Layne Riggs, son of former NASCAR driver Scott Riggs, will be making his first career Martinsville Speedway appearance in Sunday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300, but the car he is driving gives him confidence that he could be a factor.
Riggs, 14, has been competing in the Late Model Stock Car division at Orange County Speedway as well as in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour. He has three career Late Model Stock Car wins at Orange County Speedway and has scored a top-five and two top-10 finishes in six CARS Tour starts.
Last Thursday’s test provided valuable on-track time for Riggs as he tried to learn the track and how to approach the .526-mile paperclip shaped racetrack.
“What we’ve figured out is, you have to roll the center of the corner here and carry a lot of speed and conserve yourself to be there at the end of the race to have a winning battle against everyone else here,” Riggs said. “Right now, I’m just trying to learn the track, follow some people and learn the line, try different things and see what works for us.”
Riggs’ most recent victory came on September 10th at Orange County Speedway. However, in his most recent CARS Tour starts at Concord Speedway and at Myrtle Beach Speedway, late race problems relegated Riggs from potential top-five performances.
“Everytime we get back to the shop, we look around and find something wrong,” Riggs said. “hate giving excuses. The past couple races, we’ve had some bad luck. We started a little different than we were expecting at Myrtle Beach and we just kind of fell back in the race holding on for dear life. Hopefully we can have a good long run here.”
Riggs will be competing in Sunday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 driving the same car Dillon Bassett almost scored the victory with in the 2013 ValleyStar Credit Union 300. Knowing how fast the car has run in the past at Martinsville fuels Riggs’ optimism.
“This car, in 2013, almost won here,” Riggs remarked. “They have some great people behind it working on it and I hope we can put it in the same spot. It’s a great car. I love this car. I’ve had it for two years now and hope I can put it in victory lane.”
If Riggs is able to score the victory, he would become the youngest winner in Martinsville Speedway history.
