Fourteenth place should not leave a championship contender smiling. Kaden Honeycutt still led the points after Martinsville, because Layne Riggs tumbled from first to third on the same chaotic night. Now the 2026 Truck Series title belongs to only those two drivers, separated by 20 points and one race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. One loose restart or slow pit stop could erase that margin, and 20 points is not much to carry into a 1.5-mile oval.
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Honeycutt has no problem with it. Asked about the move, he pointed to the rulebook and insisted it was not a last-minute scramble.
“I don’t really have an issue with it. I mean, it’s free game. He’s not declared for cup points,” He told Bob Pockrass on X
“I guess the loophole in the system worked out really good for them. But from what I saw, it’s been scheduled for a long time. So I wouldn’t say that they hired their hired gun for this one race just because of the situation they’re in. It’s been something that’s been in place for a long time.”
That truck is TRICON Garage’s No. 1 Toyota, and Corey Heim will drive it. The reigning series champion is not chasing the driver title. His seat is part of an all-star rotation, with Nick Leitz, Brent Crews and Gavan Boschele also taking turns, that TRICON built to chase the owner’s championship. Heim is also Honeycutt’s teammate, since Honeycutt drives the organization’s No. 11.
The situation comes down to NASCAR‘s championship eligibility rules. Heim is competing in a limited Truck Series schedule this season and is ineligible for the driver championship because he did not compete in the required regular-season races.
However, he can still enter individual events, including the Homestead finale, where he can influence the outcome of the championship battle.
The timeline backs him up. TRICON’s lineup for the No. 1, with Heim set for the Homestead finale, was public by early September.
Whether Heim’s presence helps anyone in the field was a different question, and Honeycutt answered it by looking at the drivers he has to beat.
“Yeah, I mean, I feel like that’s definitely an advantage for them. Their entire goal is to not let me win the race, point blank, simple. That’s their whole goal. They don’t really need to win the race.”
“They don’t really care to, as long as I don’t win. So the more blockers that they have for me, the better. I’m racing against 32-ish other trucks on the racetrack. So, you know, it’s just trying to battle every single one of them.”
“I don’t think that there’s not going to be a whole lot of help that I can get. They’re the ones that are going to be the ones that helps them. For me, I just got to go do it on my own.”
The message is blunt. Honeycutt expects a field that would happily settle for stopping him, and he is not counting on anyone to clear a path. A finale can turn on more than pace, and he cannot focus only on Riggs.
Heim’s Homestead résumé explains why the finale carries extra weight. In March 2025, he started from the pole, won both stages and led a race-high 78 laps, but his truck kept losing power late. Riggs took the lead, and Kyle Larson, who had spun in the final stage, charged back to win, leaving Heim third.
The two teammates have not always been in sync, either. When Heim held off Honeycutt by 0.065 seconds at Michigan in June, Honeycutt was unhappy about two blocks, and Heim told him to toughen up.
Kaden Honeycutt banks on Homestead experience
Honeycutt has his own Homestead history to lean on, and he believes he is a far more complete driver now. He has been studying notes from last year’s race to prove it.
“I do. I feel like we’ve been really strong at Homestead with Zane driving as well. We were strong last year. I was leading up until the last lap when Kyle Larson got around me at the very end. I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a race car driver since then. Just looking back at last year’s race, studying so far, looking at notes.”
“I don’t know what I was doing out there. I was so green, just trying to figure it out.”
“And now I’m looking at all that and taking the experience that I’ve made in a year and a half since then and just know how much better I can be and am going to be.”
The growth is easy to see. A year ago, Honeycutt reached Phoenix’s Championship 4 on a tiebreaker over Riggs and finished third. Now, as a four-time winner this season, he arrives at Homestead as the points leader instead of a long shot.
Nobody is handing him anything, and he is not asking. With Riggs 20 points back, a champion in his own garage chasing a different prize and a field with little to lose, Honeycutt’s first title has to be earned on his own.