Smith surges forward while Riggs struggles in Atlanta

The FR8 208 in Atlanta on Saturday was the start of some fantastic racing in Atlanta this past weekend for NASCAR. Front Row Motorsports had both of their Fords in the race and overall the race while having action from start to finish. Created an uneventful finish for Layne Riggs while Chandler Smith was able to have a top 5 finish on his home track.

Layne Riggs Key Takeaways

• Stage One: 2nd / Stage Two: 30th / Race Result: 20th
• Layne Riggs made his third start at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this Saturday. Riggs qualified 16th for the event. Riggs quickly made his way to the front in the opening laps of the race, competing within the top-10 and top five. Riggs finished Stage One in the second position but was penalized for passing below the double white line.
• Due to an electrical issue, Riggs spent time on pit road for the team to swap out the battery, going two laps down in the process. Dylan Cappello and the team were able to get Riggs back on track.
• The bad luck continued for Riggs, suffering a flat right-front tire at the start of the final stage and issued a speeding penalty after changing the tire. Riggs finished 20th in the race.
• "Just an overall really frustrating day for us," said Riggs. "We had really good speed, but we had everything go wrong for us today with the electrical issue, flat tire, and penalty. We have a couple weeks off to tune our stuff and come out swinging at Vegas."

Chandler Smith's Key Takeaways

• Stage One: 17th / Stage Two: 9th / Race Result: 5th
• Chandler Smith returned to his home state this Saturday for 135-laps at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Dropping to the rear for unapproved adjustments, Smith made his way into the top-20, finishing 17th in Stage One. Smith then finished ninth in Stage Two, earning valuable stage points.
• A pit road penalty at the Stage Two break put Smith at the tail of the field, but made his way back to the front, racing hard with eventual race winner Kyle Busch for the lead. Smith dropped back to fifth where he finished the race, earning his second top-10 finish of the year.
• "What a solid day at my home track," said Smith. "Our No. 38 QuickTie products Ford F-150 was fast, but we needed a little more raw speed to make big moves to be a contender. We still hustled our way to the front and got a top five out of it."

The teams will take some time to reset with a few weeks off before heading to Las Vegas.