Kaden Honeycutt Wins CARS PLM Finale, Championship at North Wilkesboro

Kaden Honeycutt closed out a zMAX CARS Tour championship season with a ride on the lift at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday night.

Honeycutt won the zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model season finale at North Wilkesboro, holding off a hard-charging T.J. DeCaire in the closing laps for the win. With the win and a 14th-place finish for fellow title contender Spencer Davis, Honeycutt secured the 2024 series title.

The championship season came with its share of twists and turns, including a change of rides during the season as he moved to the Bryson Lopez Racing No. 47 after the eighth race of the season.

The new partnership immediately clicked with a runner-up finish at Ace Speedway, and never finished worse than fourth over the conclusion of the season. The North Wilkesboro triumph marked back-to-back wins to wrap up the championship run, cementing the success of the partnership.

"It's so awesome, man," said an emotional Honeycutt in victory lane. "It's all thanks to everyone at BLR. I didn't have anything in August and they gave me a chance to drive their car. It's such a dream come true to win here at Wilkesboro by itself, let alone a championship, especially all the B.S. I've been through, me and my family, the last few years.

"I just can't thank them enough for what they've done for me. I didn't really know how we would have been at Ace when we started with this team. Man, we hit the ground running and they have put so much freaking effort in helping me finish this championship off."

Honeycutt entered the night trailing Davis by six points in the championship standings. For Honeycutt, being the aggressor was a familiar position entering the season finale.

"When I started in this Tour in 2021, I finished second to Bobby [McCarty], one of my best friends," said Honeycutt. "We respect each other so much from that. The next year, I ran for Barry [Nelson] and finished second again in points. This wasn't new to me. I was coming in second, and if I won it, I won it. If not, it wasn't a lack of effort. Either way, I would have been happy with what we've accomplished this year."

However, Davis suffered damage to his No. 29 entry after an early incident, and was penalized three laps by CARS Tour officials for stopping on track to bring out the first caution of the evening on lap six.

This offered Honeycutt some breathing room in the points battle, but did not deter his desire to win at North Wilkesboro. Just before a competition caution with 20 laps to go, Tristan McKee took the lead from Honeycutt, and contact between the two drivers dropped Honeycutt to third.

Caden Kvapil was flagged for jumping the ensuing restart, while McKee was collected in an incident with Giovanni Ruggiero. This gave Honeycutt new life, and he was able to hold off pole-sitter T.J. DeCaire for the victory.

"T.J., I appreciate him racing me really clean at the end," said Honeycutt. "He definitely could have moved me out of the way for the win. I appreciate him running me clean. Everything else, that's whatever. I appreciate him running me clean, that's all.

"We battled a tight car right there at the end. We tried to make an adjustment on fuel, everything we could do to make it right. We just went a little bit too far. I can't thank these guys enough, and I hope we can come back and do this again."

While Davis did not win the drivers' championship, his team's efforts to salvage a 14th-place finish allowed them to claim the owners' title for the 2024 season.

Photo credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com

"I haven't gotten to win a championship in anything since go-kart racing," said Davis. "We did a lot of that, me and my old man. I had one shot at K&N racing and never really had a shot since. It's awesome. We took this one car all year, didn't swap teams or nothing, went out here and did our deal.

"We had an average finish of 3.9 every race all the way up until this one when I made a mistake. Drivers' championship would be cool, but a championship is a championship. Everybody's that sitting here, everybody that works in my shop, everybody that works at FURY, they've worked real hard. To have this trophy means a lot, man. I would have liked to get both, but sometimes things just don't go your way.

DeCaire finished second, followed by Cameron Bolin, Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. and Max Reaves.

-Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com

zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Models at North Wilkesboro
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