No pressure, but Kaden Honeycutt is inheriting a legacy that includes Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar.
It’s a full-time NASCAR Truck Series ride at Niece Motorsports paired with mega crew chief Phil Gould.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Honeycutt told Sportsnaut on Monday night. “Those are big expectations following Ross and Carson. I would definitely love to replicate what they were able to do together.
Gould has eight wins calling races with two championship four appearances out of the four seasons he’s chased a championship with one driver.
“The goal is obviously winning races, making the playoffs and having a chance to win the championship next year.”
With Honeycutt spending the most of the summer in the No. 45, it’s no surprise what fellow Texan Al Niece and Cody Efaw have been working towards. This has been the prelude, making sure Honeycutt has experienced most of the schedule, and is comfortable so that everything feels familiar in advance of his first full campaign.
He finished fourth at Kansas last weekend and has top-10s at Atlanta, the first Kansas, Martinsville, Charlotte and Pocono. There have been challenges too, but that has been the point.
“That first race at Kansas was where I really felt like I understood how to aero race,” Honeycutt said. “I learned how to catch someone without burning your tires up. We’ve learned a lot as a team too, making our trucks better, and now there’s only two or three tracks I haven’t raced on the schedule next year. I’m really looking forward to kind of applying everything Ive learned over a full season.”
Honeycutt earning a full-time ride is also a testament to a racer that has done things the objective right ways from working in various shops over the years to racing anything to get the experience he needed to advance. He’s won marquee races in Super Late Models and Late Model Stocks. He’s a second generation racer who was taught the value early on of working for his opportunities.
That package caught the attention of David Erickson and Phillip Smalley at Motorsports Management International who manage his opportunities and linked him with Niece.
“I wouldn’t be here without David and Phillip,” Honeycutt said. “I can’t express enough my gratitude. It’s thanks to them, Cody and everyone at Niece Motorsports for believing in me. I’m so very thankful MMI found me starting putting all of this together and it’s up to me to do my part.”
The last time a driver got paired with Gould at Niece, he eventually won four races and caught the eye of Spire Motorsports and advanced straight to the Cup Series.
“I’ve talked to Carson about that,” Honeycutt said. “He said Truck racing is the closest thing to Cup right now and that he immediately felt comfortable in those cars. So to me, it’s just more motivation to perform and win.
“I hope to make a home in this series for the next two or three years and we’re working everyday to make sure my talent can be on display and to make people talk about whether or not I can do it on Sundays.”
