 40 laps, the most of anyone, on his way to securing his sixth career victory and his first of the 2026 season. His margin of victory, 0.879 seconds, doesn’t fully reflect how intense the final laps were. Behind him, Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes were locked in a relentless chase, never letting Riggs breathe as the field battled through tight corners (all 14 of them), dirty air, and stubborn backmarker traffic around the tight St. Pete downtown circuit.
LAYNE RIGGS WINS ON THE STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG! pic.twitter.com/lJzMdAsobV
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 28, 2026
The race developed into a three-driver chess match. Riggs held track position. Majeski stalked him corner after corner. And Rhodes (after winning Stage 1 and leading 23 laps) looked poised to pounce if either slipped. Meanwhile, the looming shadow of fuel conservation added another layer of drama. Teams were nervously calculating whether they had enough to push to the checkered flag.
But when it mattered, Riggs refused to crack. The 23-year-old executed flawlessly, controlling restarts, hitting marks, and maintaining enough pace to fend off Majeski’s final charge. In the end, Riggs, as the first Truck NASCAR race winner on a street course, proved his point with authority.
Meanwhile, Hinchcliffe scores a Top-10 in his NASCAR debut
James Hinchcliffe’s long-awaited NASCAR debut was never going to be quiet. And the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at St. Petersburg made sure of that. Days before the event, the former IndyCar star could hardly contain his excitement: “I am super excited to run my first truck race at St. Pete… I just love this track, and I have always wanted to try something in the NASCAR world.”
Rolling off third, Hinchcliffe looked poised for a strong showing, but the opening laps had other plans. Midway through Stage 1, fellow IndyCar alumnus Dario Franchitti made heavy contact with the No. 77. What initially looked like a small nudge turned out, on replay, to be a full-on hit. It had crunched Hinchcliffe’s right-front fender and knocked him out of rhythm early.
From there, the race became a climb. Hinchcliffe finished outside the top 10 in both Stage 1 and Stage 2, shuffling backward twice as he battled damage, traffic, and the steep learning curve of stock-truck racing on a tight street course. But the Canadian refused to fold. Piece by piece, lap by lap, he clawed his way back toward the front.
By the checkered flag, Hinchcliffe had fought all the way to P10, salvaging a debut that easily could have unraveled. His relief was clear afterward: “It was a great effort coming from the back twice, end up in the top-10. Can’t thank Spire enough and hopefully I get to do it again one day.”
Since stepping away from IndyCar in 2021, Hinchcliffe has rebuilt his career behind the microphone. NBC Sports, F1 TV, and currently FOX IndyCar. After surviving his first NASCAR Truck race, he’ll return to the booth to call the IndyCar season opener with a little more racing adrenaline still in his system.