Almost no one in the infield at Carteret County Speedway was happy following a Solid Rock Carriers 125 that was stopped on five different occasions due to crashes and track repairs.
The lone exception was Layne Riggs, who took home the checkered flag on Lap 90 after another caution for track repairs caused the Solid Rock Carriers to run past its 11:00 p.m. curfew.
“The car was on point pretty much all weekend,” Riggs said. “We had to save our stuff for the right time, but it was just a wild night. The track came apart three times and pretty much every car in the field got torn up. I hate it for everyone else, but here we are in victory lane.”
The chaos all unfolded behind Riggs after he jumped out ahead of Brandon Pierce on Lap 1, as numerous incidents transpired throughout the shortened event, which eliminated drivers such as Mini Tyrrell, Chad McCumbee and former track champion Brandon Clements, among others.
Riggs’ lone challenge of the evening came on a Lap 62 restart when Corey Heim nudged Riggs out of the groove in Turn 3, but an ill-timed caution for a Bobby McCarty spin caused scoring to go back to the last completed lap, which reverted Heim to second.
Heim spent the remainder of the event trying to keep Riggs in sight after suffering some minor damage trying to pull the same maneuver on another restart, but he ultimately salvaged a strong points evening by settling for second.
“We struggled a lot in practice yesterday and this morning,” Heim said. “I thought we had a mediocre car, but we made some gains and we managed to get a lot of inside starting spots throughout the night on restarts. We played our cards right, avoided all of the wrecks and we were there at the end.”
With Riggs taking home the checkered flag in the Solid Rock Carriers 125, he becomes the first repeat winner in the CARS LMSC Tour this year after eight races and enters the upcoming event at Florence Motor Speedway with momentum following two consecutive wins.
Despite this, the overall points outlook for the CARS LMSC Tour is not expected to change much with Heim, McCarty, Connor Mosack and current leader Jared Fryar all scoring Top 5 finishes, but Riggs admitted that finishing strong will be imperative as the 2020 season comes to a close.
“You have to approach these final two races just like all the others,” Riggs said. “You have to try and win and you have to be consistent, but if you can’t win, then you have to salvage the best finish you can and hope the other guys have bad nights. Everything in racing is unpredictable, just like tonight.”
The CARS LMSC Tour will visit Florence for their penultimate race in the Aaron’s 250 on Oct. 3.
Solid Rock Carriers 125 Results:
- 99 Layne Riggs
- 78 Corey Heim
- 14 Jared Fryar
- 88 Connor Mosack
- 22 Bobby McCarty
- 74 Ronald Hill
- 2 Brandon Pierce
- 19c Jessica Cann OUT
- 1 Nolan Pope OUT
- 17p Stacy Puryear OUT
- T2 Travis Truett -28
- 81 Mini Tyrrell OUT
- 16 Chad McCumbee OUT
- 08 Justin Johnson OUT
- 4 Jonathan Findley OUT
- 2s Jonathan Shafer OUT
- 77 Trevor Ward OUT
- 7 Brandon Clements OUT
- 19 Sammy Smith OUT
- 51 Matt Cox OUT
- 01 Camden Gullie OUT
- 63 Tyler Matthews OUT
- 19b Chris Burns OUT
