Driggers and Nogueira Win Long Go Round RFD-TV's The American

Reigning RFD-TV’s The American champions Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira won the long round of RFD-TVs The American with a 4.78-second-run on a little paint steer, making this their second time winning the long round and $3,250 a man.

“Honestly, that was the one I picked when we went back there and looked at them,” Driggers said. “I knew a little bit about him and I was excited to have him. The round wasn’t as tough tonight as it normally should be. When we backed in there we just wanted to make a smooth run and it ended up working out in our favor.”

[Read More: Learning How to Win with Kaleb Driggers]

Driggers, who won The American with Patrick Smith (2014), Travis Graves (2015) and Nogueira (2018), was heading on his 15-year-old grey gelding, Yahtzee. 

“I’ve actually won it (The American) before on him,” Driggers said. “I just got him back from Dustin Bird last year. I rode him at the NFR this past year. He has fast feet and scores good.”

[Read More: Yahtzee! Driggers’ Unshakable Grey NFR Mount]

Nogueira was on his 15-year-old black gelding Green Card to pull back on two feet.

“We’ve got some really good horses coming up but I know what Green Card is going to do so I said I’ll take him,” Nogueira said. 

[Read More: Junior Nogueira’s Green Card]

Driggers and Nogueira are one of the top eight teams making it back to the next round in tomorrow’s performance, with hopes to advance to the top four. And for the first time ever, $50,000 of the earnings counts toward the PRCA world standings. 

“I don’t exactly know how they’re going to have it set up tomorrow,” Driggers said. “I don’t know if since we won it, if we get to go last. I don’t dictate a lot of what happens but same thing as tonight, just go try to make a smooth run. I think there were six smooth runs tonight so, we’re just going to try and make the same run tomorrow, and we should be able to get into the final four.” 

[Read More: Driggers and Nogueira Win The American]

[Read More: Kaleb Driggers and Patrick Smith Win the American]

[Read More: Range: Driggers and Graves Win The American]

Top 8 coming back

Kaleb Driggers and Nogueira, 4.78 seconds

Luke Brown and Paul Eaves, 4.9 seconds

Marcus Theriot and Coleby Payne, 4.94 seconds

Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, 5.37 seconds

Aaron Tsinigine and Trey Yates, 5.98 seconds

Rhen Richard and Cody Doescher, 6.31 seconds

Riley Minor and Brady Minor, 9.64 seconds

Clay Tryan and McCoy Profili, 9.83 seconds

*Marcus Theriot and Coleby Payne, Clay Tryan and McCoy Profili, Rhen Richard and Cody Doescher and Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes have a shot at splitting a million dollars.