By Seth Eggert, Writer
Ridgeway, VA – Halmar Friesen Racing’s Kaden Honeycutt transferred into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Four on a tiebreaker, his runner-up finish in Friday night’s Slim Jim 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Honeycutt’s unlikely journey into championship journey came after Halmar Friesen Racing team co-owner, Stewart Friesen, was injured in a Dirt Modified crash.
That journey was further aided by a one-off start with Young’s Motorsports at N.Y.’s Watkins Glen Int’l. Prior to the race at the road course, Honeycutt had been released by Niece Motorsports due to his signing with a different team and manufacturer for the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series season.
Entering Martinsville, Honeycutt had a five point cushion over Ty Majeski. Contact between the No. 52 Halmar Int’l Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and Rajah Caruth’s No. 71 HendrickCars Chevrolet Silverado RST cut the Spire Motorsports driver’s left rear tire.
The resulting spin and crash for Caruth in turn one further narrowed the cutline.
At one point Honeycutt was tied with both Tyler Ankrum and Layne Riggs for the final two transfer spots. Ultimately the 22-year-old’s runner-up finish to Corey Heim gave the tiebreaker to the Toyota Racing driver. Riggs’ best finish in the Round of 8 was third.
The gravity of the position he was now in, and those that have allowed him to compete for a championship, was not lost on Honeycutt, who was nearly out of a ride for the remainder of the season at the beginning of August.
“I very easily could have been on the couch and watching the rest of this year,” Honeycutt said. “Thanks to Toyota and Halmar and Chris Larson and Stewart, I wanted to run this for the championship so bad for him. He deserved to be in the playoffs and I hate that he got hurt. But with the opportunity to come and go to the Championship Four, to even have a chance, I’m just so grateful and I’m thankful for Toyota, Halmar, Mohawk Northeast, everyone that works so damn hard on our race team. They deserve it.”
Now the Willow Park, TX native will compete for his first title in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway. In three starts at Phoenix Honeycutt has three top 10 finishes. His best finish at the track, seventh, came in last year’s season final.
Broadcast coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix starts Friday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on Fox Sports 1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.