NASCAR’s All-Star Saturday is always packed full of action! Starting things off here today were the truckers of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. One of the key things to look for in today’s race was just how Corey Heim would fare as he’s more or less shown dominant speed all season long, even if the results don’t always reflect that. Layne Riggs was also looking for a little redemption here today after his disqualification at Kansas last week. Were these two championship favorites able to rise to the occasion or did one of the spoilers reign supreme? Let’s break it down. Here are the 3 key takeaways from the Window World 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Time to get this short track showdown underway!
The green flag is out and we are live on FS1 from @NWBSpeedway. pic.twitter.com/gJbA60kFMj— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) May 17, 2025
Though Corey Heim dominated today’s race, as it has been the case many times this year, he was not the one hoisting the hardware in the end. After a great launch on the restart during NASCAR Overtime, Corey Heim was ultimately taken out by the number 34 truck of Layne Riggs. So, the best truck didn’t win. Luckily, though, the second best truck did get to ride the North Wilkesboro elevator into victory lane.
After his teammate made easy work of Heim following his slow restart, Chandler Smith led just one but the most important lap of the race–the last one. Smith had been fast all day, running second for a large bulk of this race. This win marks Smith’s second on the year, earning him an extra 5 bonus playoff points.
After qualifying got rained out, Gio Ruggiero started today’s race in the 4th position in accordance to NASCAR’s starting lineup algorithm. He was driving the number 17 truck for Tricon Garage and he really impressed by being able to stay in or around the top-5 all race long. After some pit strategy, Ruggiero cycled to the lead and ended up leading 24 laps in today’s race on his way to his first-ever stage win. Ruggiero, 18, has had some success so far in his stock car racing journey. He ran a handful of races in the ARCA Menards Series in 2024 for Venturini Motorsports. He won the ARCA East Series season opener last year at Five Flags Speedway and finished runner-up a couple of times in the main series.
So far, Ruggiero has shown to be a fairly capable young prospect in the Truck Series. Aside from winning a stage today and running in the top 5, Ruggiero finished 4th last week at Kansas and 2nd in the season-opening race at Daytona. He also scored back-to-back top 10 finishes at Bristol and Rockingham, respectively. He’s been quiet most of the year, but solid and certainly has a bright future ahead of him as he claws up the NASCAR ranks.
When it comes to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Kyle Busch is considered one of (if not the) all-time greats. There was a time not that long ago that when you saw Busch’s name on the entry list, it was all but a given that he was going to be the one in victory lane when everything was all said and done. But, since switching to Chevy, Busch looks more like a common mortal than the Superman that we’re used to seeing. He started today’s race in the 2nd position and the expectations were sky-high. The 07 truck he was driving won earlier this season with Kyle Larson at Homestead. Surely, Busch could replicate that success, right?
Well, at the drop of the green flag, Busch fell quickly to the bottom half of the top 10 where he simmered for much of the opening stage. He finished the first stage in 10th and improved slightly during Stage 2 to finish 6th. However, after pit stops, Busch got mired to the bottom half of the top 20 and ran there for the rest of the race. With his well-documented struggles with RCR in the NASCAR Cup Series put aside, it makes fans question whether or not age is starting to affect Busch’s driving abilities. To his credit, Busch won in the 7 truck for the team earlier this season at Atlanta. However, that was a superspeedway style race and many fans don’t consider that style of racing “real racing”. Today, he ultimately crossed the line quietly in the 9th position following a chaotic finish.
While their Cup Series team more often than not runs around mid-pack every week, the same cannot be said for their Truck Series program, which is arguably Ford’s strongest entry. In recent years, Front Row has been making noise in the Craftsman Truck Series, even winning their first and (to date) only championship in 2022 with driver Zane Smith. So far in 2024, Chandler Smith has one win in the number 38 truck, it coming at Bristol, and then last week at Kansas, Layne Riggs in the number 34 was in contention to win before being disqualified after failing post-race inspection.
Today at North Wilkesboro, the Front Row duo were strong yet again. They ran in the top 5 for most of today’s race, and prior to Smith taking the lead just before the last caution of the race came out. That last caution sparked NASCAR Overtime and Smith lined up on the outside with Corey Heim under him in second. Lining up behind Heim was Smith’s teammate, Layne Riggs. Riggs gave Heim a huge shot on the restart and Smith had to settle for 3rd. That was until Riggs gave Heim another shot in turns 1 and 2 which ultimately took out Corey Heim. Heim had to settle for a 17th place finish. With the 11 truck taken out of the equation, the race was settled between the Front Row Motorsports dynamic duo of Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith. Smith was the one who prevailed in the bitter end.
That does it for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro, race fans! What did you think of that race? What about the ending? Was the incident between Riggs and Heim just a racing incident or do you consider it foul play? Let us know! A stay tuned for our coverage of the All-Star Heats later on this afternoon.
