TRUCKS: Kaden Honeycutt’s Texas throwback annihilated in brutal grass-inflicted crash
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: FS1
Kaden Honeycutt picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Friday’s SpeedyCash.com 250 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #45 DQS Chevrolet was collected in a multi-truck accident after 30 of 174 laps.
The finish came in Honeycutt’s 42nd series start. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 9th for the #45, the 199th from a crash, and the 458th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 48th for the #45, the 1,416th from a crash, and the 1,986th for Chevrolet.
Though just now embarking on his first full-time Truck Series campaign, the 22-year-old Honeycutt has already established himself as perhaps the next driver to score his first career victory. A native Texan, the late model driver worked his way through the ARCA Menards Series before his 34th-place Truck Series debut at Martinsville driving for the underfunded G2G Racing. He closed out that year with On Point Motorsports, finishing 9th in the Phoenix finale, then earned three more top-ten finishes for various teams in 2023.
Last May, and now exclusively racing for Niece, he nearly won at Kansas before issues on pit road left him 4th – still a new career-best – then took 7th in Charlotte, and 4th again in his return to Kansas. He’s started this first full-time Truck Series campaign with four top-ten finishes in the first seven races of the season, most recently a 6th at Rockingham that tied his season-best run in Atlanta.
In between, Honeycutt has won the first two ARCA Menards Series West races he ever attempted, and made a pair of XFINITY races with a best finish of 23rd last summer at Dover for DGM Racing.
For Texas, Honeycutt would run a special “throwback” paint scheme honoring Niece Motorsports’ first-ever Truck Series start, which came with driver Casey Smith at the Texas track on November 4, 2016. Smith finished 23rd in the team’s flagship #45, a one-off for the team’s build-up into a full-time team in 2017. Teammates Matt Mills (#42) and Bayley Currey (#44) would run “throwbacks” to two race-winning schemes driven by Ross Chastain in 2019.
In addition, with team owner Al Niece a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, the three teammates would each represent a different charitable initiative focused on the military for the month of May. Honeycutt’s would be Foundation for Pops, a veterans’ initiative founded by Josh Morris, CEO of Honeycutt’s sponsor DQS Solutions & Staffing. The tribute would begin in Texas.
Honeycutt was one of just 32 drivers set to battle on Friday night in Texas. The group would face a particularly steep challenge as heavy rains throughout the week in the Fort Worth area washed out both practice and qualifying, leaving a green race track and a muddy infield grass portion just inches from the racing line in the quad-oval. The rulebook placed Honeycutt 6th on the starting grid.
Securing the 32nd and final starting spot was Stefan Parsons, who was making just his second Truck Series start of the year and first since a solid 18th-place run in Homestead. He’d again be driving for Young’s Motorsports, which brought back its part-time #20 entry for the first time since that Homestead race.
No drivers incurred tail-end penalties, so Parsons took the green flag 3.3 seconds back of the lead. He didn’t hold the spot for long, gaining five spots on the opening lap, and dropping to last Cody Dennison in the #2 Timcast Ford. Dennison dropped rom 6.07 seconds back of the leader on Lap 2 to 8.7 on Lap 3, then on Lap 4 passed team owner Josh Reaume’s #22 Aerial Titans Ford. Reaume now caught and passed Toni Breidinger, who was having electrical issues on her #5 Raising Cane’s Toyota, which Reaume dropped to last place on Lap 6, 15 seconds back. By Lap 8, Breidinger was 20.7 seconds back of the lead, and a full three-seconds back of 31st-place Reaume. By Lap 12, she was the first to be lapped, and was more than seven seconds back of Reaume. Reaume was himself lapped just before the competition caution fell on Lap 22, giving him the “Lucky Dog” and leaving Breidinger the only truck off the lead lap.
