Kaden Honeycutt

[ron.brown11]

Kaden ran an ARCA West race last night ate the Bullring in Las Vegas. That was a surprise to me that he was running that race. He finished 9th. I don't know of the team that he ran for, so have no idea the quality of that team. But I'm glad that for him getting that shot. Hopefully he will get more chances. I also didn't have a chance to see the race, just the highlights today.

Dylan Cappello won the race. He's a many time winner in the Spears Modified series, and has either 1 or 2 championships there too. That was a 1 off ride for him too. After he stopped running the touring Spears Super Late models & modifieds, he's been running both late models & mods there at the Bullring when he's in town. He works full-time for Front Row Motorsports, working on Zane's Smith's team. He's a really good young driver, and who knows, FRM has a history of hiring young talent.

[ron.brown11]

Now I know why Kaden wasn't at the CARS Tour race at Tri-County. He was running the ARCA West series race at Madera Speedway in CA. He won the race, and that's 2 for 2 for him!! He led nearly the entire race, and really had to earn it, as he had to hold everyone off through 6 restarts. In his winner's interview, he said that he was going to race this car again at Phoenix, along with running the Craftsman Truck race too. He won at All American Speedway in CA a few weeks ago.

Here's to hoping that he can keep getting rides in good equipment!

[NickHolt]

It will be fun to follow Kaden's career.  It's off to a great start!

[ron.brown11]

Kaden Honeycutt is officially Superman!! He ran the ARCA race at Phoenix Friday afternoon, and ran 9th. Then he ran the Craftsman Truck Series race for Young Motorsports. He finished 8th in that race. Young Motorsports isn't a very well funded team. However, his day wasn't done yet. He boarded a flight back to North Carolina to run the CARS Tour Pro Late Model show. As he was not at the track in NC, someone else qualified the car, and because of the, Kaden had to start last for the 100 lapper. He took the lead about on lap 52, and held off Kaden Kvapil (the newly crowned Pro Late Model champ), to get the win. Great drive!! 

I was tied up on Sat & Sun, and didn't get to watch it until today. Oh yeah, he's going to race the CARS Tour Late Model race too. I'll post that result after I get to see it. But I'm guessing that he will start last again, due to him being in Phoenix for qualifying.

[ron.brown11]

Kaden did start last (25th), and he finished 6th! He wasn't driving for Mike Darn Racing for this race. He drove an R&S Racecars car, and was the team mate to Bobby McCarty, who ran second. Four races, for different types of cars, and he did great in all of them. Superman!!!

Brendan Queen led all 125 laps for the win, but Travis Kvapil won the championship by just 1 point. He never got higher than 8th, but only needed to finish 16th or better no matter what Queen did.

Jared Fryar finished 4th, after starting 16th.

[MikePeters95]

I saw him pop up in all those and thought it was pretty cool.  And yeah Young's equipment isn't super great, a top 10 at a track like Phoenix is a great job.

[ron.brown11]

Mike, I love that track. I lived in Tucson for 14 years, and went there for every NASCAR weekend. I also went there when they were still hosting the annual Copper's World Classic races. They would run Winston West, NASCAR Southwest Tour races, Sprint and Midgets. But the wildest races were ALWAYS Super Modifieds!! Eight hundred horsepower and 70% left side weight. You hoped that nobody ever needed to make a quick correction to the right.They would flip kind of like a motorcycle that high sides the rider. It would usually be a very violent flip. Amazingly, I never saw a driver get hurt. There's nothing like seeing cars go 6 wide through the dogleg, and then trying to funnel down to just 2 wide, and that's for all of the races there. When I lived there, the dogleg was the start of the backstretch, and the backstretch now is what used to be the frontstretch.

If you look behind the the dogleg, there is a huge RV area now. There used to be a mountain there. NASCAR blew it up, and carried it out in trucks. Back then, they had maybe 300 RV spots on track grounds. Eight percent of the RVs would park up in the Estrella Mountains, about a mile farther southwest of the current RV area. We would ride trams back and forth. They now have 10K RV spaces there. They have a full grocery store there, along with I think 10 full shower houses. But if you're willing to fork over the cash, you can park your RV right there on the back stretch. I've never been back to the track since all of the renovations. But that's on my bucket list.

