DARLINGTON, S.C. — It was Kaden Honeycutt‘s most dominant night of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career on Friday night, March 20 at Darlington Raceway after the Tricon Garage racer led a career-high 59 laps during the 147-lap event to come home fourth.
You’d think after a night like that, Honeycutt would have plenty to be happy about post-race.
But that wasn’t entirely accurate.
Corey Heim Wins Darlington Truck Race on the Last Lap
Instead, it was a long night that ended in frustration for the 22-year-old, and much of that frustration was directed toward his NASCAR Cup Series regular counterparts.
“What the hell do they care about, right?” Honeycutt said to media post-race. “I understand we’re racing for a win, but they knew I was the best truck so they did what they had to do to take me out of it, so it just sucks.
“I’m not very good at running back into people when they run into me.”
The No. 11 Toyota Tundra restarted the event’s second overtime period on the front row and in pouncing distance of the lead and his first race win. However, after a couple of laps Honeycutt was shuffled down to fourth and could only watch as his Tricon teammate and No. 11 predecessor Corey Heim pass all of them to earn the Darlington win.
“The top was just no good on the start, and as soon as Ross [Chastain] got that extra shove going down to the one, he cleared me, and that was pretty much over after that,” Honeycutt recalled. “Then when Corey got there, I was like, ‘Holy crap, I can’t believe he’s already back up here.'”
It was the end of a night of restarts and banging doors with the Truck Series regulars at the 1.33-mile oval. However, Honeycutt, after tangoing with multiple front runners throughout the night, seemed to be less pleased with the Cup drivers of Chastain and Carson Hocevar than anything.
On one particular restart, he recalls Hocevar putting him in the fence.
“This stuff hasn’t gone right, just getting plugged in the fence,” Honeycutt said. “Yeah, the restart when Hocevar got to my inside, I knew he was going to shove me up a little bit, and he did.”
Hocevar, who was leading the race in the final five laps before a tire went down, costing him the win, said Honeycutt is mistaken with Chastain.
But to Hocevar, he doesn’t believe he should race Truck regulars any differently.
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“Oh, I don’t know,” Hocevar said. “I think that was Ross because I just turned left and drove around him, and I looked at my mirror. I mean I just probably get thrown in. I probably get thrown in. I would say the same thing.
“[Truck regulars] can decide if they want to lift or not. They can decide if they want points or not. We’re racing to win the race. In Cup, we’re not lifting no matter what.”
Chastain, who finished second to Heim, wasn’t sure either.
“Kaden wasn’t the most happy with me,” Chastain said post-race. “Kaden missed the bottom into turn 1 or gave Carson the bottom, and I pushed Carson through a couple restarts before the end. I might have got him off of [turn] 2.”
But after everything, is Honeycutt that surprised the Cup guys ran a little harder than normal? Not really.
“Yeah, I mean they did pretty much what I thought they were going to do,” Honeycutt said. “Just run me straight up, unfortunately, and got the right side pretty good, and it drove fine, but I just lost position and by then cautions kept falling down.”
Despite the rough ending, Honeycutt ended his Darlington night in fourth – his best finish of the season and is heading to a similar oval in Rockingham Speedway in two weeks.
“So yeah, just a great night, great speed, great long run,” Honeycutt said. “I feel like we’re in a good direction to move forward on these ovals now.”
