Unlike the other two national series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship dance has narrowed to a duet coming into Talladega Superspeedway, the most unpredictable venue remaining in the 2026 season.
Tricon Garage‘s Kaden Honeycutt and Front Row Motorsports‘ Layne Riggs take a considerable advantage over the field when the green flag falls for Friday afternoon‘s Love‘s RV Stop 225 (4 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Heading into the always-thrilling Talladega race, the season‘s four-time winner and driver of the No. 11 Toyota, Honeycutt holds his largest advantage of The Chase presented by Mobil 1, a 39-point edge over seven-race winner Riggs — both drivers well in front of third place, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes at 112 points back. None of these drivers have won on the sport‘s biggest track, however.
In last year‘s postseason race at Talladega, Riggs, driver of the No. 34 FRM Ford, finished fifth, Honeycutt was 10th, and it was actually Honeycutt‘s Tricon teammate Gio Ruggiero scoring his first career win — from pole position – leading a race-best 37 of the 90 laps including the final seven in a thrilling overtime triumph.
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CR7 Motorsports driver Grant Enfinger is the only Chase-eligible driver with trophies at all the remaining tracks (Talladega, Martinsville, and Homestead-Miami). Neither Honeycutt nor Riggs has won at any of those venues.
Any driver more than 152 points behind the leader following the Talladega race will be mathematically eliminated from championship contention. Three drivers enter the weekend already beyond that margin — Enfinger (-184), two-time series champ Ben Rhodes (-188) and Tyler Ankrum (-201) — while Ruggiero (-151) sits just inside it. All four need strong runs Friday to stay in the hunt.
Of note, Honeycutt boasts the best average finish (3.3) in the opening four Chase races with McAnally-Hilgemann‘s Daniel Hemric second best with a 7.3 average finish and his teammate Eckes third best with a 9.0 average. Riggs, who opened the chase with finishes of 32nd (Bristol) and 19th (Kansas), is only seventh best in the Chase with a 13.8 average finish so far.
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There have been nine different winners in the last nine Talladega races, including five hoisting their first career trophies. Talladega boasts the series record for most last-lap winning passes (11) — including six of the last eight races.
Kennametal Pole Qualifying is slated for 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday (FS2).