After an eventful debut at Rockingham, marred by multiple spins and slides, Cleetus McFarland arrived at Nashville Superspeedway looking for redemption at the secondary level of NASCAR. He was one-month removed from a fantastic ARCA showing at Talladega, where he finished second and nearly won in a dramatic finish.

The popular YouTuber's NASCAR journey now took him to Music City, where he started last after qualifying got rained out. Once again, he was driving the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in his second NASCAR O'Reilly start.

Starting 38th, he steadily marched forward in the first run, and got as high as 29th. His RCR teammate Jesse Love ran him down near the end of the first stage, but tried not to put him a lap down as he enjoyed a big lead out front. He even helped push Cleetus by another car to reach P29 on track.

Battle for the free pass and splitter damage

Oh no Cleetus! pic.twitter.com/cYTG4pnzg6

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) May 31, 2026

After a twitch from the No. 33 Chevrolet, Love drove by, leaving Cleetus to fight Logan Bearden in an effort to be the first car one lap down at the end of the stage, and earn the free pass back onto the lead lap. Entering the final corner on the last lap of the stage, Cleetus got loose underneath Bearden and spun sideways, looping it through the grass. 

Not only did he miss out on a chance to get back on the lead lap, he fell back to 36th and caused minor damage to the sensitive splitter on the front of the car.

He fell a second lap down in Stage 2, ending it in 35th place and complaining about the worsening handling on the car. The team went to work on the bent-up splitter, trying to help give him some pace back.

“All it takes is one effing spin," said Cleetus on the radio.

Another spin and pit road penalties

Cleetus McFarland, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

As the race progressed, Cleetus clawed his way back up to 30th, now three laps down. Ahead of him was his first-ever green-flag pit stop at this level of racing. He nailed the pit entry, but during the stop, he came off the jack and dragged it out of the pit box. He stopped quickly at the direction of the crew chief, and the team was able to retrieve the jack, but that was still a penalty as he removed equipment from the box.

That's when things really began to spiral. While attempting to serve his penalty, Cleetus spun out at the entrance of pit road, and got another pass-through penalty for a commitment line violation.

After back-to-back penalties, he soldiered home in 35th place, six laps down.

Post-race radio debrief

At the checkered flag, he and the team had a brief debrief over the radio. Cleetus had Mike Dillon as his spotter and Robert Strmiska calling the shots as the crew chief.

"Well I made a lot more mistakes than I wanted to," radioed Cleetus. "I really screwed us spinning out. I wasn't expecting him to suck the air off my car so bad and I lost it."

The team applauded him for learning a lot, and praised him for improving his overtaking ability.

"Thank you guys, I apologize for the mistakes. I'm learning so much, and I know it's at the mercy of your guys hard work."

Cleetus then asserted that he is not discouraged, telling those watching along via his onboard camera: "I ain't gonna give up, I'm gonna figure this out."

His next race is just a few days away, returning to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since February's season-opener at Daytona. He will drive the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado on June 6 at Michigan International Speedway -- a large, high-speed two-mile oval. It will be the biggest non-superspeedway oval he has ever raced on.

Justin Allgaier out-duels Brent Crews in Nashville for NASCAR O'Reilly win

Cleetus McFarland to make NASCAR Truck return at Michigan

Cleetus McFarland and Squirrel McNutt Shake and Bake at ARCA Talladega

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

Layne Riggs won the pole, swept the stages, and claimed victory in Friday's very late-night NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race, but that doesn't even begin to tell the whole story.

Riggs made a dramatic late-race charge, defeating Rajah Caruth in a full-contact battle at the white flag to win at Nashville and collect a custom guitar. 

This is Riggs' eighth career NCTS victory, and second consecutive win. Just like he did one week ago in Charlotte, he bowed in honor of Kyle Busch, as the fallen NASCAR legend would do after every win.

"Not until I passed him and cleared him," said Riggs when asked when he knew he had the win in-hand. "That's how you win a NASTRUCK race, boys and girls. I put on a show for you guys. I didn't want to fall back, and I don't know what happened to that set of tires, but it was literally undriveable. (We) made the right adjustments there, got me the right tires, got me the motivation, and drove it to the front."

