Layne Riggs picks up his first truck win in what could be the last NASCAR race at the
Ty Majeski talks about Milwaukee Mile NASCAR Truck Series second place
He didn’t have quite enough on this day, but the racer from Seymour found reason to be optimistic about a championship run.
WEST ALLIS – Layne Riggs earned his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory Sunday, taking the checkered flag in the LiUNA! 175 at the Milwaukee Mile ahead of state favorite Ty Majeski.
Riggs led the final 53 laps.
“Coming in at the beginning of the season, I knew it was a great team, and guns are blazing. We’re going to go win our first race. We’re going to win all of them,” Riggs said.
“But you always kind of get humbled at the beginning of the year, and I was expecting that. But I got really humbled and really humbled and really humbled, and it just kept pushing me down, pushing me down.
“And I’m so glad (Front Row Motorsports) had the confidence in me to keep giving me good trucks, and I’m just so glad that we could do it this soon. I was just thinking rookie season, we’re going to come in and do the best we can. Hey, we might get lucky with a win. … But just to come out here and just stomp them and pass them and take the lead and dominate that way, it feels so much better to do it that way.”
Who is Milwaukee Mile winner Layne Riggs?
The 22-year-old Riggs, the son of former NASCAR driver Scott Riggs, is racing his first full season on the Craftsman Truck Series after making three starts each of the previous two seasons.
In 22 races coming into Milwaukee, Riggs had five top-five finishes with a high of third last season at Indianapolis Raceway Park with Spire Motorsports and this year at North Wilkesboro Speedway with Front Row Motorsports.
Riggs did not qualify for the 10-driver, seven-race playoffs.
Scott Riggs raced at Milwaukee in the truck series in 2000 and 2001 with a top finish of ninth in 2000.
How did Layne Riggs win?
Riggs lined up second for the restart to begin the final stage. Majeski got the lead from third and held it for two laps before Riggs got underneath.
“It was really hard battle that last restart,” Riggs said. “And everybody says, ‘What went through your head on that last restart?’ Nothing. I just went out there and just sunk it off in the corner. Turned the steering wheel, hit the gas sooner than they did, and it stuck.”
While Riggs didn’t have the details quite right, he had the gist. He made the move when he could and then defended as Majeski fought back.
“The outside was where you wanted to be and I was working higher than him, higher than him,” Majeski said. “He saw that and moved up. I tried to peek lower, but there was just less grip down low.
“Who’d have thought at a flat, mile racetrack we’re ripping the fence? Crazy, but it makes for great racing.”
What happened to Ty Majeski in the LiUNA! 175?
Majeski, a native of Seymour, won the pole and led twice for 44 laps but the ThorSport team missed the setup on his Ford just a bit. He finished 1.516 seconds behind after closing within .8 with about 10 laps to go.
Majeski had won the two previous races coming into the playoffs at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway.
“If there was one of these three I wanted, of course it would be at the Milwaukee Mile,” Majeski said.
He led the first 42 laps before getting passed by Christian Eckes in traffic just before the first caution flag of the race. Eckes led twice for a race-high 71 laps.
“For as bad as I felt we missed it today, as close as we were, that means our trucks are good,” Majeski said. “They’re making a lot of grip, even though we missed the balance. Pretty proud of that.
“We had a lot of effort go into the last few weeks over the Olympic break and going into this race in making our trucks better and it showed.”
With Riggs not being involved in the playoffs, Majeski is the leader over Eckes.
Nick Sanchez finished fourth and Taylor Gray rounded out the top five.
Will NASCAR return to the Milwaukee Mile?
State Fair Park board chairman John Yingling said before the start of the race the Mile won’t be on the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series schedule.
IndyCar, which is racing a doubleheader on Labor Day weekend, will move up a week and fill the date.
The Craftsman Truck Series had a 15-year run from its inception in 1995 through 2009 before financial problems involving the promoter led to NASCAR staying away. Track Enterprises, which had promoted stock car races at the track since 2019, brought the trucks back last season.
William Sawalich repeats in ARCA
Seventeen-year-old double-duty driver William Sawalich dominated to repeat as the winner of the Sprecher 150 earlier in the day.
He led 148 laps and finished 4.675 seconds ahead of Connor Zilisch, who led the other two after the midrace break.
The victory was Sawalich’s seventh of the season and fourth straight, as well as the fourth straight for Joe Gibbs Racing at the Mile since ARCA returned in 2021.
Although Sawalich spent more driving with a clear track around him rather than racing, the track time was still valuable to his development, said Sawalich, who went on to finish 14th in the trucks.
“I just learned a bunch about the track and all the characteristics and also, the black down low, the new pavement, how slick, that is, honestly, not planning on using it all on the truck race” Sawalich said. “So, now I know that, and we just picked up a couple things that I can use for later.”
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