Honeycutt Wins $15,000 In Orange Krush 200

ROUGEMONT, N.C. – A timely redraw and the lane choice that came with it paid out a trophy and a five-figure payday to Kaden Honeycutt Friday night at Orange County Speedway.

Honeycutt led the final 100 laps of the Rogers Heating & Cooling Orange Krush 200 for late model stock cars at the three-eighths-mile oval, pulling the No. 1 pill during the halfway break to move to the race lead from the runner-up starting spot, which allowed him to choose his lane for the ensuing restart.

The Texas native elected to fire off from the top groove, a decision that allowed him to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

Though four yellow flags during the second half forced restarts that allowed those behind him to close up and challenge, Honeycutt never flinched en route to a $15,000 winner’s check.

Honeycutt, who is running a partial schedule in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this season for Niece Motorsports, ultimately took the checkered flag .947 of a second in front of veteran Deac McCaskill.

“Deac ran me so clean,” noted Honeycutt after the race. “You have to do whatever it takes to win the race, right? I wasn’t mad about getting a little bit of fender damage; it was just an awesome race.

“He’s one of the best ever here, but I knew once I was able to clear him, I could take away his line and pull away at the end.”

It marked Honeycutt’s first late model stock car win since Oct. 7, 2022, in a zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour event at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C.

“I needed this so bad,” Honeycutt said of the victory. “Just for myself and my family. I haven’t won a late model stock race since 2022 at Ace. I needed this so bad for confidence and also for these guys. Knowing we can do this on a week-to-week basis, especially in [the] CARS Tour since they’re coming back here in April. We’ll have a really good baseline to go off of and I think we’ll be able to make some more noise.”

After Honeycutt ran second behind polesitter Bobby McCarty for the first half – which ran caution-free – the 20-year-old tipped that being able to control the race after inheriting the lead was key to the win.

“I knew the lane choice would be huge,” said Honeycutt. “If I had drawn a two, it was going to be extremely hard to get the lead from the bottom. To be able to have lane choice and lead the rest of the race was definitely huge, for sure.

“I know Bobby was probably a little bit better than we were, so we probably still have some work to go back and do, but we can work off this and know what to do when we come back here the next time.”

With a $15,000 check in hand, Honeycutt turns his focus back to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for his next race, as he returns to the No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado for Niece Motorsports at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Broadcast coverage of the Long John Silver’s 200 at the half-mile paper clip is slated for Friday night, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET live on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.