Kaden Honeycutt took the lead just a few laps into Saturday night’s ARCA Menards Series West race at All American Speedway in Roseville, California, an advantage he never relinquished.
Driving for Cook Racing Technologies and making his ARCA Menards Series West debut, the 20-year-old from Willow Park, Texas completely dominated the 150-lap event. And the signs were there that such a run might be imminent.
Honeycutt set the best lap in an hour-long practice session earlier Saturday. He followed that up with a second-place effort in qualifying, but the position was good enough to land him a front-row staring spot and a chance to steal the top spot early.
That’s exactly what he did.
Honeycutt led nearly every lap of his debut, but the West Series points leader, Sean Hingorani, made him work for the victory.
After a restart with 15 laps to go, Hingorani found himself hounding Honeycutt and pushing the leader into just about every corner. Eventually, though, Honeycutt’s strength prevailed, and he was able to gain enough separation over the final five laps to hold off the charging Venturini Motorsports driver.
“That was tough at the end,” Honeycutt said. “I knew Sean was going to give me a run for my money. I just appreciate him racing me really clean there. He had every opportunity to hit me and knock me out of the way. I was battling free in; I think I had burnt the right rear off of it.
“I needed it really badly. Racing has torn me from inside out and tested me so much these last couple months. This feels good to get it back on track.”
Honeycutt is in his second year of part-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series action. He has a couple top-10 finishes in 10 Truck Series starts thus far in 2023 driving for a handful of race teams.
Honeycutt also finished 38th in his lone NASCAR Xfinity Series start to date, in April for Mike Harmon at Martinsville Speedway.
Honeycutt’s first West Series win comes in his seventh start on the ARCA Menards platform. He also has six ARCA Menards Series (national) starts dating back to 2018 with a best finish of seventh at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in 2019.
Hingorani settled for second, but such a result will boost his lead in the West Series championship points standings. Landen Lewis, who before this weekend was just a point back from Hingorani in the standings, did not race at All American.
Tanner Reif finished third on Saturday, with Joey Iest in fourth, and Todd Souza in fifth.
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Buddy Shepherd, Eric Nascimento, R.J. Smotherman, Eric Johnson, Jr., and Takuma Koga rounded out the top 10.
The ARCA Menards Series West gets a couple weeks off before returning to action Friday, October 13 at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
ARCA Menards Series West
All American Speedway – Roseville, CA
Atlas 200 – September 30, 2023
1. Kaden Honeycutt
2. Sean Hingorani
3. Tanner Reif
4. Joey Iest
5. Todd Souza
6. Buddy Shepherd
7. Eric Nascimento, Jr.
8. RJ Smotherman
9. Eric Johnson, Jr.
10. Takuma Koga
11. Nick Joanides
12. David Smith
13. Tyler Reif
14. Bradley Erickson
15. Trevor Huddleston
16. Robbie Kennealy
17. Kyle Keller
18. Rod Kneeland
19. Jalen Mack
