Kaden Honeycutt earned his first CARS Late Model Stock Tour win in three years after late race chaos at South Boston.
The first 113 laps were fairly straight forward. Mini Tyrrell started from pole, and battled Tristan McKee for most of the race. With 17 laps to go, McKee made contact with Tyrrell in turn one while on the inside. With 16 laps to go the same thing happened again and McKee was able to get clear.
Into turn three with 15 laps to go, Tyrrell tried to get to the inside of McKee, but made contact, spinning him out. Tyrrell was sent to the tail of the field as a result of the contact, giving Honeycutt the lead
The chaos was not over, as with 12 laps to go, a big crash broke out on the frontstretch into turn one. Parker Eatmon went airborne and Doug Barnes Jr., Connor Hall, Ryan Millington, Landon Shane Huffman, Brandon Lopez, and Landon Huffman were involved.
On the restart, Honeycutt held off a hard charging Conner Jones. He took the white flag, but as he was in turn three coming to the checkered flag, Ronnie Bassett Jr. spun on the frontstretch, bringing out a caution and setting up a green white checkered restart.
Jones hung with him on the restart, and tried to pass him on the outside in turns three and four on the last lap, but it wasn’t enough, and Honeycutt picked up the win and the $10,000 payday.
“Anytime [I] win a CARS [Tour] race is awesome, especially in the Late Model Stock series. It’s amazing for my race team, Tom Usry Racing, R&S Race Cars.
“My whole crew did amazing. They’ve been so good every time we’ve hit the racetrack this year. We just haven’t ran much, but we want to make sure we’re fully prepared and we can bring cars like this to the racetrack and go compete for wins on this tour and anywhere we go.”
Honeycutt had his thoughts on theTyrrell, McKee incident that gave him the lead.
“I definitely think [McKee] deserved that,” Honeycutt said. “I’m so sick and tired of seeing people do the way they do. You know, Mini ran him [straight] up, and Tristan just started running him all the way up on the fence.
“I’m glad Mini stood up for himself. I’m very glad that people are sticking up for racing like that. And that’s what needs to be cleaned up in this series. Having kids do that stuff is just not going to cut it. And I’m glad Mini stood up for that. I hate that that happened to him, but I’m very thankful we finally found some freaking luck in this thing. And having to win this race is awesome.
“I feel like we had a really good car before that. We were able to catch them and work them over. [It’s] really awesome. I appreciate all my guys for how hard they work. And [we will carry the] momentum on to the next race.”
Conner Jones finished second, his best of the season. Doug Barnes Jr. made contact with him off turn four to trigger the big crash into turn one, but Jones was able to avoid getting involved.
“I really honestly don’t know [what happened],” Jones said. “It was all pretty much behind me. I just felt my rear tires get lifted up, and then I heard big wreck. That’s pretty much all I know.Mike Darne brought me a really good piece.
“We struggled in practice [yesterday] a little bit, but we showed up today really solid. We picked up a lot in our qualifying runs, so that was a big positive. We knew it was going to race good, and it did. [I] needed a five-lap shootout.”
Carson Loftin rounded out the podium, earning the best finish of his career. He made the jump from modifieds to stock cars this year and has learned a lot, and tonight was a culmination of that.
“It was really good,” Loftin said. “We struggled all weekend long. We actually put this thing on scales this morning and went to work wholesale and the whole car and didn’t really know what we had.
“Qualified 13th, and I didn’t think it was really that good. I thought we were about a tenth place car at best. A couple cars fell out with things on our way, and that’s why we’re in contention at the end. I just can’t thank this group enough. They really took a gamble on me at the start of the year because I have no Late Model Stock experience or nothing with a fender at all, so I just can’t thank them enough for giving me this opportunity and just hopefully keep carrying this momentum the rest of the year.”
The turning point in the race was the incident between Tyrrell and McKee. Tyrrell felt like he was a little aggressive trying to pass McKee when he made the contact but McKee used him up the laps before.
“We were racing together really hard for five, six, seven laps or something,” Tyrrell said. “[We were] racing really clean. We never touched. And then two or three laps before that incident, he got into my door through three and four, which was fine. A little bit of door, whatever. I mean, I did it too to a point.
“And then he did it again through [turns] one and two, left me alone through three and four, and then we went back into one and two, and he about wrecked us in the center of the corner. And then we went into one and two again, and I saw him run way up the hill. So I checked up on the brakes to cross him over, and thought I had the nose on getting into the corner, and it just seemed like he never left the yellow line when I was underneath of him.
