BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN @PRORODEOBRETT
Kaleb Driggers/Junior Nogueira came in as the pair to beat in the team roping and paid it off with their second straight Gold Buckle. Their final tally was $340,708 apiece.
After breaking the regular season record in late July, both men entered the NFR with leads of more than $80,000. After a touch-and-go NFR, they ultimately finished second in the NFR Average and won the Gold Buckle by a healthy margin.
“I’ve been kind of thinking about (going back-to-back) all year,” Driggers said. “I wanted to follow it up and show that we’re meant to have it.”
Both Driggers and Nogueira were ultimately about $33,000 clear of NFR Average Champions Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith.
“Kaleb did an amazing job of keeping me up. A great job. Perhaps, I just humbled myself a little bit, I guess,” Nogueira said. We had to fight through it. There’s nothing easy. We always compete against the best guys in the whole world, and they don’t make it easy on anyone.”