Kaden Honeycutt flexed his muscle on the local Late Model Stock Car competition at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday evening by charging through the field to sweep both 40-lap features.
Honeycutt had never seen Hickory until his arrival this weekend.
Now he expects to contend in next weekend’s CARS Late Model Stock Tour event following his two stellar performances.
“We have so much confidence going into next weekend now,” Honeycutt said. “I had to use it up [in the second race] but I couldn’t waste any time. As soon as I got to William [Cox III], I had to move him out because we were pretty close on speed. I hate to move someone like that, but this is a hard track to pass at and you have to do what you have to do.”
Honeycutt was fast from the drop of the green flag in the first race. He bided his time while Mike Looney and Jacob Heafner fought each other for the top spot.
After Looney held off Heafner, Honeycutt proceeded to move into the second position and immediately worked his way around Looney to assume control of the race. Honeycutt went uncontested through the final ten laps as he parked his No. 4 Puryear Tank Lines Ford in victory lane.
“We had to stay close to [Looney],” Honeycutt said. “We let him run his stuff on the outside, but I tried not to push too hard on the right rear while trying to pass somebody and that ended up being the deciding factor. I think I did a pretty good job of saving my stuff [in the first race].”
An invert between the two races would put Honeycutt all the way back in ninth position, which put Bob Saville and Josh Kossek at the front of the field for the second 40-lap feature.
William Cox III was the first to navigate his way past Saville and Kossek to inherit the lead, but he was unable to hold off Honeycutt, who conserved his equipment and nudged Cox out of the way with ten to go to take his second checkered flag of the night.
While Cox was disappointed that he was unable to deliver a win for JR Motorsports, he was proud of the speed he showed against a small, but talented group of drivers, and hopes to improve upon his performance on Saturday for next weekend.
“It was a pretty good evening,” Cox said. “My car was a little bit free in, so once [Honeycutt] got to my bumper, there wasn’t much I could do about it, but I can’t thank JR Motorsports enough for giving me such a great car [tonight].”
Honeycutt added that he has a solid idea on how to approach next Saturday’s MTP Tire 250 at Hickory after properly executing the tire conservation strategy. Although the MTP Tire 250 will be 125 laps as opposed to two 40-lap features, he believes the race will play out in a similar fashion to the ones on Saturday.
“A lot of the people we raced tonight come from the CARS Tour,” Honeycutt said. “The confidence we have is nowhere near the bottom. It’s all the way to the sky. I can’t say enough about this team right here and we’re ready to get after it next weekend. There’s no holding back now.”
Honeycutt will attempt to put Justin Johnson’s Late Model in victory lane at Hickory next Saturday after his car owner picked up his first career CARS Tour win at Dillon Motor Speedway on March 6.
Race 1 Results:
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Mike Looney
- Jacob Heafner
- William Cox III
- Mike Darne
- Ryan Millington
- Paul Owens
- Josh Kossek
- Bob Saville
- Wayne Goss
- Jonathan Worley
- Conner Jones
- Wes Burton
Race 2 Results:
- Kaden Honeycutt
- William Cox III
- Jacob Heafner
- Mike Looney
- Mike Darne
- Conner Jones
- Paul Owens
- Ryan Millington
- Josh Kossek
- Wayne Goss
- Jonathan Worley
- Bob Saville
- Wes Burton
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