{"id":136029,"date":"2025-09-11T11:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T11:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/136029\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T11:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T11:39:09","slug":"brawl-in-the-family-how-bkb-bare-knuckle-boxing-drove-layne-riggs-to-nascars-truck-series-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/136029\/","title":{"rendered":"Brawl in the family: How BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing drove Layne Riggs to NASCAR\u2019s Truck Series playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Layne Riggs returns to Tennessee\u2019s Bristol Motor Speedway later today (Thurs., Sept. 11, 2025), the same track where the second-generation racer and son of former NASCAR great, Scott Riggs, upset the field with a stunning, first-place finish as part of NASCAR\u2019s Truck Series playoffs in late 2024.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a 22 year-old newcomer, who finished the 2024 season as Sunoco\u2019s Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

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Now a year older, and certainly a year wiser, Riggs will be gunning for his first championship trophy, taking on the likes of fellow NASCAR wunderkinds Corey Heim and Daniel Hemric, among others. But race fans are still buzzing about Front Row Motorsports\u2019 No. 34 Ford F-150.<\/p>\n

The BKB bare knuckle fist splattered across his hood was hard to miss \u2014 even from the cheap seats.<\/p>\n

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Riggs and his team were driven to the playoffs by BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing, the fast-rising combat sports promotion that airs on VICE TV<\/a>. For BKB Chairman Mike Vazquez, pairing NASCAR with bare knuckle boxing presented an opportunity to conjoin fanbases through increased exposure across both brands.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI felt the audience was very similar and in 2016, when Dada 5000 fought Kimbo Slice, I actually put a truck out the day before the fight, in Daytona, with the image of Dada and Kimbo and Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock on the truck to promote that fight the next night on one of the networks,\u201d Vazquez told MMAmania.com<\/a>. \u201cFrom there, I put Bellator MMA together with NASCAR, and then they did an event. I think it was after a race or after practices in Daytona a few years ago. So that all developed from our first exposure in 2017. Bellator saw it, NASCAR saw it, and we\u2019re trying to marry those two audiences, as well. That\u2019s kind of the goal, to have the NASCAR fans who are watching these races on FOX or FS1 or the CW network, to look at Layne and see this BKB car run out front and come in and check us out.\u201c<\/p>\n

Bellator MMA had a lot of great ideas<\/a> over the course of its 16-year existence. What it didn\u2019t have was great execution<\/a>, which allowed Donn Davis and Professional Fighters League (PFL) to pillage its remaining assets following the promotion\u2019s unceremonious collapse<\/a> in late 2024.<\/p>\n

As for Vazquez, a founding member of NASCAR\u2019s Diversity Council and the driving force behind the creation of NASCAR Mexico, his partnership with Layne is an extension of his long-standing relationship with Scott. The elder Riggs was named 2002 NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year and 2003 NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott Riggs was a champ in NASCAR back in the early 2000s,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cI\u2019ve known Scott for many years. He\u2019s an absolutely great guy with a great family, and he was a great driver. He came to NASCAR Mexico to support us. When we were starting NASCAR Mexico, he actually came down and raced a couple of races for us in Mexico. And when his son picked that next step and jumped into the Truck Series, I was happy to support them along their way, as well. Scott is a great guy, and Layne himself, a great kid. He\u2019s got his head on his shoulders, just a great spokesperson for the brand, as well. You saw him get out of his car in Victory Lane. First thing he did was point to his uniform and our logo. It\u2019s just an all-around great marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Layne captured his first pole as well as his first checkered flag of 2025 when he tamed the \u201cTricky Triangle\u201d at Pocono Raceway back in June. Some of the most decorated racers in history have wrecked at the 2.5-mile tri-oval track in Blakeslee including Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon.<\/p>\n

Riggs made it look easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s so crazy, like you get out there and just a sense of speed kind of like, the first couple laps on the track, I\u2019m like man, we\u2019re going fast,\u201d Riggs explained. \u201cAnd then just that sense of speed goes away. Sometimes you take it for granted how fast you\u2019re going. Like qualifying: I go out there and you just run your line, you\u2019re doing your thing, you\u2019re worried about grip, you\u2019re focusing on your line, then you get out and your team is like, \u2018Yeah, you averaged 168 miles an hour.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2019What?\u2018 You don\u2019t understand how fast you\u2019re going until you kind of look at the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Speaking of numbers, Riggs is currently ranked No. 2 behind Heim headed into tonight\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like you have to kind of be built for this,\u201d Riggs added. \u201cEverybody that kind of has the knack for it and the natural talent to be a driver, I feel like just kind of gets in that zone and you can\u2019t really explain the zone that you\u2019re in unless you\u2019re somebody that does it. And a lot of people that are out there can\u2019t find that zone, either. So I would say that I\u2019m just naturally gifted and very thankful that I do have that feeling in the zone. I get to talk about it with my dad a lot because he feels the same way. Just when you get in that zone, you\u2019re locked in like that \u2026 you just feel untouchable. Nothing can touch you. Nothing can bother you. You feel like Superman.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Following his \u201cTricky Triangle\u201d trophy, Riggs reunited with the BKB team for \u201cMusic City Brawl\u201d in Nashville, where Lorawnt-T Nelson stopped Sam Liera by way of first-round knockout. Riggs was feeling less like Superman during that night of bare knuckle carnage (see it here<\/a>) and more like Jimmy Olsen.<\/p>\n

