Jake Garcia earns first NASCAR Truck win after nightmare race for Front Row Motorsports - RAW CHILI

In a dramatic Chase opener for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia played spoiler with his first-ever win in his 94th career start.

Garcia beat Bayley Currey in second, who earned his career-best result while making his first start of the 2026 season. Stewart Friesen finished a strong third, and Justin Haley secured Kaulig RAM their first-ever top five finish in fourth.

Rounding out the top five was 16-year-old Tristan McKee, who earned the 2026 ARCA East title at Bristol earlier in the same day.

The top-finishing Chase driver was Gio Ruggiero in sixth, and then William Sawalich seventh, Kaden Honeycutt eighth, Ty Majeski ninth, and Grant Enfinger tenth.

It was a nightmarish result for the season’s dominant Front Row Motorsports duo of Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith, who both faced multiple issues that derailed their night. Riggs swept both stages but finished 32nd for his worst finish of the entire year.

Riggs still leads the championship, but just three points ahead of Honeycutt, and then Smith 30 points behind.

Stages 1 and 2

Riggs led the way from pole position, and trouble found Chase drivers early in the race. Eckes suffered right-front damage when he came across the nose of Enfinger, slamming the wall. The race stayed green, but he had to pit for repairs, losing several laps.

Later in the stage, NASCAR decided to park Jackson Macenko for failing to meet minimum speed .

Riggs lapped all the way up inside the top 20 as he claimed the Stage 1 win over Honeycutt, Smith, Garcia, Majeski, McKee, Hemric, Rhodes, Friesen, and Haley.

During the stage break, the top six stayed out while most of the field pitted for tires, but the decision to choose track position seemed to work out in the lone run.

Riggs went on to sweep the stages, winning Stage 2 over Honeycutt, Smith, Garcia, Majeski, Friesen, Leitz, Tan. Gray, Currey, and McKee.

Stage 3

The next round of pit stops was a disaster for Front Row Motorsports, as Riggs lost five positions with a slow stop while his teammate Smith was penalized for speeding. But that wasn’t all for FRM.

As Garcia led the field on the restart, Riggs suddenly had to pit due to a worsening loose wheel, falling off the lead lap.

Soon after, there was chaos out on the track as the No. 76 of Caden Kvapil started dropping oil. Leitz fully crashed, Majeski spun, Ruggiero, Wright, and Muniz slapped the wall.

NASCAR immediately red-flagged the race for a lengthy cleanup.

When things finally got back underway, Garcia held Honeycutt back and maintained the race lead. Riggs was trapped back in 26th, two laps down, and no longer a factor.

Garcia’s advantage over Honeycutt started to rapidly grow as he reported a vibration, but he got saved by a debris caution soon after.

On the restart, Currey got underneath Garcia for the race lead, and they were suddenly three-wide off of Turn 2 with Friesen taking the lead from the far outside as all three trucks slammed.

Behind them, things went from bad to worse for Riggs as he suffered heavy damage in a restart incident, but the race stayed green as he came to pit road. The nightmare continued for FRM, as Smith also had to make an unscheduled pit stop for a tire issue.

Garcia eventually worked his way back by Friesen for the race lead and set sail. Currey eventually got his way around Friesen, but he had no time to run down Garcia.

Garcia won the race, 1.3 seconds clear of Currey, leading 104 of 250 laps on Thursday.