“I could not have really been underneath of him. I mean, it’s a bad pass on my part. A pass on the entry of the corner is not a great pass. I’m aware of that. But [I was] racing for the win, and I was there. I couldn’t check up. We’re both entering the corner as hard as we can, and it just seemed like he pinched me a little bit, and I just couldn’t slow up. I got into his left rear too hard. I hate it for the both of us. You know, it’s racing. We’re racing for the lead, racing for the win, and it sucks. It really sucks.”
At the time of the incident, Hall was running ninth and Lewis was running 16th. Tyrrell was in a spot to gain a lot of points on the top two in the points, but now he sits even further back after.
“It would have been great,” Tyrrell said. “[I] just wish he could have done things a little differently. I wish I could have done things a little differently. And maybe we would have ended up in the top three. I hate it for all my sponsors. I had such a strong run going.”
Tristan McKee declined to comment after the race.
While Tyrrell lost a lot of points, Lewis avoided disaster to score a fourth and gain even more points. On lap 90, Lewis pitted and restarted outside the top 20. He missed the chaos after that and found himself coming home with a top ten.
“We fired off really good and got control of the race,” Lewis said. “That was the biggest thing that we needed to do was get control. And I thought we did a really good job of that. About lap 30, I caught a really bad vibration, and it just continuously got worse and worse and worse.
“And finally, I think it was like 80 laps in, I was holding on for dear life. I honestly got a little worried that we were going to blow a tire and then destroy a race car. So we got very lucky to the lap 90 break, and come down pit road, change the tire, and then just slowly started working our way back forward.”
Since he was in the middle of the pack, he had a good view of the big crash in turn one.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Lewis said. “I just saw [Eatmon] going up. I thought he was flipping. There was no smoke or any signs of anything like that. So honestly, I think I closed my eyes for a minute because I just didn’t know what was going to happen.
“And I got as close as I could to [Mason Diaz] to guide me through the carnage and kind of opened my eyes and I was through it. So it was like a Days of Thunder type of act where it was like, you know, you’re just driving through the smoke. So it was pretty cool.”
Lewis plans to keep his approach he has had the past few weeks ahead of the final push for the championship.
“[This was] obviously super important,” Lewis said. “We left last week one point [ahead] and I don’t know what the points situation is now. Whatever it is, we just got to keep doing the same thing and not being in the carnage. When we have bad nights, we need to make them good without destroying a car. So just got to weigh out the bads and the goods and just be smart about this whole situation.”
Landon Huffman was involved in the big crash in turn one and finished tenth, but with Lewis finishing fourth, his championship hopes took a big hit. While he may not be able to win the championship, he hopes to finish the season third in the standings and score a win this year.
“I have no idea what happened in the wreck,” Huffman said. “I had so much rear brake cranked in. I got the first wreck down here. I think I was running like 12th or 13th when McKee spun out. I had it avoided [and] someone hit me from behind, spun me out. I hit in the left front. I came down [pit road]. We worked on it.
“Then I was back there in the back, passing some cars, trying to rip the top. I don’t know. I gained a few spots right on the restart and then they all piled up and my spotter caught it but I was full bore off the top. [I] went to the brake. [I] had so much rear to it I just started wheel hopping and chasing it and plowed into all of them. Knocked all four corners off of it. Had a really bad race car in the race and we finished tenth.
“I think we passed Mini tonight [in the points]. If I can finish third in the points, I think that’s an attainable goal and then we’ll be the first car that doesn’t have an ownership affiliation. So that’s kind of cool but I don’t know.”
The full finishing results can be viewed below.
zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour
South Boston Speedway
September 13, 2025
1. #17 Kaden Honeycutt
2. #44 Conner Jones
3. #22 Carson Loftin
4. #29 Landen Lewis
5. #41 Mason Diaz
6. #03 Lanie Buice
7. #7 Tristan McKee
8. #4 Kade Brown
9. #12W Trevor Ward
10. #57 Landon Huffman
11. #2W Ryan Wilson
12. #00 Chase Burrow
13. #28 Landon S. Huffman
14. #97 Isaac Kitzmiller
15. #4S Donovan Strauss
16. #2 Brandon Pierce
17. #81 Mini Tyrrell
18. #88 Connor Hall
19. #04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
20. #08 Deac McCaskill
21. #6 Brandon Lopez
22. #88B Doug Barnes Jr.
23. #71 Parker Eatmon
24 #15 Ryan Millington
25. #05 Mason Bailey
26. #4D Kyle Dudley
27. #16 Chad McCumbee