The guy that built my modified engine used to maintain all of the jet dryer trucks for NASCAR's western region tracks. He was wearing face masks way before Covid hit. He would usually operate 1 of the jet dryers for races at PIR and CA Speedway. He hated going out to blow off the track before the opening practices at PIR. He said that even with the truck windows up, the cab would fill with the desert sand. The day that Greg Moore was killed at CA Speedway, Rusty was sitting in the jet truck, about 60 feet from Greg's impact with the inside wall. He said that the only thing worse than seeing that, was gridding out an A-10 crash at the Gila Ben, AZ Goldwater bombing range. The pilot didn't get out, and he was friends with her. Unfortunately I had to do that a couple of times during my AF career. I didn't know the pilots though, Thank God. 

Nick, I've said it before, I think he has a great future if funding doesn't stop him. I love watching him race.

[ron.brown11]

On nascar.com they did a good write up on Kaden's busy weekend. On the phone app it shows up readily. On the computer site, select the news drop down and click on Roots Series tab. It's a good read about in incredible weekend for him.

[NickHolt]

Interesting stuff, Ron.  

[ron.brown11]

I watched the South Carolina 400 last night. The name is a carry over from when it used to be run at Myrtle Beach (where it was 400 laps), but at Florence the name stands for the total number of laps for all of the features run. The late models ran for 250 laps, and was a really good race. There were some crashes (most were fairly minor), including 1 car getting upside down. Thankfully nobody got hurt, and they were red for about 20 minutes to get that car back on all 4s. 

Cade Brown won it in a hard fought victory. On the final restart (about 10 laps to go), Kaden Honeycutt out dueled Brown into turn 1, pushing Cade up the track a bit. Cade ran Kaden back down going into turn 3, and returned the favor. Cade's car was incredible in clean air, and stretched his lead to over a second at the checkers. Honeycutt was 2nd, Carson Kvapil 3rd, Josh Berry 4th, and Brendan Queen was 5th (last year's winner). Dale Jr finished 8th.

Cade was the 2022 track champion at Florence, and the 2023 champ at Hickory. He's another young driver that I think has a very bright future. He has 1 big advantage over Honeycutt, he has better financial backing, and has been in a stable car owner situation. 

Honeycutt ran his second race for R&S Race Cars, and both were top 5s. He has shown so much talent in multiple type cars & teams, especially over the last 6 weeks, somebody has got to notice. How I'd love to see him in a stable, decently financed team. Are there any open seats at JRM?? You should have seen him running the top lane there. I think he shocked Josh Berry when Kaden passed him, and Josh has won races there at Florence including this race, when running for Dale Jr. 

They started 41 cars for this race, and I really expected more incidents. There were a handful of 1-2 cars spins & minor crash damage, plus the rollover, mostly due to the shear volume of cars on the track. And considering how abrasive the surface is at Florence, I expected more. Matt Cox ran about 90% of the race in the top 3, and looked like he might finally win one of these races. He's the back to back track champ at Florence, but it was not to be. When the final yellow came out, while running second, his car lost oil pressure and was a DNF. His car didn't have as much as a tire mark on it.  He was the only one that seemed to be able to keep pace with Brown. 

Looking at the top 5 finishers from this race, 4 of them are young and very talented drivers (I didn't include Josh Berry because his path to the top is over, as he is there already). I've watched a lot of asphalt racing this year, and I've seen an awful lot of very good young drivers, at several different tracks. I truly think that there are several young drivers, that will start populating NASCAR's top 3 divisions for years to come. 

[24nomo]

That was a pretty good race to watch.  Honeycutt run him up the track going for the win.  Just wish that he would have waited until the last lap.  Maybe he could have won it.  He did run real well there, good for him.  

[ron.brown11]

I'd love to say that Kaden invented that really high 3rd lane going in to turn 3, but a regular there named Glenski runs that line all the way around the track there. He'll run an entire main with his tires kicking up dirt, and he's fast at it too. I listened to Dale Jr's post race interview, and I think he was a bit disappointed in himself, that he never tried that really high line. Kaden went around him there just like he did Berry. And Jr was always one to try high lines during Cup races.

I really think that Kaden thought he could pull away from Brown, and that's why I think he did it when he did. Plus, if Cup racing has taught me anything over the last few years, it seems to be easier to get someone on a restart, and then hold them off. But Brown's car was really strong the entire race. For a while there I thought he was pushing it too hard. He was not, that car was really stout all race long. It's a shame that Matt Cox had his issues, because that's who I thought could stay with Brown consistently. I loved that both Brown & Kaden said exactly what they did to each other, and weren't mad about it. Both roughed up each other, but neither tried to wreck the other. But that first lap after that restart, Brown showed exactly how good his car was, by being able to run Kaden back down in just 1 straightaway. That was bad fast. 

