Kaden Honeycutt overcame a penalty, drove through the field and executed a perfect overtime restart to claim his first NASCAR Truck Series victory at Watkins Glen International – just hours after he won in the ARCA Menards Series for the first time at the same track.
The Texas-native extended his points lead to 29 with the win. Fellow Toyota Development Driver Brent Crews had a strong performance as well, scoring his first pole and finished seventh.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS)
Watkins Glen International
Race 8 of 23 – 176.4 Miles, 72 Laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, KADEN HONEYCUTT
2nd, Connor Zilisch*
3rd, Shane van Gisbergen*
4th, Daniel Hemric*
5th, Chandler Smith*
7th, BRENT CREWS
17th, GIO RUGGIERO
19th, STEWART FRIESEN
23rd, ADAM ANDRETTI
27th, TIMMY HILL
30th, TANNER GRAY
34th, WESLEY SLIMP
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KADEN HONEYCUTT, No. 11 Safelite + Foster Love Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 1st
How does this moment feel?
“It feels amazing. Thank you Toyota, this whole 11 crew. Thank you Trent (Rodriguez, manager, driver development, TRD), Slugger (Labbe, Engineering Manager, Vehicle Support, TRD), Matt Puccia (competition director, TRICON Garage), Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) that believed in me to take this truck over after Corey (Heim) drove it last year. It was just amazing. I can’t believe I just won at a road course. That’s just unbelievable. Thank you Safelite, Foster Love, Toyota, TRICON – everyone on this team. My pit crew is just the best pit crew in the pit area; just thank you so much.”
Can you describe how it feels to get this first win in the Truck Series?
“We scrapped and clawed through that last run for sure man. Just thank you so much to Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) – this whole 11 team, Safelite, Foster Love, JBL, TRICON, TOYOTA RACING – for giving me everything we needed to be successful. Just a great Tundra today. 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. Just a great job by these guys. They did such a perfect job for me all weekend. That is all I can ask for.”
Toyota PR