Layne Riggs put the finishing touches on a stellar NCTS regular season Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS), winning the Team EJP 175 and securing the regular season championship before the series heads into The Chase.

The victory was the 11th of Riggs’ NCTS career and his sixth of the 2026 season. It was also his first victory at NHMS in just his second start at “The Magic Mile” and his 11th top-10 finish of the season.

Riggs emerged from a double-overtime finish at “The Magic Mile” to take the checkered flag, capping a day that saw the championship picture change all throughout the afternoon. His victory completed a one-two finish for Front Row Motorsports, with teammate Chandler Smith following him across the Granite Stripe start/finish line.

“This is awesome,” Riggs said after the victory. “Thank you to all the fans. They got a lot of people in the stands today, so thank you guys so much. Love coming up here. I’m ready for some lobster.”

Connor Zilisch controlled the opening portion of the Team EJP 175, winning both stage one and stage two. When the final stage began, Riggs officially clinched the NCTS regular season championship and the No. 1 seed for The Chase, but his afternoon was far from over.

Riggs battled a tight truck as the race went on, with Zilisch and Smith both getting by him before his Front Row Motorsports team made adjustments to help put him back in position to contend for the victory.

“I thought I was off a little bit. I thought I was in trouble,” Riggs continued. “Zilisch got by me, Chandler got by me. I was just really, really tight, couldn’t get it where I needed it, but my crew chief, Dylan Cappello, engineer Jonathan Coates, they made some excellent, excellent adjustments there at the end. Thank you to my teammate, Chandler, for racing me clean there at the end.”

While Riggs battled for the win, the fight for the final position in The Chase produced plenty of drama deeper in the field. With three drivers separated by just one point entering the closing laps, a crash involving Gavan Boschele with six laps remaining sent the race to overtime and left Stewart Friesen, Tyler Ankrum and Jake Garcia tied around the final transfer position.

When the dust settled from a thrilling double-overtime finish, Ankrum emerged with the 10th and final spot in The Chase, despite battling rear-brake problems throughout the race.

“Extremely,” Ankrum said when asked how difficult the afternoon had been. “It’s very rare you get to come to a place as fast as this, and you have no rear brakes, and we can’t fix the problems.”

After falling as far back as 27th, Ankrum said the points situation reminded him of racing for a Championship 4 berth at Martinsville Speedway last season. Although relieved to advance, he made it clear afterward that simply making The Chase did not erase his frustration with the team’s performance.

“Definitely did not want to come to New Hampshire and perform like that,” Ankrum said. “Got lucky, did not perform like we belong in The Chase, so we got lucky.”

At the front of the field, Riggs made the most of the late restart and closed out the regular season with a victory, a championship and plenty of momentum heading into the seven-race Chase. Smith’s runner-up finish was his 12th top-10 of the season and his second in two starts at NHMS.

“I love this place. I love this type of racetrack,” Riggs said. “Let’s bring on The Chase. We only got seven left. Just no mercy.”

Tomorrow the superstars of the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) take to “The Magic Mile” for the Dollar Tree 301. This marks the 55th NCS race at NHMS and serves as the penultimate race of the 2026 NCS regular season. The green flag is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets:

Tickets for New England’s only NCS race, the Dollar Tree 301, are still available at NHMS.com or 833-4LOUDON. Tickets for kids 12 and under are just $10.

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