Like I said above, I think that there are some really good drivers working their way up. I don't know if Kaden has anything set up for next year, but I'd sure love to see him back in that R&S car with some good funding. I've said on here many times, I have been watching Brendan Queen for 5 years now. He's an awesome driver, has good sponsorship, and a very marketable driver. I truly believe that Kaden is at least at that level in driving ability. He also must be pretty good at getting others to believe in him, just based on the volume of rides he's put together. But none of it was with a well funder team. Queen has done all of his racing driving for only 2 teams (for asphalt racing). I have no idea whose equipment he drives on dirt. All of his race wins and Langley track championships came in his family owned late model. His first race for Lee Pulliam was last year's SC 400 race at Florence, and he won that. As a rookie, he nearly won the CARS Tour championship. Kaden needs that type of stability in a decently funder team, that knows how to win. If Carson Kvapil gets a ride higher up, or if Jr wants to add another CARS Tour team, I'd bet that he looks at Kaden. Between the abilities he has shown all year in cars that aren't well funded, and then what he did on Cup championship weekend, many people noticed. Hell, he even had an article on NASCAR.com about the champ weekend. Now, will someone step up? If I had the funds, he would not have to worry about that for a season or two. And I'm not big into gambling. Maybe I need to start buying Lotto tickets.

[NickHolt]

Thanks, Ron, for all your thoughtful comments on the national short track racing scene!

[ron.brown11]

7 hours ago, NickHolt said:

Thanks, Ron, for all your thoughtful comments on the national short track racing scene!

Thanks Nick, I try to keep up with it the best I can. I still love this stuff.

You have heard me mention on here several times, just how great the facilities are at Kern County Raceway. I was worried about how/if it would continue to exist, as Charlie Beard the owner, has passed away. Well that has been taken care of in a way I didn't ever expect. It is now called the Kevin Harvick Raceway!!. Harvick is from Bakersfield, and has been a big supporter of racing in that area. He's a past champ at the bulldozed Mesa Marin Raceway, there in Bakersfield. He will not be the day ro day operator of it, as he has hired Tim & Lisa Huddleston to do that. Tim has been the guy that has kept Irwindale going for several years, after Toyota sold the track. Irwindale was really in trouble before he started running it. Tim was also a former racer in his day, and his son Trevor I think still has the most LM wins there. I don't know yet if this means that Irwindale is going away, as I haven't seen anything about that yet. But I will be looking for info. Mr Harvick is going to be a very busy man between the broadcast team, CARS Tour owner & now owning Kern Co, I mean Kevin Harvick Raceway..

[ron.brown11]

1 hour ago, ron.brown11 said:

Thanks Nick, I try to keep up with it the best I can. I still love this stuff.

You have heard me mention on here several times, just how great the facilities are at Kern County Raceway. I was worried about how/if it would continue to exist, as Charlie Beard the owner, has passed away. Well that has been taken care of in a way I didn't ever expect. It is now called the Kevin Harvick Raceway!!. Harvick is from Bakersfield, and has been a big supporter of racing in that area. He's a past champ at the bulldozed Mesa Marin Raceway, there in Bakersfield. He will not be the day ro day operator of it, as he has hired Tim & Lisa Huddleston to do that. Tim has been the guy that has kept Irwindale going for several years, after Toyota sold the track. Irwindale was really in trouble before he started running it. Tim was also a former racer in his day, and his son Trevor I think still has the most LM wins there. I don't know yet if this means that Irwindale is going away, as I haven't seen anything about that yet. But I will be looking for info. Mr Harvick is going to be a very busy man between the broadcast team, CARS Tour owner & now owning Kern Co, I mean Kevin Harvick Raceway..