After a clean opening segment, apprehensions of a chaotic night were realized soon after the Lap 26 restart. On Lap 31, with Breidinger still holding last place, 3rd-place Giovanni Ruggiero’s #17 JBL Toyota clipped the grass exiting the quad-oval. Instantly, his left-front splitter dug in, causing an explosion of dirt that immediately destroyed his fender and bounced him directly across the nose of a 4th-place running Honeycutt. Locked together, both trucks clobbered the outside wall with tremendous speed, blocking a fast-closing Brandon Jones in the #1 Amdro Toyota. Jones had nowhere to go when Honeycutt and Ruggiero bounced into his path, colliding with enough force to rip the right-front wheel from Jones’ suspension. Stewart Friesen, a truck-length back of Jones, managed to spin his #52 Halmar International Toyota to safety. As Jones limped his way to pit road, Honeycutt’s destroyed truck was left stranded in the middle lane while Ruggiero’s glanced off the inside wall and came to a stop. Jones completed another lap on his way to Stall No. 19 – just past the finish line – and thus ranked 30th ahead of the two others involved.
Damage to Brandon Jones’ #1 after they Ruggiero / Honeycutt crash. (PHOTO: Matt Miller, @MGMiller17)
This was only the second of 11 cautions that slowed the night’s action to an average speed of just 102.008mph, taking well over two-and-a-half hours to complete. Finishing 29th was Andres Perez de Lara, whose #77 Telcel Chevrolet spun into the Turn 2 wall on a Lap 57 restart. Layne Riggs looked set to break Ford’s 25-year victory drought at Texas when he led 10 laps in the #34 Aaron’s Rent to Own Ford and put up the fastest lap of the race through Lap 64. But after coming back from a spin on Lap 52, he was this time involved in a wreck with Luke Fenhaus’ #66 Soda Sense Ford, leaving Riggs a disappointing 28th. Carson Hocevar, who had electrical issues of his own in his return to the Truck Series, would ultimately earn the fastest lap on Lap 131, turning a lap of 29.742 seconds in his #7 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet.
Thank you to our staff writer William Soquet for his help in compiling the race action from Friday’s early laps while I was out of town.
Currey, Sutton, and Parsons survive the chaos at Texas
When the race became a matter of survival, a few underdogs found their way into the conversation.
Taking home 8th in another of Niece Motorsports’ “throwback” entries was Bayley Currey in the #44 TXAPA / MG Machinery Chevrolet. This stands as Currey’s second-best finish of the season, trailing his 4th-place run in Atlanta. One spot behind in 9th came Dawson Sutton in the #26 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet, scoring his first top-ten finish of the year, and his first finish better than 16th all season. Sutton’s career-best remains his 5th at Kansas last fall.
Stefan Parsons continued his rally into the Top 10 late before he ultimately slipped to 12th by the checkered flag, improving on his Homestead finish. Frankie Muniz climbed to 3rd during a late-race exchange of pit stops and was still among the Top 20 until Lap 147, when his #33 More Core Ford cut a tire and crashed into the outside wall, leaving him 25th. A similar issue cut short Matt Mills’ strong run in the late stages, leaving his #42 J.F. Electric / Utilitra Chevrolet 20th.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #45 in a Truck Series race since June 23, 2023, when Lawless Alan’s #45 AUTOChargit Chevrolet crashed after 7 laps at Nashville. The number hadn’t finished last in a Truck Series race at Texas since June 12, 2021, when Ross Chastain’s #45 Circle B Diecast Chevrolet was disqualified for an illegal throttle body.
*The 30 laps completed by Honeycutt are the sixth-most for a Truck Series last-place finisher at Texas. In total, 40 of the 51 Truck Series races at Texas saw the last-place finisher complete 10 or fewer laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
32) #45-Kaden Honeycutt / 30 laps / crash
31) #17-Giovanni Ruggiero / 30 laps / crash
30) #1-Brandon Jones / 31 laps / crash
29) #77-Andres Perez de Lara / 56 laps / crash
28) #34-Layne Riggs / 64 laps / crash / led 10 laps
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Reaume Brothers Racing (4)
2nd) Freedom Racing Enterprises, Henderson Motorsports, Niece Motorsports, Norm Benning Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford (4)
2025 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
