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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-oct24-honeycutt-riggs-spl.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCorey Heim
Ty Majeski
Tyler Ankrum
Kaden Honeycutt<\/p>\n
And with that, the stage is set for a NASCAR Truck Series championship race that wouldn\u2019t feel right being won by anyone other then Heim, crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the Tricon Garage No. 11 team after winning for a record setting 11th time this season.<\/p>\n
And yet, there are three other contenders, including the one that won last year that would have no qualms in breaking the system and taking home the big trophy in less than a week.<\/p>\n
But make no mistake, while Heim and Company have had all summer to build this truck, there is already a part of this team lamenting the very concept that they couldn\u2019t leave with the hardware after their body of work.<\/p>\n
11 wins
18 top-5s
20 top-10s
5.2 average finish \u2026 in 24 starts <\/p>\n
\u201cI think (Majeski) will be the one we have to beat for sure, but I mean, you can kind of suck all year and bring your best truck to Phoenix and you can win the whole championship,\u201d Heim said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how good you\u2019ve been all year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, look at (Majeski, Joe Shear and the Thorsport No. 98), they have not been the best. I don\u2019t think they have a win to their name this year but they are probably the truck to beat alongside us next weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting the way it works but I am going to be looking out for him, plus the other two, because you never know what someone can bring to a one race take all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heim said it in a way like he is almost resigned to it, not due to a lack of confidence in his team, but just in all the ways a small sample size can create something not reflective of their season.<\/p>\n
His crew chief already said \u2018this format literally sucks,\u2019 and that\u2019s kind of a prevailing narrative.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
\u201cI try not to look at it with negativity, and if you look at last year, (Christian Eckes) would have won if not for the format,\u201d Heim said. \u201cWe had an opportunity to go to Phoenix and he finished third out of everybody and he had no business finishing third in the full season points with one of the best season averages ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is now that driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day it’s what I signed up for. This what I have to deal with as a NASCAR driver but it just promotes and rewards mediocrity in a sense that no one wants to take risks unless you have playoff points and the guys that are just good at either not getting wrecked or can just finish well in these rounds and sneak into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if next Friday was a chance to validate his team, Heim just would not let go of what could go wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike we’ve won 11 races this year,\u201d Heim said. \u201cWe\u2019ve proven everything to this point and now all someone has to go do is go into Turn 1 and absolutely wipe you out \u2026 and that proves that they’re the best driver?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of my main gripe at the end of the day, and you saw it in (2023) we probably didn\u2019t deserve to win the championship in the sense of wins but we had a really good consistent average finish and then we got wiped out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the year Carson Hocevar crashed him while leading.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, what does this prove? That\u2019s my main gripe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buzzer Beater
\n <\/p>\n
With the benefit of hindsight, Layne Riggs was actually eliminated from the Playoffs halfway through the first stage because he couldn\u2019t get going through the gears from the front row on the restart and ultimately finished sixth in the first stage.<\/p>\n
If he finished fifth, that\u2019s one more point that would have seen him through to the finals. Fourth? In easily.<\/p>\n
Instead, Riggs finished third behind Honeycutt, with them ending this round in a tie. Riggs drew even with a point for the fastest lap but Honeycutt\u2019s best finish this round, second, was better than Riggs\u2019 third.<\/p>\n
And that was that.<\/p>\n
“Battling back there at the end, we thought that we were the tiebreaker winner, and I got told that we were in, and I was still just kind of upset,” Riggs said. “I don’t like how those races finish like that. You have to do what you have to do. That’s just not my kind of mentality, I don’t like doing that …<\/p>\n
“But I’m hearing, ‘Gotta get a spot, gotta get one,’ I’m going to do what my team tells me to do to get into this championship. Roughing guys up, I don’t really want to rough up; they have done nothing to me in the past. I don’t like how it comes down to the end like this, and how people race, especially here at Martinsville.”<\/p>\n
It just left the second-generation racer overall dismayed with the format, especially given him three wins and two winless drivers advancing over him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we were the tiebreaker winner. I got told that we were in and I was still upset. I just don\u2019t like how those races finish like that. You have to do what you have to do. That\u2019s not my kind of mentality and I don\u2019t like doing that. Either way, we\u2019ve had a great year all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riggs thought he was in even upon climbing out of the truck. Conversely, Honeycutt thought he was out until Todd Bodine congratulated him after getting out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll (spotter Chris) Lambert told me was to not lose a spot and fight like hell,\u201d Honeycutt said. “I didn\u2019t do the best job of executing the restart and Corey did an excellent job of executing. Just had to hold on and hoped that everything worked out. Thankfully it did, and now we get the chance to go have fun next week and try to mix it up.”<\/p>\n
He was considerably emotional climbing out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just a dirt track kid from Texas and I didn\u2019t really have any business being in NASCAR,\u201d Honeycutt said. \u201cThanks to all the nights of my dad out there in the shop at 2 and 3 o\u2019clock in the morning working on dirt cars every night and to all the people that I\u2019ve been able to race for my career and get to this point to have the opportunity to go to Phoenix now.\u201d<\/p>\n
His championship run is one of the more unique in the Truck Series history because he started the season with Niece Motorsports. When he brokered a deal to join Tricon Garage next season, a Toyota team, it meant that he lost all data from Chevrolet and could not finish at Niece.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Stewart Friesen had gotten injured in a Dirt Modified, and his Toyota team needed a driver to finish out the year. Friesen had won to advance his truck into the playoffs and found a driver who could finish the year and win a title for both.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable, man,\u201d Honeycutt said. \u201cI should have very easily been on the couch in July after I made my decision on what to do. And I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of Toyota and this amazing manufacturer. To carry on this championship now, we got a 50 percent chance of winning it at least. So I\u2019m very much looking forward to next weekend. Regardless of how everything goes, I\u2019m just extremely thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761367210_15_ty-majeski-thorsport-racing-fo.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Ty Majeski, ThorSport Racing Ford<\/p>\n
Photo by: James Gilbert \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Majeski did not have his best night, struggling with an ill-handling car and a soft brake pedal at some point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I have mixed emotions,\u201d Majeski said.\u00a0\u201cWe come to a short track and we expect to be a little bit more competitive than that, but we qualified good, got good stage points and that was the difference tonight.\u00a0I knew once we got back in traffic we were in pretty big trouble.\u00a0I kind of knew from when we unloaded this thing today that it wasn\u2019t quite right, but we persevered and got good stage points.\u00a0The crew guys had a hell of a pit stop and kept our track position and I was just kind of playing defense at the end.\u00a0It was just good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
And does he feel good about next week?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then that leaves Ankrum, a seven-year veteran of the Truck Series, who is making his first ever appearance in a championship race in this division.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo fire off the way we did the first six or seven races of the year and then to have that big slump in the middle of the summer and still get here, by just racing smarter than everyone else, that\u2019s a huge tip of the cap to this team,\u201d Ankrum said. \u201cWe did it quietly and safely and proud to be in the final four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant Enfinger and Daniel Hemric faced must-win odds due to how the Roval and Talladega went for them. Enfinger had about a fifth place car, but that wasn\u2019t enough and he took tires late just to try to make something happen.<\/p>\n
He finished 12th, as making his way through the field in a track position race was just a grind. Hemric had a radiator and oil cooler puncture during the stack-up caused by the Riggs missed shift and was not running at the finish.<\/p>\n
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