Scott Riggs confirmed that Riggs Motorsports will no longer be the Longhorn Factory Team moving forward.
It was originally reported last night by Justin Fiedler aka Dirtrackr that Riggs Motorsports would no longer be the Longhorn Factory Team. He shared, “I’m told the split is amicable, but that both sides, Longhorn with Steve Arpin and Riggs with team owner Scott Riggs realized that a change was necessary,” he added. “As for what happens next with a Longhorn Factory Team or house car still up in the air. I wouldn’t expect anything Longhorn owned to materialize at least in the near term. … But will we see another Longhorn factory team branded car come Speed Weeks? I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but I don’t think that I would expect it.”
He did note that Overton plans to continue with Riggs for the Dome “and then plans for 2026 are still TBD. I think both national tours are potentially on the table and then maybe a pick-and-choose slate.”
Speaking to FloRacing’s Kevin Kovac, Riggs confirmed the news and revealed it had been in the works for several months, “Let me start up by saying (Longhorn’s) Steve (Arpin) and I are still good friends, so nothing happened there. It’s not a blow up. It’s simply that they want to go a different route on their (chassis) development program instead of using a team that goes on the road and tries to win races, which is probably the right way to do it and I totally get it.”
“And for us, we’re racers, we’re going to race, and we’re going to keep our Riggs Motorsports brand going,” he continued. “We’re going to continue to buy their (Longhorn) product and race their stuff and hopefully get help from them, which they said, ‘No problem.’ But we kind of want to be on our own.”
Additionally, Riggs shared that the team will shift its headquarters from China Grove, North Carolina to near Overton’s home in Georgia. Overton will also take a more “active day-to-day role” according to Kovac.
Riggs also confirmed that crew chief Anthony Burroughs and crew member Jason Tharp “tendered their resignations last week.” That was also reported by Dirtrackr, who shared last night, ““Anthony Burroughs and Justin Tharp have departed the 76 team in recent days. … But Burroughs and Tharp already have their next deal. This one might surprise you a bit, but Burroughs and Tharp are heading for a reunion with a driver they had a lot of success with previously when they were all at SSI Motorsports together. And that driver, as I’m sure you could have guessed by now, is Ricky Thornton Jr.”
“I’m told that Burroughs and Tharp are headed for Koehler Motorsports and they will join back up with RTJ for the future,” he added.
While Burroughs and Tharp have left the team, Ryan Cantillo, the team’s third crew member, will remain and relocate to Georgia. He will be joined by two new full-time members who were not announced.
“We’re all disappointed with the year we had, and I just think that, you know, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason,” Riggs concluded. “But I think Brandon’s ready to dig in, and we’re as excited as we were last year when they all came in. We’ve got great motors, we’ve got great cars, everything we have is really good stuff. We’re looking forward to a new direction.”
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