So far Nick I haven't found much. By looking at the Irwindale website, they show drag racing until the middle of Dec. They also show the SRL All Star Showdown the first week of Feb. But I also read that the property has sold (or at the very least deep in that process). The planning board says that 90% of the Irwindale site is going to become an industrial site. Sound Familiar?? Ca. Speedway comes to mind. But everything in CA takes forever because of "environmental" concerns. But with Tim and Lisa Huddleston going to run Harvick Raceway, I think that things must be pretty far along in the sales/development process. Tim has a long history with the track, as he raced there starting in 1999 when it opened. Plus, if my memory is still working, he's a SoCal resident. Both tracks traditionally ran on Sat nights, so splitting time would be near impossible, unless he ran one and Lisa the other. And that's a possibility, as she was very much involved in the day to day activities from what I've read. But I would absolutely now expect that Irwindale will close, and probably sooner than later unfortunately..

[ron.brown11]

On 11/29/2023 at 8:09 PM, ron.brown11 said:

So far Nick I haven't found much. By looking at the Irwindale website, they show drag racing until the middle of Dec. They also show the SRL All Star Showdown the first week of Feb. But I also read that the property has sold (or at the very least deep in that process). The planning board says that 90% of the Irwindale site is going to become an industrial site. Sound Familiar?? Ca. Speedway comes to mind. But everything in CA takes forever because of "environmental" concerns. But with Tim and Lisa Huddleston going to run Harvick Raceway, I think that things must be pretty far along in the sales/development process. Tim has a long history with the track, as he raced there starting in 1999 when it opened. Plus, if my memory is still working, he's a SoCal resident. Both tracks traditionally ran on Sat nights, so splitting time would be near impossible, unless he ran one and Lisa the other. And that's a possibility, as she was very much involved in the day to day activities from what I've read. But I would absolutely now expect that Irwindale will close, and probably sooner than later unfortunately..

I've found other articles that say that the Huddleston's bought Kern Co, and Harvick is just an advisor. If that's the case, I think that Irwindale is/will close soon. The Huddleston's are just the operators at Irwindale, and wouldn't see them spending much time at a place that they operate, as opposed to the track that they own. I'm not saying that another operator couldn't come in, but I can't see someone wanting to operate the place short term, if the sale is pending or final. Unfortunately it's looking like a really good track is going to close, and most likely it will be permanent. I hate seeing any track close (dirt, asphalt or road course), because usually they don't ever return. But one thing I'm sure of, SoCal desperately needs another industrial complex, especially since so many companies are leaving CA.

[ron.brown11]

Well there is another surprise to the 2024 CARS Tour schedule. They are expanding the schedule to include 2 races at Harvick's Kern County, and 3 more at Irwindale. Kern will be March 2nd, and November 16th. The Irwindale dates are April 13th, May 11th, & August 31st. These dates are for the Pro Late Models only. I would expect that this will really tax these teams financially, as they are a predominately Atlantic coast series. Plus, the Pro Late Models tend to not have as much funding when compared to the Late Model Stocks division. The first 3 races will require a tow the full width of the US, as will the last 2. I would expect a lot of the west coast Pro Late Model drivers/teams will be buying a CARS Tour license. If this works out, and the races are a success, I would expect that the 2025 CARS Tour schedule will contain west coast dates. Also I would expect that the SRL & the CARS Tour rules are pretty close.

With Irwindale having these dates, I'm guessing (hoping) that the track is going to remain open for at least the 2024 season. I looked at Irwindale's schedule on their website. They show March 9th as the opener for the circle track. There are no dates for anything (drag or circle) after March 30th. I would expect a full schedule will get announced very soon, especially since the CARS Tour has announced their dates there. I could not find anything as to who is going to run the track for 2024. Kern's schedule isn't posted on their site yet either. I'd love to know if somebody new is going to operate Irwindale. I'll keep looking. 

[MikePeters95]

I think the CARS West Coast deal is to establish it on the West Coast.

Also if you ever want to check on the health of Irwindale, I doubt any y'all keep up with drifting, but Formula Drift always starts at the Long Beach Grand Prix and ends at Irwindale.  Nothing changing for 2024 / 2025 last I heard.  

[24nomo]

Yes, I do not think the Cars Tour Intent was to pull anyone from the East Coast.   I seriously doubt any would make that haul under any circumstance.   

[ron.brown11]

On 1/8/2024 at 9:03 AM, MikePeters95 said:

I think the CARS West Coast deal is to establish it on the West Coast.

Also if you ever want to check on the health of Irwindale, I doubt any y'all keep up with drifting, but Formula Drift always starts at the Long Beach Grand Prix and ends at Irwindale.  Nothing changing for 2024 / 2025 last I heard.  

