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Sean Gardner\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\nTop-10 finishes by Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs in the Love\u2019s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway allowed Honeycutt to gain only four points on Riggs in the fight for this year\u2019s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.<\/p>\n
Honeycutt leads Riggs by 43 points with two races remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set a goal that if I was 45 (points) or worse back, we\u2019re not gonna have a shot,\u201d Riggs said about the championship. \u201cObviously, I think the 11 (Honeycutt) can\u2019t be as good as us. We\u2019re gonna have to go dominate the next two races. I know this team can do it. We\u2019ve done it all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riggs has won seven races this year while Honeycutt has won four. Riggs also possesses 12 Stage victories to Honeycutt\u2019s seven.<\/p>\n
In Friday\u2019s race, both were poised to claim a victory, but when the checkered flag waved in overtime, Honeycutt was fifth and Riggs sat eighth to winner Sammy Smith. The victory was Smith\u2019s first-ever in the Truck Series, but his second at the 2.66-mile Talladega track. He won a NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega in 2024 driving for JR Motorsports.<\/p>\n
Sean Gardner\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Sammy Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we did a good job putting ourselves there in a good spot,\u201d said Smith, who was the top lap leader with 21 laps in the 86-lap race.<\/p>\n
Second to Smith in laps led was Austin Green, who made his Truck Series debut with a third-place finish. With the 14 laps Green led added to Smith\u2019s total, it meant Spire Motorsports was in the No. 1 position for 35 of the 86 laps.<\/p>\n
However, with the season winding down, the Chase for the championship has basically come down to two drivers\u2014Honeycutt and Riggs.<\/p>\n
On lap 79 of the scheduled 80-lap race, Honeycutt was pushing ARCA champion Thomas Annunziata, who was leading the outside lane, while Riggs was second to Smith on the inside. When the field charged off towards the first turn, Honeycutt\u2019s push of Annunziata went terribly wrong. Annunziata slammed into the outside wall and caught Grant Enfinger as he bounced off of it. That sent the race into overtime.<\/p>\n
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Karl Anderson\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Sammy Smith (#7), Layne Riggs (#34), Ty Majeski (#88), and Kaden Honeycutt.<\/p>\n
When the field lined up for the restart, Smith and Riggs were on the front row with Smith on the inside and Riggs on the outside with Honeycutt behind him. On the backstretch of the final lap, Ty Majeski shuffled Honeycutt to the outside, leaving him without drafting help. In the race to the finish line, Tyler Ankrum gave Smith the shove he needed for the victory. Smith finished 0.091-second ahead of Ankrum. The separation between Smith and the eighth-place Riggs was 0.278 second.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have to decipher exactly what happened and what we could have done better there,\u201d Riggs said. \u201cI\u2019m just kind of disappointed about how it finished there. I felt like me and the 88 (Ty Majeski) were gonna get side-by-side for the win. We worked well together all day, and it looked like he pushed me out and shoved me to the third lane. It seems like he\u2019s not really sure, either. He was just running his race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majeski, who like Riggs drives a Ford, moved into third in the standings with his fourth-place finish, 141 points behind Honeycutt with Martinsville and Homestead left on the schedule.<\/p>\n
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Jonathan Bachman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kaden Honeycutt.<\/p>\n
Despite increasing his lead in the standings, Honeycutt wasn\u2019t happy after the race that had five caution flags for 26 laps and a 10:03 red flag for a nine-truck crash near the end of Stage 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so disappointed in myself to not make the right moves at the end of the race to get the win,\u201d Honeycutt said. \u201cI should have locked on to Ty (Majeski) longer than trying to make the move too quick. I did the same thing at Daytona, and just didn\u2019t execute where I needed to, to finish the race off.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot a good cushion (in the standings), but you never say it is over till it is over.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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