By Jerry Jordan, Editor
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Kaden Honeycutt won the race and the championship Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and before he talked about himself he talked about the dirt track racers back home in Texas.
Honeycutt led the final 13 laps and beat Christian Eckes by 1.038 seconds to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season finale and the 2026 championship. In Victory Lane, the 23-year-old Bridge City native dedicated the title to the racers he grew up with.
“Man, this is for all the dirt track racers back at home in Texas that I raced with when I was 12 years old all the way until 17. I worked with my daddy in the shop for so dang long to even be in the dirt track business running Friday and Saturday, running a stockcar, running a modified, anything I could hop in,” Honeycutt said.
A Promise Kept
The championship was a promise kept. Asked by Kickin’ the Tires about bringing the title home, as he said he would, for all the people he grew up with, Honeycutt pointed to the years he spent working on the trucks he raced.
“Man, it means everything. 2022 when I did part-time schedule, I was working on the race vehicles that I was driving. Those owners gave me an opportunity to race at the same time while working. I did that all the way from On Point, from G2G, to Niece Motorsports. When I got the first opportunity to run a full season last year, I took a step back from that, focused on driving.
“Last year was somewhat of a success. This year working with Scott, I never saw the side of racing like he did until I got introduced to him. There’s no reason why. Like, most races I ever won in a year was seven. This year I’ve won 22. The fact that that’s a coincidence, it’s not,” Honeycutt said.
“Growing up, doing dirt stuff mainly, I probably have more dirt starts than asphalt because of how much I raced, how many cars. I raced a lot,” Honeycutt said.
“From my state of Texas, my wife, Hall of Fame crew chief, Hall of Fame race team I get to race for. You can’t do this without people. The team we’ve got is pretty amazing, pretty resilient,” Honeycutt said.
A One in a Million Shot
Honeycutt grew up in Bridge City, in Southeast Texas near the Louisiana line, a region not known for motorsports, and started in a Bandolero at Houston Motorsports Park when he was eight or nine years old. His father raced as a hobby and the family moved again and again so the boy could keep racing, settling around Fort Worth and Aledo by the time he was in seventh or eighth grade, where the dirt tracks were.
“My dad was a racer as well. He ran ASA when ASA was a thing back in the day. He did it as a hobby. He didn’t have the money to take it as seriously as I did,” Honeycutt said.
“We moved so many times to different homes to even afford to race. We eventually landed in a spot in Fort Worth, Texas, Aledo, Texas, that I got to dirt race a lot more. Ran my modified when I was 13, 14, 15 years old,” Honeycutt said.
An agent who called his father told the family exactly what the odds were.
“I had a phone call, I remember, an agent called my dad. He was like, Well, you realize that this is a one in a million shot someone like you that has no money, nowhere to go other than work on the truck and figure out how to drive, that can do this.
“When he hung up the phone, I told my dad, I said, Well, I guess we’re going to have to be that one ’cause we don’t have a choice,” Honeycutt said.
The Title, Sealed
The title fight itself ended early. Honeycutt entered the finale 20 points ahead of Layne Riggs and Riggs finished 32nd, six laps down, after scoring five points. Honeycutt scored 68 points on the night, third in the first stage and sixth in the second, and finished the season 83 points clear with five wins, 16 top fives and 19 top 10s.
The championship is the second straight for TRICON Garage and Toyota. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli has won each of his three championships with a different driver. Asked what he sees in the drivers he takes to titles, Zipadelli came back to the work.
“This kid right here has more desire and want-to than probably anybody I’ve worked with. He’s pretty resilient. He just put his head down and did all the work,” Zipadelli said.
Honeycutt is the 23rd different driver to win the Truck Series championship and the second from Texas, joining James Buescher of Plano. He will return to the No. 11 truck in 2027. Asked what he would tell the nine-year-old who started all of this at Houston Motorsports Park, he did not hesitate.
“Yeah, if I looked at my eight-year-old self I’d tell you, You’re going to make it. Just keep working your butt off and eventually it will happen,” Honeycutt said.