By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — On a near-perfect day—with the weather a notable exception—Kaden Honeycutt leaves Kansas Speedway with a victory in the Race to Stop Suicide 200 and control of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Chase.
Honeycutt led 111 of 134 laps on Saturday, won the first two stages and asserted the superiority of his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota late in the race to claim the series lead by 37 points over star-crossed Layne Riggs, who clipped the outside wall in the closing laps and finished 19th.
Riggs overcame a bungled stop on pit road to run second until contact with the wall dropped him through the field on the final two laps.
“We just executed,” said Honeycutt, who won for the first time at 1.5-mile Kansas, the third time this season and the third time in his career. “We executed all night. I can’t thank my pit crew enough.
“Sorry I didn’t do any burnouts—we’ve got to save this thing for Homestead (the final Chase race). The motors cost a lot, too.”
Intermittent rainstorms halted the race after 70 laps, with drivers and their crews waiting through a red-flag period of 4 hours 47 minutes for the resumption.
“Thanks to NASCAR and everyone for letting us finish the race,” said Honeycutt, who was third when rain interrupted the proceedings. “It started raining again in Victory Lane.”
When the second Chase event of the postseason restarted on Lap 78, Honeycutt resumed his dominance, passing Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes—who had taken the top two spots by staying out on older tires.
From that point, it was clear sailing until Riggs took two tires to Honeycutt’s four on the final pit stop under caution on Lap 117. Riggs restarted third and grabbed the lead on Lap 122, but Honeycutt powered past him a lap later and held the lead the rest of the way, through a caution for Enfinger’s blown tire and contact with the outside wall.
“I just went for it,” said Riggs, who entered the Chase as the top seed. “Went for it way to hard and went for when I shouldn’t have gone for it. I should have just settled for finishing second right there and had a shot at it later on.
“Just really disappointing. (My) Ford F-150 was really fast. I felt like we weren’t as good as the 11 all day. We were just too free… I had a really big run (with two laps left)—or thought I was going to get a big run—down the frontstretch. Never made it there. I got the wall instead.”
With Riggs fading on the final two laps, Honeycutt finished 1.358 seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Eckes. Brent Crews ran third, followed by Chase drivers Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith.
Taking the initial green flag from the fourth position, Honeycutt grabbed the lead from Nick Sanchez on the opening lap and won the first stage wire-to-wire.
In fact, Honeycutt didn’t surrender the top spot until Lap 48, when Riggs got to the stripe first on a restart after Connor Hall spun on the backstretch to cause the second caution.
Riggs’ lead was short-lived. On Lap 50, Honeycutt tapped the rear bumper of Riggs’ No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford—with Riggs’ truck suffering a glancing blow against the outside wall. Honeycutt passed Riggs to the inside and retook the lead.
When Hall spun for the second time on Lap 54, bringing the second stage to an early end, Honeycutt held the top spot and completed the sweep of the first two stages. Honeycutt pitted for tires and fuel under caution for the stage break on Lap 61 and gave up the lead, as eight trucks remained on the track for a Lap 65 restart.
A multicar wreck on the restart Lap slowed the field once again, with Honeycutt already having climbed to third in the running order. Four laps later, with rain falling in earnest, NASCAR brought the trucks to pit road and red-flagged the race with Enfinger leading and Rhodes running second.
If Honeycutt had a problem-free race to that point, Riggs endured calamity on pit road, as he had done in the Chase opener at Bristol Motor Speedway. During his Lap 61 pit stop, Riggs had to back up into his stall after the jack dropped with the lug nuts on his left-front wheel not yet tight.
Riggs restarted 25th and gained six spots on the restart lap before the wreck and rain stopped the race.
Non-Chase drivers Nick Leitz, Tanner Gray, Jake Garcia and Corey LaJoie completed the top 10 in the finishing order. Chase driver Giovanni Ruggiero was 13th. Tyler Ankrum finished 25th after a late flat tire, Ty Majeski 29th and Enfinger 31st.
Enfinger, who led throughout the red-flag period, suffered a pit road speeding penalty, a wreck and a two-lap penalty for intentionally causing a caution by stopping in Turn 3 after hitting the wall on Lap 123.
All told, Honeycutt scored 75 points, scoring every possible marker except for one point for posting the fastest lap, a distinction that went to Ankrum. Honeycutt has a 71-point lead over Smith, who is third in the standings.
Interview: NCTS Race Winner – Kaden Honeycutt (No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota) –
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – Race to Stop Suicide 200
Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Saturday, September 26, 2026
1. (4) Kaden Honeycutt (C), Toyota, 134.
2. (25) Christian Eckes (C), Chevrolet, 134.
3. (5) Brent Crews(i), Toyota, 134.
4. (12) Daniel Hemric (C), Chevrolet, 134.
5. (11) Ben Rhodes (C), Ford, 134.
6. (15) Chandler Smith (C), Ford, 134.
7. (26) Nick Leitz (C), Toyota, 134.
8. (16) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 134.
9. (2) Jake Garcia, Ford, 134.
10. (20) Corey LaJoie, RAM, 134.
11. (9) Justin Haley, RAM, 134.
12. (29) Cole Butcher #, Ford, 134.
13. (3) Giovanni Ruggiero (C), Toyota, 134.
14. (21) Brenden Queen #, RAM, 134.
15. (35) Daniel Dye, Chevrolet, 134.
16. (24) Conor Daly, RAM, 134.
17. (19) Brennan Poole(i) (C), Chevrolet, 134.
18. (27) Mini Tyrrell #, RAM, 134.
19. (22) Layne Riggs (C), Ford, 134.
20. (33) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 134.
21. (6) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 134.
22. (30) Parker Eatmon, Chevrolet, 134.
23. (34) Clayton Green, Ford, 133.
24. (18) Andres Perez De Lara, Chevrolet, 132.
25. (14) Tyler Ankrum (C), Chevrolet, 132.
26. (17) Toni Breidinger, Chevrolet, 132.
27. (23) Stephen Mallozzi, Ford, 132.
28. (1) Nick Sanchez (C), Chevrolet, 131.
29. (8) Ty Majeski (C), Ford, 130.
30. (7) Leland Honeyman Jr, Toyota, 130.
31. (10) Grant Enfinger (C), Chevrolet, 129.
32. (31) Connor Hall, Chevrolet, 128.
33. (32) Josh Reaume, Ford, 119.
34. (13) Landen Lewis (C), Chevrolet, Accident, 114.
35. (36) Caleb Costner, Chevrolet, Accident, 86.
36. (28) Kris Wright, Chevrolet, Oil Pump, 9.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 92.996 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 9 Mins, 41 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.358 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 47 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: N. Sanchez (C) 0;K. Honeycutt (C) 1-47;L. Riggs (C) 48-49;K. Honeycutt (C) 50-60;B. Rhodes (C) 61-63;G. Enfinger (C) 64-77;K. Honeycutt (C) 78-118;D. Dye 119-121;L. Riggs (C) 122;K. Honeycutt (C) 123-134.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kaden Honeycutt (C) 4 times for 111 laps; Grant Enfinger (C) 1 time for 14 laps; Ben Rhodes (C) 1 time for 3 laps; Daniel Dye 1 time for 3 laps; Layne Riggs (C) 2 times for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,17,34,77,88,91,19,5,99,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,34,91,77,17,88,19,18,20,99
