After the biggest threat to his championship aspirations blew a tire early, there wasn’t much Kaden Honeycutt needed to do at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday, Nov. 6 to win the championship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Honeycutt just needed to run a clean race and finish ahead of Layne Riggs
, who fell seven laps down after having to make multiple repairs to the right rear of his No. 34 Ford.But Honeycutt is a racer, and racers drive to win.
Shortly after a restart with 13 laps to go, Honeycutt grabbed the lead and didn’t let go of it. He asked his crew for radio silence to allow him to focus on the task at hand.
Honeycutt held off Christian Eckes and won the Truck Series season finale at Homestead, putting an exclamation point on his
championship-winning season. Honeycutt, the 23-year-old from Willow Park, Texas, finished 83 points ahead of Riggs in the No. 11 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage to clinch his first title.
KADEN HONEYCUTT IS YOUR 2026 NASCAR TRUCK SERIES CHAMPION! pic.twitter.com/gdyzt2FR9Y
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) November 7, 2026
When he drove through the checkered flag, it was easy to hear the emotion in Honeycutt’s voice as he thanked his team for a standout season. After wiping away tears, he talked about winning in a way that only a NASCAR driver can.
"This is amazing. I've worked so damn hard to be here. We just won at freaking Homestead and the damn championship," Honeycutt told Fox Sports. "The first half of the race I did not want to push it too hard. It fell in our hands. I put my nuts on the dash and wanted to win the race."
The win was the fifth of the year for Honeycutt as he also took victories at Watkins Glen, Richmond, Kansas and Phoenix. He captured the championship in just his second full-time season in the Truck Series.
Honeycutt had raced on-and-off in the Truck Series since 2022 before piecing a full-time slate together last year with three teams: Niece Motorsports, Young’s Motorsports and Halmar Friesen Racing. This year, Honeycutt spent the full season with Tricon Garage and piloted the No. 11 Toyota to its second consecutive championship. Last year, Corey Heim won the Truck Series title in that machine.
It’s the second championship in the Truck Series for Tricon, the Toyota-aligned team co-owned by David Gilliland and Johnny Gray. It’s also the third championship for Honeycutt’s crew chief, Scott Zipadelli, who becomes the first in Truck Series history to win a championship with three different drivers.
Entering the final race of the season at Homestead, Honeycutt led Riggs by 20 points in the postseason Chase. The trouble for Riggs — who started the race in fourth — came on the 17th lap when he made contact with Nick Sanchez, causing his right rear tire to go flat. Riggs was attempting to side draft with Sanchez coming off Turn 2, and Sanchez’s No. 77 Chevrolet cut the tire of Riggs’ No. 34 Ford.
Riggs returned to the track two laps down shortly after pitting. But he would have to hit pit road again on the 44th lap with another right-rear tire issue after grazing the wall. Riggs returned to the track on the 49th lap, but was penalized for having too many pit crew members over the wall. He ultimately finished in 32nd.
A 24-year-old from Bahama, North Carolina, Riggs won seven races this year in his third full-time season with Front Row Motorsports. He will return to the team next year to pilot the No. 34 in the Truck Series.
Heim, making his ninth start in the Truck Series this season while running a mixed schedule, finished sixth. He swept the first two stages of the race, breaking Kyle Busch’s record for stage sweeps in the Truck Series with 14. Heim, who won three Truck Series races and a pair of Cup Series races this year — the Brickyard 400 and at Naval Base Coronado — will race full-time at the Cup level in 2027 with 23XI Racing.
🏆 THE CHAMP: @KadenWHoneycutt! pic.twitter.com/PgNbFVeVNB
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) November 7, 2026
Honeycutt is establishing himself as one of the best young prospects in NASCAR. He climbed the ranks through late-model short track racing. Honeycutt has won 16 races in the CARS Tour, including both the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock races at North Wilkesboro this year. He was the Pro Late Model champion of the series co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2024. Honeycutt also owns four wins in the NASCAR-owned ARCA Menards Series.
Last month, Tricon announced it had extended the contracts for Honeycutt and fellow driver Gio Ruggiero into the 2027 season. He’ll be back to defend this title.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kaden Honeycutt wins NASCAR Truck Series championship at Homestead