LAYNE RIGGS WINS! Watch him go from 3rd to the lead late at Nashville. That was awesome. pic.twitter.com/gf6oUfmIkw

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 30, 2026

Caruth, driving the truck Busch was supposed to drive tonight before his untimely passing, finished an agonizing second.

"I was trying to make this thing as wide as possible," said Caruth, sporting a No. 8 hat in honor of KB. "Obviously, on a tire disadvantage, but that was a great call. We were strong, just started at the back. No qualifying kind of impacted our night, and we got the truck really strong there. There's probably some things I should have done better there ... I really wanted to get that one obviously for everyone that was at KBM, for KB's family."

Chandler Smith finished third, Ross Chastain fourth, and Tyler Ankrum fifth. Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero, and Daniel Dye filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stage 1 -- Calm and straightforward 

Three hours later than planned due to a rain delay, the Truck race finally went green just after 11pm EST. Riggs started from pole and he held that position for the entire opening stage. He lapped all the way into the low 20s, and held a multi-second lead over the competition.

There were no incidents during the first run, and Riggs easily won Stage 1 over Honeycutt, Love, Eckes, Ruggiero, C. Smith, Rhodes. Tan. Gray, Garcia, and Hemric.

During the stage break, Clayton Green needed a push back to the pits, which delayed the opening of pit road for a moment.

Stage 2 -- Chaos and cautions

Riggs won the race off pit road, while Rhodes was penalized for speeding. In the pits, Retzlaff collided with Tyrrell and spun around, with both trucks suffering minor damage.

Tyler Reif backed into the wall on the restart after getting loose under teammate Parsons, triggering the first natural yellow of the race. The next restart didn't stay green for long either, as Carson Ferguson suffered a flat tire and crashed heavily into the outside wall.

The rash of yellows continued, and a three-truck pileup followed on the ensuing restart. The trucks of Jesse Love, Jake Garcia and Tanner Gray all suffered significant damage. It began with Gray getting lose, sending himself and Garcia spinning while Love had nowhere to go.

Garcia's wounded truck ended up dropping debris on the track, causing yet another yellow. In the first 35 laps of the second stage, the longest run was just three laps. A handful of trucks decided to pit during this yellow, led by Chastain, who was running fifth. 

Riggs held the lead through all of these restarts, and finally, the run went green to the end. Riggs continued to lead every lap up to this point, winning Stage 2 over Honeycutt, C. Smith. Eckes, Enfinger, Rhodes, Dye, Majeski, Hemric, and Chastain.

Stage 3 - A game of track position

For the first time, there was a lead change. As Riggs and the rest of the leaders came down pit road, Chastain and his group stayed out.

A total of four trucks stayed out including Chastain, and Riggs was now running lower than P1 for the first time the entire race. He also a handful of spots on pit road with Retzlaff, Lajoie and Ruggiero all taking two fresh right-sides, but he notably got overtaken by Honeycutt as well.

On the restart, Caruth powered into the race lead, trying to defend his 2025 Truck win at Nashville. Meanwhile, Riggs was now running outside the top ten. It was a very different story for Honeycutt, who had a great restart and was already back up to third.

As Honeycutt pressured Chastain for the runner-up position, the No. 11 Tricon Toyota suddenly lost power. Honeycutt's machine slowed to a stop, forcing a caution with just over 30 laps to go.

Caruth held the lead through a wild restart, and the next caution flew for a runaway wheel that disconnected from Rhodes' truck and came to rest in the infield grass.

After briefly getting a nose ahead of Caruth on the restart, Chastain fell back to third behind C. Smith -- a truck with fresher tires. His FRM teammate Riggs had even fresher tires than him and was charging as well, moving up to third around Chastain a few laps later.

With two laps to go, Riggs was there, and Smith cleared the way for him. Caruth tried his best to aero block, and the two trucks actually made contact at the white flag. Riggs then roared around on the outside with 40-lap fresher tires and the fastest truck of the night, taking a dramatic win for Front Row Motorsports.

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.