Kaden Honeycutt Earns First Career Pole at Darlington

TRICON Garage IS NOT messing around this weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Picking up exactly where they left off when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series visited the 1.366-mile racetrack last Fall, the No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro will be out front — after its new driver, Kaden Honeycutt, picked up the pole for the Buckle Up South Carolina 200.

Honeycutt, in his second full-time NASCAR Truck Series campaign (and his first with TRICON Garage), in turn picked up his first career pole position, after laying down a lap clocking in at 28.848 seconds (179.466mph). It’s the fourth-quickest pole lap in the history of the Truck Series at the iconic racetrack — behind 2011, 2022, and 2010.

“I’m not so much of a hot lapping guy, so that was really awesome,” said Honeycutt. “I couldn’t do it without Toyota, TRICON, Safelite, everybody that took a chance on me to take over this No. 11 truck and do a good job. First three weeks, I felt like we’ve done well, but I haven’t done the best job of maximizing our results. Glad to get on the front row there, it makes our job a lot easier tonight, for sure, clean air means a lot, especially on old tires, the long run and all of that.”

NASCAR Cup Series regular and multi-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race-winner Carson Hocevar will start from the outside of the front row on Friday, returning to drive the No. 77 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports.

STARTING LINEUP: NCTS Buckle Up South Carolina 200 (Darlington)

Then, it was the rest of the TRICON Garage brigade behind him. Tanner Gray will start the race third in the No. 15 Black’s Tire Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Gio Ruggiero will start fourth in his No. 17 First Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, and defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Corey Heim, driving the No. 5 Frontline Enterprises Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, rounded out the top-five.

Christopher Bell, one of two drivers doing triple-duty at Darlington Raceway this weekend, will start sixth in the No. 62 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Halmar Friesen Racing. Ty Majeski, Layne Riggs, Ross Chastain, and Connor Mosack will round out the top-10.

Other notables starting outside the top-10 for tonight’s 200-mile contest include Grant Enfinger (11th), Chandler Smith (12th), Stewart Friesen (13th), Daniel Hemric (14th), Ben Rhodes (15th), Christian Eckes (16th), Tyler Ankrum (18th), Jake Garcia (23rd), and William Sawalich (27th).

Corey LaJoie, piloting the “Free Agent Truck” for Kaulig Racing, was the fastest of the RAM entries in Darlington qualifying and will start from 20th. AJ Allmendinger, replacing Daniel Dye this weekend, will start 22nd, with Justin Haley 25th, Brenden Queen 29th, and Mini Tyrrell starting 30th.

The Buckle Up South Carolina 200 will take place at 7:30 PM ET on FS1.