At some point Mike, I think that something will occur to kind of join them together. I don't think that the SRL or the CARS Tour will benefit from fighting each other. But I hope that both can survive, whether that's individually or together. I perused both series' Pro Late Model rules, and they're nearly identical. I don't know if David Hoots is still involved with the SRL, but he started it. After NASCAR shut down the Southeast, Northwest, Midwest & the Southwest tour divisions, he started it. It was no accident that he retained the Southwest Tour name (I read that somewhere, and NASCAR blessed him using that name), and put the SRL first. He was the guy that ran all of the NASCAR Winter Heat seasons at Tucson Raceway Park. I don't know where he grew up, but he genuinely seemed to love the southwest region. My great friend, and engine builder for my modified, Rusty Hatten maintained and operated the jet dryer trucks assigned to the west coast. He had many conversations with Mr Hoots. He also tried relentlessly to hire Rusty to maintain a good bit of NASCAR's west coast equipment. Rusty just didn't want to move from Tucson to Phoenix (I don't blame him either!). As good of an engine builder Rusty is, he's even better at maintaining AF fighter jets. His skills doing anything mechanically is unbelievable. I was a pretty good jet & car mechanic, and a quality control inspector on fighter jets. I have absolutely no hesitation to bowing my head to his skills, none. 

Drifting isn't the biggest thing at Irwindale. They have robust drag strip there too. Between the oval, drag strip, drifting and track rentals to car companies doing TV commercials, the Huddleston's have kept Irwindale alive. I truly hope that it survives, but I still can't find anything that says who's going to operate it.

[ron.brown11]

On 1/8/2024 at 9:33 AM, 24nomo said:

Yes, I do not think the Cars Tour Intent was to pull anyone from the East Coast.   I seriously doubt any would make that haul under any circumstance.   

24nomo, 2 years ago I would have agreed with what you're saying. But I also didn't see the SRL creating a national series, to go along with their late models, pro late models, & the modifieds on the west coast. I've seen several west coast teams running Five Flags, New Smyrna, and the Rattler races. I've also seen a few CARS Tour teams go west too. I think what we will see is the teams that really want a championship will make the haul. It may only be 5-10 cars, but that's exactly what NASCAR did in its early years. A group of 10-15 regulars, and a bunch of locals. Plus, I really think that the new ownership wants a bigger footprint, and they have already shown a way to accomplish that.

ZMAX! Between the national sponsor & all 4 Tour owners being involved at the Cup level, they're going to find away to make it happen. The SRL already has a program to help teams financially (tow money & I think preferred pit selection too), if they will commit to running all of the races. The CARS Tour already has a program to help the drivers/teams in their selected 12 list. They get some tow many, a bump in the purse money, discounted tire and fuel costs. If the race purses are decent, expect that they won't have too much worry about starting a good car count. Compare the number of cars entered in the premier CARS Tour from last year to this year. The car count has nearly doubled. Rarely did they send cars home last year, because they had so many trying to make the show. This year they had to do that in several races, and in others they started several more cars than what they advertised on their entry forms. An awful lot of new team popped up.

The biggest thing that dirt tracks have had over asphalt tracks for a long time was common rules. I think that the asphalt world is finally waking up to that. At least I hope so, because if they don't, this expansion will be short lived. Fingers are officially crossed.. 

 

[24nomo]

I hope that you are right, but I doubt we see 5-10 East cars go to the West series all year long much less per race.  The West has a pretty good pool of Pro Lates to pull from.   The guys on the east coast have plenty of places to race without pulling across the country.  That is unless there was some outrageous purse.  Who knows, maybe we could get them to do a combined race half way in the middle at COTA.    Wink Wink

Edited January 10 by 24nomo

[MikePeters95]

Just saw this on Facebook on the CARS tour page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071567284009


 

[ron.brown11]

That's great news!! It will be very interesting to see what he can do with some stability for a change. He sure looked good driving an R&S race car at Florence a couple of months ago. I wonder if the 2024 paint scheme will continue to look like an old Wood Brothers car. I always loved that Purolater scheme. A guy named Woody Howard runs a scheme like that at Langley, only his number is 41. 

 

[byron]

If you get Speed Sport daily news on your computers, just a few days ago there was a story about Bobby Hamilton Jr moving his season ending open wheel special for midgets, sprints cars and super modifieds to Irwindale Speedway to be run mid November this year. The first special was run last November at the Bullring in Las Vegas and it was a success. I don't know the reason for the move.