RICHMOND, Va. — It’s been the ultimate celebratory week for TRICON driver Kaden Honeycutt, who absolutely dominated the weather-delayed Black’s Tire 250 presented by BTS Rewards NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway Saturday afternoon – the strong winning effort coming only days after the 23-year-old Texan announced he and his wife, Jessica, were expecting their first child.
Honeycutt led 225 of the 250 laps at the 0.75-mile track-the most laps he’s ever led in a single race — surpassing his 59 laps out front at Darlington Raceway earlier this year and more laps led than in all his 75 previous series races combined. And for the first time in his career, he swept both stage wins as well.
Ultimately, Honeycutt’s No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota crossed the line a healthy 1.313 seconds ahead of his teammate, reigning series champion Corey Heim in the team’s No. 5 Toyota Tundra. After a series of late-race pit stops, Honeycutt reclaimed the lead with 29 laps remaining and never looked back.
His strong day broke a long-tenured Richmond race pattern where the driver who leads the most laps does not typically win the race. Honeycutt was strong early and often … at one point holding the lead position for a 195-lap stretch.
This marks his second career win and second of the season and trims Saturday’s 15th-place finisher, Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs’ championship lead to 61 points heading into the regular-season finale next week at New Hampshire.
The victory is also significant for Honeycutt’s veteran crew chief Scott Zippadelli, who now claims 38 career series victories, second all-time to Eric Phillips 44-trophy haul.
“Man, we never give up,” Honeycutt said. “We’ve had a rough last couple weeks and just wondered what the heck was going on. We’re not a seventh-place, 10th-place team and it’s all thanks to [crew chief] Scott Zippadelli and everyone on this 11 team.
“We just stay on it. We don’t give up and I just can’t thank everyone enough. What a dominant day. I’ve never been able to do something like that before, so really good confidence for me, and hopefully we can go to Loudon and do the same thing next week. Just really cool.”
The regular-season finale is set for next Saturday with the Team EJP 175 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2025 series champion Heim won last year’s race from pole position.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Kaden Honeycutt as the winner.
