NASCAR halted Truck Series qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, after a lengthy lightning hold on Thursday afternoon, and the field for tonight’s UNOH 250 will now be set by the rulebook instead of the clock.
Nine trucks were still lined up to qualify when the red flag flew, leaving Chase points leader Layne Riggs to open the Truck Series’ new seven-race Chase format from a Bristol pole he never got to officially earn.
Qualifying began at 4:05 p.m. EDT on FS2, and Bristol’s own account warned fans of approaching storms and told them to seek shelter, according to Bristol track officials on social media. By roughly 4:40 p.m. EDT, trackside reporters covering the session had Jake Garcia atop an incomplete leaderboard after 28 trucks had run, while Tanner Gray and Tristan McKee were scratched by mechanical trouble. FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass later confirmed the session would not resume, with Thursday’s grid instead following NASCAR’s qualifying metric, a formula built around car owner points.
That formula favors Riggs, who topped Thursday’s practice session at 124.987 mph ahead of Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia, Gio Ruggiero and Connor Mosack, according to Jayski’s full race weekend coverage. Pockrass picked Riggs to win outright, listing Majeski, Honeycutt, Smith and Hemric to round out his top five, according to his earlier top-five race prediction.
| NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES — UNOH 250 STARTING LINEUP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol Motor Speedway • Presented by Ohio Logistics | ||||
| Row | Pos | Car | Driver | Team |
| 1 | 1 | 34 | Layne Riggs (C) | Love’s Travel Stops/Peak Ford |
| 2 | 38 | Chandler Smith (C) | QuickTie Ford | |
| 2 | 3 | 11 | Kaden Honeycutt (C) | Mobil 1 Toyota |
| 4 | 77 | Tristan McKee (C) | RCA Chevrolet | |
| 3 | 5 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Halmar International Toyota |
| 6 | 62 | William Sawalich (i) | Soundgear Toyota | |
| 4 | 7 | 19 | Daniel Hemric (C) | Delphi Chevrolet |
| 8 | 88 | Ty Majeski (C) | Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Ford | |
| 5 | 9 | 16 | Justin Haley | RAM RAM |
| 10 | 9 | Grant Enfinger (C) | Grant County Mulch Chevrolet | |
| 6 | 11 | 42 | Parker Eatmon | Vetted Ventures Chevrolet |
| 12 | 98 | Jake Garcia | Quanta/Curb Records Ford | |
| 7 | 13 | 18 | Tyler Ankrum (C) | LIUNA Chevrolet |
| 14 | 99 | Ben Rhodes (C) | Bommarito Ford | |
| 8 | 15 | 10 | Corey LaJoie | Mopar RAM |
| 16 | 5 | Bayley Currey | Monster Truck Wars Toyota | |
| 9 | 17 | 12 | Brenden Queen # | Cummins RAM |
| 18 | 13 | Cole Butcher # | Atlantic Tilt Load Ford | |
| 10 | 19 | 17 | Giovanni Ruggiero (C) | First Auto Group Toyota |
| 20 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Black’s Tire Toyota | |
| 11 | 21 | 91 | Christian Eckes (C) | Motion Industries Chevrolet |
| 22 | 7 | Connor Mosack (C) | Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet | |
| 12 | 23 | 25 | Regan Smith | RAM RAM |
| 24 | 14 | Mini Tyrrell # | RAM RAM | |
| 13 | 25 | 1 | Nick Leitz (C) | Precision Measurements Inc Toyota |
| 26 | 4 | Connor Hall | AutoVentive/Precision Vehicle Logistics | |
| 14 | 27 | 44 | Andres Perez De Lara | BLAC/Go Kart Mania Academy Chevrolet |
| 28 | 45 | Landen Lewis (C) | Utilitra/J.F. Electric Chevrolet | |
| 15 | 29 | 26 | Dawson Sutton | Tennessee VOLS Chevrolet |
| 30 | 33 | Frankie Muniz | Morgan & Morgan Ford | |
| 16 | 31 | 56 | Timmy Hill | Coble Enterprises Toyota |
| 32 | 81 | Kris Wright | iHeartRadio/F.N.B. Corporation Chevrolet | |
| 17 | 33 | 22 | Jackson Macenko | PolyDyn Performance Coatings Ford |
| 34 | 76 | Caden Kvapil | Nor-Cal Equipment Rentals Chevrolet | |
| 18 | 35 | 2 | Luke Baldwin | Mohawk Northeast Inc Ford |
| 36 | 75 | Nick Sanchez | FMS Solutions Chevrolet | |
| Did Not Qualify: #90 Justin Carroll. Track Race Record: Brad Keselowski, 08/21/14, 1:09:35, 91.919 mph. Data provided by NASCAR Statistics, 9/17/2026. | ||||
Weather Outlook Turns Uncertain For Saturday’s Cup Race
Bristol’s Cup Series weekend begins Friday with practice and qualifying before the Bass Pro Shops Night Race runs Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EDT on USA Network. Saturday’s daytime forecast calls for mid-80s heat and a 40 to 50 percent chance of afternoon storms, according to the National Weather Service’s Bristol forecast.
Conditions should improve by the green flag, with lows in the mid-60s and an evening storm chance closer to 20 to 30 percent, according to a detailed breakdown of Saturday’s outlook. NASCAR has already updated its wet-weather tire policy for the weekend, letting teams switch to wet tires if rain falls after a race starts, according to a Motorsport.com report.
Layne Riggs Leads Truck Series Chase Field Into Bristol
The UNOH 250 opens the first Truck Series Chase, a seven-race Chase format that skips elimination rounds and simply tallies points down the stretch, according to NASCAR’s official Chase entry announcement.
Riggs enters at 2,100 points, 25 ahead of Honeycutt and 35 up on Smith, with Eckes, Ruggiero, Majeski, Enfinger, Hemric, Rhodes and Ankrum rounding out the 10-driver field, according to Frontstretch’s breakdown of the Chase standings. Bristol is one of two short tracks left before the season closes at Homestead on Nov. 6, with no reset round to erase a bad night.
ThorSport, which fields Majeski and Rhodes, has not won since Phoenix in November 2024, but considers Bristol a track where that drought should end, according to NASCAR’s ThorSport Chase preview. Bristol Motor Speedway’s own preview framed Riggs and Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith as the tandem to beat entering an 8 p.m. EDT green flag on FS1, according to the speedway’s official release.
Thursday’s lightning hold delayed the start of the Truck Series’ new Chase, but it did not change the outlook. Riggs leads, the format has no reset round, and Bristol’s short track still has a habit of rearranging fields late.
Why Was NASCAR Truck Series Bristol Qualifying Canceled Today? When is the Race?