RICHMOND, Va. — It has been the final word celebratory week for TRICON Storage driver Kaden Honeycutt who completely dominated the weather-delayed Black’s Tire 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Collection race at Richmond Raceway Saturday afternoon — the sturdy successful effort coming solely days after the 23-year-old Texan introduced he and his spouse Jessica predict their first little one.
Honeycutt led 225 of the 250 laps on the .75-mile monitor — probably the most laps he is ever led in a single race — surpassing his 59 laps out entrance at Darlington, S.C., earlier this yr and extra laps led than in all his 75 earlier sequence races mixed. And for the primary time in his profession, he swept each stage wins, as nicely.
In the end, Honeycutt’s No. 11 TRICON Storage Toyota crossed the road a wholesome 1.313 seconds forward of his teammate, reigning sequence champion Corey Heim within the group’s No. 5 Toyota Tundra. After a sequence of late-race pit stops, Honeycutt reclaimed the lead with 29 laps remaining and by no means appeared again.
His sturdy day broke a long-tenured Richmond race sample, by which the motive force who leads probably the most laps doesn’t usually win the race. Honeycutt was sturdy early and infrequently … at one level holding the lead place for a 195-lap stretch.
This marks his second profession win and second of the season and trims Saturday’s Fifteenth-place finisher, Entrance Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs’ championship result in 61 factors heading into the common season finale subsequent week at New Hampshire.
The victory can be vital for Honeycutt’s veteran crew chief Scott Zippadelli, who now claims 38 profession sequence victories, second all-time to Eric Phillips 44-trophy haul.
“Man, we by no means quit,” Honeycutt mentioned. “We have had a tough final couple weeks and simply puzzled what the heck was occurring. We’re not a seventh-place, Tenth-place group, and it is all due to Scott Zippadelli and everybody on this 11-team.
“We simply keep on it. We do not quit, and I simply can’t thank everybody sufficient. What a dominant day. I’ve by no means been capable of do one thing like that earlier than, so actually good confidence for me, and hopefully we will go to Loudon (N.H.) and do the identical factor subsequent week. Simply actually cool.”
McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes was third within the No. 91 Chevrolet with first-time sequence pole-winner, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, ending fourth within the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. It is going to be a Saturday doubleheader for van Gisbergen as he competes Saturday evening right here within the NASCAR Cup Collection race. Grant Enfinger, who led 22 laps on the day within the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, rounded out the highest 5.
As so usually occurs, the Richmond race had a big impression on the championship standings.
Tyler Ankrum–who got here into the race ranked Eleventh, one place exterior the Chase 10-driver championship-eligible field–was dealt a penalty for his No. 18 McAnnally-Hilgemann group having too many males over the pit wall on the opening pit cease of the race. After amassing stage factors with an eighth-place end within the first stage, he began the following stage because the final truck on the lead lap.
Ankrum was capable of overcome the state of affairs a mere 20 laps into the run, nonetheless, rapidly re-passing his major foe, Stewart Friesen (who got here into the race Tenth in factors), earlier than shifting to an Eleventh-place end in Stage 2 and finally the race.
Friesen introduced out the third and last warning flag, crashing by himself with 33 laps remaining and triggering an impactful twist within the standings. Ankrum’s regular work and Friesen’s misfortune — he completed final within the 37-car area — moved Ankrum into that all-important Tenth place within the standings.
He is now 20 factors up on Friesen and 21 factors over Saturday’s sixth-place finisher, ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia, because the sequence heads into the regular-season finale subsequent week on the New Hampshire Motor Speedway one-miler.
These three drivers contending for that last Chase switch place have solely 4 earlier begins amongst them at New Hampshire. Friesen has competed in two races there; his finest work was a fifth-place end in 2017. He was injured and didn’t race final fall. Ankrum and Garcia did race, ending Eleventh and sixteenth, respectively, of their solely sequence begins on the New England mile.
ThorSport’s Ty Majeski additionally survived a busy afternoon. The previous Richmond winner formally locked into the Chase even after taking place two laps with tire hassle early within the day. He completed nineteenth a lap down, however his perseverance on a difficult day was sufficient to safe his place into the Chase.
Garcia and Entrance Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith have been sixth and seventh, with Spire Motorsports’ 16-year-old Tristan McKee incomes a powerful eighth-place end in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Collection debut. TRICON’s Gio Ruggiero and McAnally-Hilgemann’s Daniel Hemric rounded out the highest 10 Saturday. Virginia native Elliott Sadler, within the free-agent Kaulig Racing Ram, completed thirty second.
The regular-season finale is about for Aug. 22, with the Workforce EJP 175 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Community, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2025 sequence champion Heim received final yr’s race from pole place.
–Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Particular to Subject Stage Media