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But also recognized the parallels between both sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the tactics of bare knuckle fighting,\u201d Riggs said. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole lot more in depth than people think it is on the surface. So yeah, mad respect for those guys for what they do. It\u2019s really cool to be a part of it and bring two kind of sports together. I mean, of course they have their thing. We have our thing that\u2019s so different from each other; but like I said, you\u2019re passionate, your whole life is based around one thing. Ours is racing a race, theirs is fighting a fight. And you know that this means everything to them \u2014 the same way that racing means everything to me. And we can all, as athletes, relate to that and know that when the money\u2019s on the line and it\u2019s time to do your job, you do anything you can to be successful at it. I see the passion that those BKB guys have and full respect to them \u2014 I would never do what they do. And I think most of them would say the same about me. They would never want to do what I do. So yeah, respect both directions, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Riggs, who captured the Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship in 2022, his \u201crace-day hangover\u201d can leave him feeling as though he went five rounds inside BKB\u2019s \u201cMighty Trigon.\u201d In addition to the adrenaline dump, not unlike that of a bare knuckle boxer fresh off a grueling fight, Riggs must also endure the mental fatigue that comes with a 200-mile race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a little bit rough, I call it the race-day hangover,\u201d Riggs explained. \u201cAnd it\u2019s more of like a mental exhaustion hangover, because I mean, when you\u2019re in the race and you\u2019re focused and you\u2019re in your groove, you are like so laser focused, it\u2019s on a different level than you can ever explain. The adrenaline\u2019s up, heart rate\u2019s up, and you don\u2019t feel pain, you don\u2019t feel hot, you don\u2019t feel tired, you don\u2019t feel anything. And then when it\u2019s all over with and you calm down, you leave the track, you start to realize, man, I\u2019m wore out. So yeah, I always call it the race-day hangover, and it comes with a headache after. Just mentally exhausting and like I said, just when you\u2019re focused for two and a half hours straight, lasered in the whole time, it really is a mental toll. So really the mental toll is the biggest hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another big hitter this season was the BKB sponsorship, which quickly became the talk of the track. In fact, Vazquez is hoping to parlay his popularity in the racing community into a longterm partnership with NASCAR, one that could feature BKB fights and NASCAR racing on the same weekend, in the same city.<\/p>\n

And perhaps even on the same racetrack.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs soon as they saw BKB on a race car, I got contacted by 36 other drivers asking for opportunities in sponsorship,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cSeveral of my old friends in the garage were asking me to come back as an owner; so, who knows what the future holds. I\u2019d love to continue supporting Layne as he grows because he\u2019s got a world of talent and I think he\u2019ll be racing on Sundays in a few years. Down the road we\u2019ll be looking to run BKB the same weekend as NASCAR as part of NASCAR weekend, 1000 percent. Things kind of came up quickly this year, so as we move toward the future, we\u2019ll look at having it in the same city to possibly having it at the racetrack. Not only in NASCAR USA but also with our friends in NASCAR Mexico as we expand overseas, as well, as we ramp up our schedule in the coming years. I think that would be fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For anyone else, pitching NASCAR on a collaborative effort involving triangular combat might sound like a fool\u2019s errand. But Vazquez has a history of \u201cfirsts\u201d with the association, preceded by his days of traveling the country with motorsports legend and CART Championship Series trophy winner, Juan Montoya.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe head of NASCAR, Commissioner Steve Phelps, is an old friend of mine from my years back in the early 2000s when he came on board, and we\u2019ve been in dialogue about collaborating,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to work our 2026 schedule around a couple of potential events and doing something together, whether trackside or nearby, where we can inform the teams and their sponsors, all the crews and the fans themselves. \u2018Hey, after a long day, why don\u2019t you come and see somebody get punched in the face for a change?\u2019 So we\u2019re working on that.\u201c<\/p>\n

Vazquez will need to convert racing fans to bare knuckle boxing fans, and vice versa, which may not be a tough sell (in either direction) considering the foundation for both extreme sports is the rush of adrenaline. A fighter can get knocked out with one solid punch, just as a racer can wreck with one bad turn.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI love motorsports, I love the adrenaline. I think it\u2019s the same feeling,\u201d Vazquez added. \u201cWhen you see a car in the race and you see it passing, and the strategy and the laps are counting down, it\u2019s kind of what you feel when you\u2019re watching a fight, when you see the action going back and forth and whatnot. So that same adrenaline feeling pumps through your veins, that\u2019s why I feel NASCAR fans and combat sports fans can share in that. More so than when you\u2019re watching a baseball game or a basketball game, because in those sports, how many shots do you shoot? How many pitches are thrown? How many passes? How many runs? In combat sports, one punch can end it, so you got to stay on it. In a race, same thing. Any turn, your guy can get wiped out. He can get clipped. So, your attention is there. I think it\u2019s a good mix.\u201c<\/p>\n

BKB returns to action with \u201cEmpire State Brawl\u201d at Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino<\/a> on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Layne Riggs returns to Tennessee\u2019s Bristol Motor Speedway later today (Thurs., Sept. 11, 2025), the same track where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[64040,73912,49,48,64038,20202,73913,634,73915,73911,82,15531,73914],"class_list":["post-136029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-bellator-mma","tag-bkb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-kimbo-slice","tag-layne-riggs","tag-mike-vazquez","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-mexico","tag-scott-riggs","tag-sports","tag-truck-series","tag-vazquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}