Kaden Honeycutt Wins the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Championship
· Yahoo Sports
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Kaden Honeycutt clinched the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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Honeycutt easily clinched the championship over Layne Riggs, who finished 34th Friday.
Honeycutt entered the season finale with four race wins, 15 top-five finishes, 18 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 7.9. With a team looking to defend the championship, Honeycutt started the season slow but consistently very well. He earned nine top-five finishes and 11 top-10 finishes, including a win at Watkins Glen, in the first 16 races.
When the Chase was on the horizon, Honeycutt rose up. He won at Richmond Raceway and had a comeback third-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to close the regular season with the No. 2 seed.
While Riggs stumbled out of the gate after dominating the opener at Bristol Motor Speedway and then hit the wall while going for the win at Kansas Speedway, Honeycutt was rock solid with an eighth-place finish at Bristol and a win at Kansas that Riggs sought.
Honeycutt had a run of four top-five finishes, including another win at Phoenix Raceway, that pulled him out to a secure points lead as the postseason winded down.
In all, Honeycutt won a third of the races in the span leading up to the finale. While not matching what Corey Heim did a season before, he proved himself a worthy successor to the Cup-bound driver.
The only thing Honeycutt did better than finishing well was starting well. In the final nine races, he started no worse than fifth. In fact, in the final 13 races, he hasn't qualified worse than seventh.
Honeycutt's championship is a breakthrough for a driver who started out picking up rides with G2G Racing and On Point Motorsports in 2022 and Roper Racing and Young's Motorsports in 2023. He earned four top-10 finishes in 20 starts and took those teams to finishes above their average.
That attracted Niece Motorsports to pick him up for 14 starts in 2024. Honeycutt made good on it, scoring two top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes in 14 starts.
Niece promoted him to full-time competition in 2025, lifting him to the postseason that he ran with Toyota after he signed the deal with TRICON. He almost came to TRICON as a champion already, making the Championship 4 with Stewart Friesen's team but finishing third in the points standings.
Honeycutt's championship not only represents another mark in TRICON's legacy in the series as a dominant force. It also represents Niece's legacy as a builder of talent, with Honeycutt following in the footsteps of the likes of Carson Hocevar, Ross Chastain and others who have elevated their stock through their program.
Where Honeycutt goes next remains to be seen but his career is only going to go up from here now as a champion.