Kaden Honeycutt had a week to think about the one that got away. On Friday night at Phoenix Raceway, he made sure there would be no repeat performance.
Honeycutt led every green-flag lap in the final stage to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Phoenix, earning his fourth victory of the 2026 season and padding his championship advantage over Layne Riggs to an unofficial 39 points. It was a welcome change of fortune for Honeycutt, who watched Riggs take the victory a week earlier and leave him with a rather unpleasant reminder of how quickly things can go sideways in this business.
This time, Honeycutt and his TRICON Garage Toyota were the ones doing the celebrating.
“My pit crew did a great job, man,” Honeycutt said after climbing out of his truck. “I give so much credit to them because they’re so damn good … this is so amazing. Phoenix! We finally got one, baby!”
The victory was Honeycutt’s second in the Chase presented by Mobil 1, putting him in a stronger position as the Truck Series championship battle continues to tighten. Riggs, meanwhile, finished third, unable to find the speed necessary to keep pace with the race winner.
Christian Eckes finished second, collecting his third consecutive runner-up result. At some point, three straight second-place finishes must start to feel like the racing gods are having a laugh at your expense. Eckes will undoubtedly take the points, but there’s only so much consolation in repeatedly being the best driver who didn’t win.
Ty Majeski looked like a potential winner early, sweeping both stages and leading 49 laps. But when the final stage rolled around, Honeycutt took control and never surrendered the lead under green. Majeski ultimately finished fourth, behind Eckes and Riggs.
Jake Garcia finished fifth, followed by William Sawalich, Daniel Hemric, Gio Ruggiero, Grant Enfinger and Brent Crews to complete the top 10.
For Honeycutt, the result was as much a tribute to the people behind the wheel as the driver holding it.
“I just can’t say nothing about Scott [Zipadelli, crew chief],” Honeycutt said. “My crew, David, Tim, Chuck, Adam, Cube — everyone that works so dang hard on these race trucks.”
Honeycutt also credited Toyota Racing and TRICON Garage for giving him the opportunity to compete at the front of the field.
“I’m so fortunate to be able to drive these things, and, um, they spent all their hours of the day just for me to drive them. And I can’t be more grateful for them, and so grateful for the opportunity at Toyota Racing and TRICON … just, so awesome.”
The race itself was relatively quiet by NASCAR standards, which is another way of saying nobody spent the evening turning perfectly good race trucks into expensive collections of scrap metal.
Aside from the stage-ending cautions, there were no incident-related yellow flags. The only caution for an on-track incident came when Ben Rhodes suffered a flat tire on the final lap of Stage 2, scattering debris across the racing surface and bringing the segment to an end roughly half a lap early.
Chandler Smith, who entered the race third in the championship standings, had a considerably less satisfying evening. A pit-road penalty for having too many crew members over the wall after Stage 2 sent him tumbling to a 15th-place finish, a costly result in a championship fight where every position matters.
Riggs, who drives the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 for Front Row Motorsports, was left trying to explain a truck that simply wasn’t quick enough when it counted.
“I felt like our balance was kind of all over the place today,” Riggs said. “Obviously, it was a lot different race than it’s been here in the past with the way the sun set for us during the race.”
Riggs said he initially struggled with a loose truck during the opening stage. The team made adjustments during the pit stop, and while the balance improved, the competition appeared to find even more speed as the evening progressed.
“I felt like the track came to me, but it just came to those guys a lot more than it did for me,” Riggs said. “I’m kind of stumped on this one. I felt like my balance was really good. Their truck just had a lot more raw speed than ours tonight.”
That left Riggs with a third-place finish and a 39-point deficit to Honeycutt, but the championship contender wasn’t about to start planning his offseason just yet.
“Thank you to everyone at Front Row Motorsports. The Love’s Travel Stops Ford was fast, but not fast enough,” Riggs said. “We’re not out of this fight yet. We’ve still got a lot of craziness ahead, especially Talladega.”
Talladega, of course, has a long and distinguished history of taking perfectly sensible championship calculations and throwing them into a blender. Riggs knows there’s still plenty of racing ahead, and one bad afternoon for Honeycutt could change the complexion of the standings in a hurry.
“I’m not hanging my head on this one,” Riggs added. “We did the best we could. We executed our day today and that’s very important for this team to do.”
For now, though, Honeycutt has the trophy, the momentum and a healthier cushion at the top of the standings. After losing ground to Riggs a week ago, he responded with a performance that left little doubt about who had the best truck when the race was on the line.
The championship fight is far from finished, but Honeycutt has made one thing clear: if Riggs wants to take the lead away, he’ll have to do more than win one week and hope for the best the next.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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