By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
Martinsville, Va. – A long night at Martinsville Speedway that saw Kaden Honeycutt rebound from multiple incidents to score a top-10 finish also resulted in the Niece Motorsports driver being called to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series hauler for the first time in his career.
Honeycutt slipped down the running order in the Long John Silver’s 200 after clipping the curb in Turns 1 and 2 while battling Daniel Dye. The No. 45 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet Silverado spun to keep from spinning Dye’s No. 43. Honeycutt wasn’t able to maintain control and looped it on the backstretch.
“Going down into (Turn) 3, I was trying to make the move on the seven to go three wide and we just all came together,” Honeycutt explained. “That jumbled us back a little bit, lost some ground, [to] the 18 and some of the other ones that we were going to be with. Then I got back to him and we moved each other so that lost us another two seconds.
“And then down in (Turns) 1 and 2, I got down to the 43 and I barely moved him up and he just came right back down just a little bit, and I nicked the curb and it spun myself out, so I didn’t do a very good job at that on recovering. We had a really good truck, Stage points. I thought we had a great truck.”
Honeycutt’s ascent back up the running order was long. Caution after caution slowed his progress. That included an accident we 42 laps to go. Honeycutt missed his braking points and sent Bret Holmes into Justin Carroll, ending the night for both the No. 32 and No. 90 Chevrolets.
Although the cautions slowed his progress, Honeycutt managed to avoid the mayhem. By doing so, the Willow Park, TX native climbed back into the top-10 in the closing laps. When the checkered flag waved, he was ninth.
“We had a great truck, had really good turn and drive off, just needed to get the track position like we had in Stage 2 and then we lost all that track position beginning of Stage 3,” Honeycutt said. “We were just wrestling it back there. Obviously the 19 won so the strategy worked. I just needed to just needed to execute better and just have things go our way. It’s nothing really else we can do but try better and go to Kansas.”
As a result of his mistake, NASCAR officials called both him and his crew chief, Phil Gould, to the hauler post-race for a discussion. Honeycutt didn’t make any excuses and owned up to the mistake, offering apologies to Holmes and Carroll.
“I apologize also to Brett, I just messed up,” Honeycutt admitted. “I was so tucked underneath him; I wasn’t paying attention to where the cones were in Turn 1 and I just. I just flat out hit them. Not really an excuse, but (I) still have to fix that and not let that happen ever again. But great recovery from the Niece Motorsports crew. Thanks, Phil [and everyone] for all the hard work they do on this thing and Chevy Accessories and Team Chevrolet for the support. And we’ll go on to Hickory tomorrow and the CARS Tour in the Pro Late Model.
“I screwed up. I hit him and I spun him out, along with the 90, so I just got to not let that ever happen again. That’s not how I race. That’s not how I was raised to race. Unfortunately, half this field does it too. So, I mean, if there’s anybody else going to be called to the trailer, there’s probably going to be about five or six of them are going to be at the trailer, so that’s fine. I can be singled out, be an example and then we’ll move on to my next race at Kansas and come back better with this Niece Motorsports crew.”
For Honeycutt, the invite to the series hauler was a first in his career. He aims to make sure that it ends up being the only time in his career that he is called to the hauler.
“I just never really done that before, so I’m sure it’ll be brief,” Honeycutt said. “[It’ll] be (something) like ‘you know be careful next time, don’t do it again.’ We’ll have to make sure that never happens again. And so yeah, we’ll fix that.”
The ninth-place finish was Honeycutt’s second top-10 this season and the sixth of his Truck Series career.