Riggs ended practice P1 and named Chandler Smith the truck to beat. Eckes sits 28th on the single lap and owns every window from 15 laps to 30. Smith ran 71 straight laps after a tire went down. Every truck, every window, and the metric grid after lightning cancelled qualifying.
Intercepted Audio “ ” Layne Riggs ended Bristol truck practice P1 on a late mock run and named his teammate as the truck to beat. Christian Eckes never made one, sits 28th on the single lap, and owns every window from 15 laps to 30. Chandler Smith ran 71 straight laps after a tire went down.
Then lightning cancelled qualifying and the metric set the grid. By PitByNumbers Staff · Bristol Motor Speedway · Thursday, September 17, 2026 · 8:00 PM ET · FS1 Practice ran in the afternoon sun with the shade rolling in late, on a concrete surface where the grip strip sprayed on the bottom took most of the session to come in. The broadcast measured it live: a truck that moved off the strip went from 16.0 and 16.15 laps to a 16.55, three to four tenths a lap in the lane alone.
That is why the FASTEST column below belongs to whoever made a mock run last, on the coolest track, in the best lane, and why the top of it reads Riggs, Majeski, Garcia and Ruggiero, four trucks that all made one. It is also why Chandler Smith is 31st and Christian Eckes is 28th on that column: neither made one. Read the board accordingly.
The 5 and 10-lap columns are the restart. The 15, 20, 25 and 30-lap columns are the race, and at Bristol the race is a 65-lap first stage on a tire that Smith proved can go 71 laps and Ruggiero proved can give up seven tenths in 32. Qualifying was supposed to sort the pylon from the race and it never got the chance: Jake Garcia put up a 15.314 to lead the 25 trucks who ran, a lightning hold followed, and the session was cancelled.
The START column is the official metric grid, which pays owner points and last race, not Thursday speed. That is how Tristan McKee, who ran 25 laps and leaked, starts fourth. Nobody in practice, which at Bristol is the headline.
The closest call was a slide, not contact: Grant Enfinger loose into Turn 1 and straight to pit road. The sheet metal waited for qualifying. Nick Sanchez opened the session with a 15.573 and a right-front brush of the wall hard enough to wipe the Goodyear lettering off the tire.
Stewart Friesen got into it with the right rear on his run. Connor Hall had a big slide off Turn 4 on his first lap, Dawson Sutton's second lap got away from him, and Frankie Muniz got loose enough to spoil both of his. Then the lightning came and the session was cancelled, so none of it counted for the grid.
The damage counts either way. Our truck card posted before a lap turned: Eckes to win at +600 for 1.5 units, Riggs to win at +250 for 2.5, Garcia top five at +750 for 1.0. Practice graded two of the three up and left one exactly where it was.
Eckes is the headline: first in the 5, 15, 20, 25 and 30-lap windows and second over 10, and the price was built on his 426 laps led here before anyone knew he would have the best long-run truck in the field again. The one thing the day took from him is the grid, 21st on the metric, and the last two winners of this race started 18th and 7th. Riggs ended the session P1, backed it with a top-four number in every window he ran, and then got the pole for free when qualifying was cancelled.
The best truck of the season starts first on a night when track position is the whole argument. The Garcia leg is unchanged: third fastest, a 15.314 in a qualifying session that does not count, and an eighth-best 20-lap average that says top-ten truck with a top-five ceiling if the long runs break his way. The one name we did not have that practice says we should have is Chandler Smith, third seed on the front row with the best 10-lap number of the day and a 71-lap run behind it.
Riggs named him. So does the chart. The full truck card is posted, and the Cup card for Saturday night drops to subscribers first.
Riggs is the fastest truck and starts first. Eckes is the best truck and starts 21st. Smith is the best-prepared truck, on the front row, with one fewer set of tires than everyone around him.
Honeycutt is the quiet one, third on the grid with the second-best long-run numbers and the fewest laps spent getting them. Practice at Bristol is a pylon that lies and a stopwatch that does not, and Thursday the two disagreed about everything except this: the four names at the top of this file are the four trucks that will decide it, and the weather put three of them in the first two rows and one of them in row eleven. That is the race.