Apparently, Friday was Kaden Honeycutt Day in Upstate New York.
And not in the polite, ceremonial, “here’s a key to the city” sort of way either. More in the sense that Honeycutt stormed into Watkins Glen International like a man who’d just discovered the laws of physics were merely suggestions.
Hours after muscling his way to an ARCA Menards Series victory by leading the final 29 laps of the General Tire 100, Honeycutt returned later Friday and did something even bigger: he won his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in his 67th career start.
At Watkins Glen.
Against Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen.
Which is a bit like showing up to a neighborhood tennis match and suddenly finding yourself trading serves with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The 21-year-old driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota survived penalties, cautions, overtime restarts and enough late-race chaos to qualify as a small natural disaster before finally parking in Victory Lane.
And the maddening thing for everyone else? He absolutely earned it.
Honeycutt looked strong all afternoon before disaster struck in the final stage when he was penalized for entering pit road while it was closed, sending him to the back of the field. At Watkins Glen, on a late restart, that’s usually the racing equivalent of being thrown off a cruise ship wearing concrete shoes.
Instead, Honeycutt simply drove back through the field like a man late for dinner.
“We scrapped and clawed through that last run for sure man,” Honeycutt said afterward. “I knew when I was running second to Connor Zilisch, we had something to win with at the end. Last stage started — it is what it is — I had a penalty. Just drove my ass off to get through there and it paid off.”
That may actually be the most accurate description of the final laps anyone could provide.
Because with less than 10 laps remaining, Watkins Glen turned into complete bedlam.
Carson Hocevar crashed on a restart with nine laps to go. Moments later, another restart detonated in Turn 1, collecting Layne Riggs, Kris Wright and Christian Eckes in a mess that looked less like a race and more like shoppers fighting over discounted televisions on Black Friday.
Meanwhile, Ross Chastain had his own miserable afternoon unravel. After leading 17 laps, Chastain was penalized for a restart violation and later spun by Ty Majeski on Lap 71, ending his day entirely.
All of which opened the door for Honeycutt.
On the final overtime restart. Zilisch controlled the field from the front row after leading a race-high 28 laps. But when the green flag flew, Honeycutt pounced entering Turn 1 and never gave the lead back.
Zilisch later admitted the choice still haunted him.
“It was just an unfortunate way to end that race,” said Zilisch. “I chose the top, hoping we could get through there without making contact. I knew that the bottom would be better if that happened, but I didn’t want to be that guy.
“Yeah, I just wish I could go back and re-do it and pick the inside, but we’ve got two more races this weekend (O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series). I appreciate Spire Motorsports for giving me a really fast truck.”
Behind Honeycutt, Zilisch finished second while Shane van Gisbergen came home third. Daniel Hemric and Chandler Smith completed the top five.
AJ Allmendinger, Brent Crews, Mini Tyrrell, Brenden Queen and Connor Mosack rounded out the top 10.
For Honeycutt, though, the statistics almost felt secondary.
After years of bouncing through NASCAR’s lower divisions, grinding for opportunities and waiting for that elusive breakthrough moment, the Texas native finally had his victory.
“It feels amazing,” Honeycutt said. “I can’t believe I just won at a road course. That’s just unbelievable.”
And honestly, considering the sheer madness of Friday at Watkins Glen, that might have been the most believable thing that happened all day.
Because after surviving penalties, overtime restarts and a field seemingly determined to turn every corner into a demolition derby, Honeycutt climbed from his truck and delivered the perfect finishing touch to his improbable Friday doubleheader. He headed straight for the frontstretch fence and shot-gunned a beer for the fans, making good on a promise he’d made earlier on social media.
Which, frankly, felt like exactly the sort of ending Watkins Glen deserved.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads next to Dover Motor Speedway next Friday.
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.