Kaden Honeycutt arrived at Kansas Speedway three points behind Layne Riggs in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase, the ten-driver playoff that decides the championship. He left 37 points ahead of him, with five races to go.
Honeycutt led 111 of the 134 laps in the Race to Stop Suicide 200 on Saturday, Sept. 26, and beat Christian Eckes by 1.358 seconds. He did it after spending part of a 4-hour-47-minute rain delay at the track's care center with chest congestion, he said afterward. Riggs was running second with two laps left when he brushed the outside wall, then brushed it again, and fell to 19th.
"I just went for it," Riggs said. "Went for it way too hard and went for when I shouldn't have gone for it. I should have just settled for finishing second right there and had a shot at it later on."
Four tires against two
The finish was set up on the last round of pit stops, made under caution with fewer than 20 laps left. Two tires make for a shorter stop; four gives a driver more grip. Honeycutt's crew put four tires on his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota. Riggs's crew put two on his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, which got him off pit road first and gave him the better track position for the restart.
Riggs took the lead when racing resumed on lap 122. Two trucks that had not pitted restarted ahead of the leaders, and Honeycutt said afterward that when one of them got loose and Eckes closed on it, the inside lane backed up and he was able to clear into second right away. He passed Riggs on the next lap and was not caught.
Honeycutt said he thought Riggs's call was the smart one. His own team, he said, needed four tires and good restarts.
How it got there
Rain washed out practice and qualifying, so NASCAR set the field with a formula instead of timed laps. Nick Sanchez started on the pole and Honeycutt fourth. Honeycutt passed Sanchez on the first lap and led the first 47, winning the first stage, one of two early segments of the race that pay bonus points.
Riggs took the lead on a restart on lap 48. Two laps later, Honeycutt tapped the rear bumper of Riggs's truck, which took a glancing blow against the outside wall, and Honeycutt went back in front. He won the second stage as well.
Riggs's trouble on pit road came next, for the second straight Chase race. At Bristol, where he led the first 135 laps and finished 32nd, his crew had struggled to change his right-side tires. At Kansas, on his lap 61 stop, the jack dropped before his left-front wheel was tight, and he had to back up into his stall to have it tightened. He restarted 25th.
Rain stopped the race after 70 laps, with Grant Enfinger leading and Ben Rhodes second, both of whom had stayed out on older tires. Honeycutt said he spent part of the delay at the care center because he was badly congested, with an illness he thought his wife had passed to him, and that he was always going to finish the race.
When racing resumed on lap 78, Honeycutt passed Enfinger and Rhodes and led the next 41 laps. Riggs, meanwhile, worked his way from 25th up to second, which is where he was when the final stops began.
What 37 points is worth
Honeycutt scored 75 points, one short of the most possible. The missing point is a bonus for the fastest lap, which went to Tyler Ankrum. Riggs scored 35.
That 40-point swing moved Honeycutt from second to first. Chandler Smith is third, 71 points back, and Giovanni Ruggiero fourth, 72 back. All ten drivers in the Chase are within 127 points. The full standings are here.
The Chase continues at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, Oct. 9, then Phoenix, Talladega and Martinsville, and ends at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida on Friday, Nov. 6.
Eckes's second place was his best finish of the season. Brent Crews, who is not eligible for points in this series, was third, followed by Daniel Hemric, Rhodes and Smith.
Enfinger, who led through the rain delay, finished 31st. He was penalized for speeding on pit road, hit the wall, and then stopped on the track. NASCAR ruled he had stopped to bring out a caution on purpose and gave him a two-lap penalty.
Honeycutt did not do a burnout.
"Sorry I didn't do any burnouts," he said. "We've got to save this thing for Homestead. The motors cost a lot, too."