by Reid Scearce
Kaden Honeycutt credits his team’s reset for his Saturday night win at Kansas Speedway in the Race to Stop Suicide.com 200.
Already showing the speed to win Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, Kaden Honeycutt had a long wait for a rain delay before he could finish the job.
Kaden Honeycutt Credits Team
Honeycutt led the first two stages and was running third when rain stopped the race after 70 laps. The delay was for 4 hours and 47 minutes before NASCAR resumed the event.
During his post-race media availability, Reid Scearce from Fan4Racing asked Honeycutt how frustrating the delay was, knowing how fast his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota was, and whether returning from the delay created any additional pressure.
Honeycutt stated, “I think, honestly, the frustrating part was when pit road opened, and then we pit and then the caution came out and then it started raining again.” Honeycutt continued, “I was really hoping that we didn’t call the race after that. That would definitely have been a bummer.”
Instead, Honeycutt used the unfortunate delay to his advantage.
“I think it was just a good reset,” Honeycutt said. “Me and Hirsch [Tony Hirschman] were able to talk under the red flag and talk about some things restart-wise and talk to my coaches and whoever wanted Toyota to make a better decision the last 50 or 60 laps to finish the race off.”
That reset paid off when the race resumed. Honeycutt quickly returned to the front and eventually retook the lead after a late-race pit stop, going on to lead 111 of the 134 laps and score his third win of the season.
Honeycutt credited the team’s execution during the final portion of the race, including his pit crew.
“I think we did just that,” Honeycutt said. “Had good restarts, good execution on the pit crew, did a fantastic job as they always do. They’re the best on pit road.”
The win also moves Honeycutt into the lead of the Truck Series Chase, 37 points ahead of Layne Riggs following the Kansas race. Honeycutt said the team can now enjoy some time to regroup before the Chase resumes at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 9, although he won’t have the same break.
“Nice week off… Well, I don’t have a week off. I’ll be racing at Newport next week.”
For Honeycutt, the long wait at Kansas ultimately became an opportunity to regroup, make adjustments, and return to the track ready to finish what he had started.
