Garcia Won at Bristol, Ended ThorSport’s Truck Drought
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 18, 2026
Garcia won
Jake Garcia gave ThorSport Racing the result it had been waiting for, winning the UNOH 250 Presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway and collecting his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. Garcia drove the No. 98 ThorSport Ford F-150, controlled the race for long stretches and led 104 laps before making the move that decided it. He passed Stewart Friesen for the lead on Lap 230 and stayed there the rest of the way, even after a late restart scare tested the front of the field.
Garcia finished the job by beating Bayley Currey to the line by 1.305 seconds, a margin that matched the way he managed the closing laps. The win also delivered 69 points in the event. For ThorSport, the victory ended a dry spell that stretched back to Ty Majeski’s 2024 Championship 4 win at Phoenix. Garcia gave the team another trip to Victory Lane and did it in the first race of the seven-race Chase for the Championship.
Race swings
The race never settled into a simple run to the finish. Friesen finished third, Justin Haley took fourth and Tristan McKee rounded out the top five, and each spot carried a different story from the Bristol night. Currey’s runner-up effort came in his first Truck Series start of the season, and he kept pressure on Garcia to the end. McKee made history with his fifth-place run, becoming the youngest driver ever to earn a Truck Series top-five finish.
Layne Riggs started the night with control at the front and won the first two stages, but the race shifted away from him after a wheel issue and later contact sent him to 32nd. Even with the trouble, Riggs left Bristol still ahead of Kaden Honeycutt by three points in the standings. The event also had to slow for a red flag on Lap 171 after Caden Kvapil’s No. 76 Chevrolet ruptured an oil line and spread fluid across the frontstretch. The pause broke up the rhythm of the race, but Garcia kept his focus and carried ThorSport through the final stretch.
Chase opener
The UNOH 250 opened the Chase for the Championship and set the tone for the rest of the stretch run. Garcia’s win gave ThorSport an immediate boost in the postseason picture, while Riggs still held the early points edge after his stage points and later recovery from the mid-race problems. The Bristol race lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes and 44 seconds, averaged 85 mph and produced a fastest lap of 15.7 seconds, a reminder of how quickly the lead could change once the field got up to speed on the short track.
The series moved on with the Chase route already taking shape. Garcia opened the postseason with a win, ThorSport earned its first victory since Majeski’s championship-clinching Phoenix run and Riggs still led Honeycutt by three points. That combination gave the next races a clear early storyline, with Kansas Speedway next on the schedule and the title fight already underway.
