HONEYCUTT FINISHES TOP FIVE IN FIRST TRUCK SERIES RACE AT ST. PETE
The Toyota Development Driver Scores Fifth-Place Result around the Streets of St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (February 28, 2026) – TRICON GARAGE driver Kaden Honeycutt finished fifth in Saturday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Honeycutt started in the 19th position in the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro after qualifying was cancelled on Friday due to inclement weather and worked his way up through the field to earn his first top five result of the 2026 season.
Dario Franchitti ran among the top 10 for most of the race in the TRICON Garage No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, but damage down the stretch forced him to make a late-race pit stop and he went on to finish 27th.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS)
Streets of St. Petersburg
Race 3 of 23 – 144 Miles, 80 Laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Lane Riggs*
2nd, Ty Majeski*
3rd, Ben Rhodes*
4th, Chandler Smith*
5th, KADEN HONEYCUTT
20th, TANNER GRAY
23rd, ADAM ANDRETTI
25th, GIO RUGGIERO
26th, STEWART FRIESEN
27th, DARIO FRANCHITTI
32nd, TIMMY HILL
36th, WESLEY SLIMP
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KADEN HONEYCUTT, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 5th
“Just too many mistakes. We had an awesome Tundra. Thanks to Safelite, Toyota and TRICON Garage — everyone did a great job. I felt like we were okay. I don’t think we were a winning truck. I felt like the front row trucks had a little bit better drive. Just have to come back next year and improve on it. I’m really happy with how the weekend went. Just too many mistakes and had to bounce back from it, but thankfully it was a top five. I want to win. I want to win every week. This group deserves it. I’ve just got to clean it up. We’ve got a couple weeks off and we’ll go to Darlington and hit it hard there.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI, No. 1 Dollar Tree Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 27th
What does it mean to you to have the support from Jimmie Johnson to give you this ride and to have Scott Dixon out there cheering you on?
“Jimmie’s (Johnson) — I’ve said this before, Jimmie’s been the architect of this whole thing. I made a suggestion and he called Toyota that night, I think. When we were drinking the wine, it was still daylight in California or Texas — no, it might have been in Charlotte. Anyway, the next morning, he must have sent an email because the next morning he calls me, so he was the architect. He spoke to the folks at Dollar Tree at their Christmas party, and they were like, this is a great idea. Then, Pye-Barker came on with a fireside chat last night, a bunch of people over at Pye-Barker, which was Jimmie’s idea. The support of those guys, Toyota, the TRICON team. The special thing for me is my family are here. My wife, my daughters have never seen me race anything but historic cars and we’ve had a blast doing that. My mom and dad are here, and there’s also my INDYCAR family. Everybody I worked with, everybody I’ve known in the paddock since I was a kid. The fans, all that. That’s what makes this, for me, so, so special. I had a great truck. I really did. I wish I hadn’t done so much damage to it, but that was just my inexperience in the truck, catching me out. I didn’t want to wreck Hinch (James Hinchcliffe), I really didn’t want to wreck Hinch. I didn’t want to wreck anybody, especially the guys going for the championship. When I saw Jimmie he said, ‘was it fun?’ I said it was really fun to start with, then I got probably a little too hot to keep up because the helmet blower stopped working, but I had a blast. It was really good. There were really good points and there were points where it wasn’t. I hate saying good because I made some rookie errors, but, how fortunate am I that, after what I went through in 2013 that I could come back and do this 13 years later. Scott Dixon finished practice, he’s got qualifying, he comes out (to watch me). We did a fireside chat last night, which turned into – it was supposed to be a roast, but the only person that actually roasted me was my wife. So, that was it, really. I think Chip Ganassi will be happy that I’m in one piece. He wasn’t so happy that I did this. He was less happy than my mom. I think because he kind of lived a lot of that situation with me.
Did anything about the experience surprise you?
“One of the odd things for me is you cannot see behind you. You really can’t because of the blade and the mirrors you’re allowed, you can’t see behind you. Or make a clear blade. I didn’t come in here thinking I’m going to smoke these guys. Honestly, kids, but that’s disrespectful. I didn’t think I was going to come in and smoke these drivers. Because I’m aware of the talent level, how hard everybody’s practicing now, and the simulator work they’re doing, and the talent level. And a lot of them have figured it out. You can tell that. I mean, it was a pleasure to share the track with them. That was the biggest — how hard they raced for the first lap was pretty impressive. And then just when it goes wrong, how long it takes to hit something. The Indy car is pretty quick. If you lock a wheel, you’ve got time to recover it, or you hit the wall pretty quick. This thing, when you lock a tire or you get wheel-hop, it takes forever, but you can’t avoid what you’re about to hit.”
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