Short track racing in Virginia quickly separates real driver skill from lucky setups, and Kaden Honeycutt proved that firsthand at Richmond Raceway. The three-quarter-mile track has a habit of tearing up right-front tires and punishing drivers who over-drive their entries. Anyone who tries to run hard early usually ends up sliding toward the wall by lap 30, watching the rest of the field pass them on the bottom.
Honeycutt managed that problem better than anyone else during the Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tire 250 on Saturday. He saved his equipment, hit his marks, and kept complete control of the race from start to finish. His opening run set the tone for the night. Over his first 30 laps, Honeycutt logged an average lap time of 22.19 seconds, keeping his quickest and slowest laps within a razor-thin 0.05-second window.
That steady pace preserved his tires while everyone else was chewing through theirs. By Lap 40, his lap times had dropped by just 0.41 seconds, compared to the field average loss of 0.78 seconds. He led 38 laps in Stage 1, never dropped below third place, and kept the car steady without forcing speed that wasn’t there. When sun glare faded and track temperatures dropped, the racing surface lost bite and front ends started pushing across the garage.
Honeycutt kept his No.11 TRICON Garage Toyota turning by adjusting his entry angles and easing onto the throttle to avoid spinning his rear tires. His pit crew pulled their weight too, turning in stops between 12.6 and 12.9 seconds to keep him out front. Clean air on the nose is worth nearly two-tenths a lap at Richmond because it keeps weight over the front splitter.
During the longest green-flag run of the night, Honeycutt showed the value of that track position: over 35 laps, his pace dropped by just 0.72 seconds, while the rest of the field lost an average of 1.04 seconds. Two late cautions brought the pack back to his bumper, setting up risky double-stack restarts where the inside line usually bogs down, and the outside line can easily trap a leader. Honeycutt nailed both restarts.
Telemetry logged his restart speeds at 128.4 mph and 129.1 mph, easily beating the field average of 126.7 mph and clearing him into Turn 1 before anyone could dive inside. He sealed the win over the final 20 laps. While rival cars started sliding around, Honeycutt’s lap times only drifted from 22.48 to 22.61 seconds, a drop of just 0.13 seconds.
He crossed the line 1.7 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain, whose late charge stalled out as his lap times fell from 22.55 to 22.78 over the final 15 laps. Grant Enfinger finished third, 3.4 seconds back, with Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski rounding out the top five. Honeycutt ended the night with 112 laps led and a race-best average speed of 121.7 mph. Winning at Richmond takes patience and a deep understanding of tire management, and Honeycutt delivered on both.
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