As he tends to be on the road courses, Shane van Gisbergen was the story when NASCAR's top three series visited Watkins Glen International this past weekend. The New Zealand native won the Cup Series race despite making an extra pit stop during the final stage, earning his seventh career victory and first of the 2026 season.
If there was a second-most notable driver of the weekend, however, it was Kaden Honeycutt. The Craftsman Truck Series regular earned his first career victory at that level, while also taking the checkered flag in the ARCA Menards Series at the Glen and in two separate events on the CARS Tour at Ace Speedway in North Carolina.
The maiden Truck Series win has been a long time coming for Honeycutt – 67 starts, to be exact – and it caps off a journey that started with improbable odds.
Kaden Honeycutt climbed from the lowest of low-budget teams to reach NASCAR stardom
Honeycutt made his Truck Series debut in 2022 driving for G2G Racing, a small-time team owned by former competitor Tim Viens. Out of 36 trucks on the grid, he started 34th and finished 34th. That was all that equipment was capable of.
In today's NASCAR world, most drivers who start out where Honeycutt started aren't ever going to get any further. It's the harsh reality of modern auto racing: money trumps everything. If you aren't born into a family with fortunes to spend on sponsorship with high-profile organizations, you're out of luck no matter how talented you are.
Don't tell Honeycutt, though. All he needed was that one chance to get his foot in the door, and once he did, he was determined not to be shut back out. He bet on himself time and time again, even working on shop floors at Niece Motorsports to help earn himself a full-time ride with the organization.
Last season, Honeycutt emerged as a playoff-caliber driver with Niece, but parted ways with the team midway through the year. The reason for that was because an even better opportunity had presented itself with TRICON Garage, replacing Corey Heim in the No. 11 Toyota for 2026.
Through seven races with TRICON, Honeycutt had done everything but win, accumulating four top five finishes and leading the point standings. Finally, he broke through on Friday afternoon, doing so by outdueling road racing phenom Connor Zilisch on a late restart.
Relive the moment @KadenWHoneycutt earned his first win. 🏁 pic.twitter.com/adEZa9myP5
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) May 8, 2026
If Honeycutt keeps up his current pace, he'll start to emerge on the radar for chances to prove himself in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and perhaps even the Cup Series. Not bad for someone who once drove for Tim Viens and Mike Harmon.
Stories like Honeycutt's may sadly be a rarity in NASCAR today, but they can remind us that true merit-based upward mobility isn't entirely dead in this sport just yet. Sometimes, hard work and opportunity really are all you need.
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