Kaden Honeycutt made himself two-for-two in the ARCA Menards Series this season. His latest addition of victory was on Friday, July 24, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park after he executed a late dominant run to win the LiUNA 150.
The 2024 CARS Pro Late Model Tour champion from Willow Park, Texas, took the green flag from seventh place and spent the entire event racing towards the front. As pole-sitter Carson Brown dominated by leading the first 77 laps from pole position, Honeycutt executed a move through the backstretch to lead for the first time on Lap 78. Honeycutt proceeded to dominate and lead for nearly the event’s remainder until Brown reeled in and tried to reassume the top spot within the final 10-lap mark. With lapped traffic mingling between the leaders’ battle, Honeycutt managed to retain the top spot and motor away when Brown briefly lost power with seven laps remaining. With Brown unable to recover, Honeycutt spent the event’s remainder cruising to the victory in Brownsburg, Indiana, for the first time ever.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Carson Brown won the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 110.166 mph in 22.417 seconds. Thomas Annunziata qualified in second place with a lap at 109.96 mph in 22.459 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Carson Brown and Thomas Annunziata dueled for the lead in front of a stacked field for a full lap. When the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Brown, who opted to start on the outside lane from pole position, led the first lap by 0.013 seconds over Annunziata. Brown then managed to motor ahead of Annunziata exiting the backstretch and have both lanes to his control with a clear racetrack and with the lead by the second lap. Over the next three laps, Brown stretched his early advantage to seven-tenths of a second while Annunziata, Kaden Honeycutt, Max Reaves and Tristan McKee followed suit in the top five, respectively.
On the 10th lap, the event’s first caution flew due to Tristan McKee, the 2026 ARCA East points leader, colliding in between the lapped competitor of Ivis Earley and fourth-place Max Reaves entering the first turn. The incident occurred as McKee was reeling in Reaves for fourth place, and it knocked McGee out of contention while Reaves continued in fourth place.
As the event restarted on Lap 17, Brown motored ahead of Annunziata, Honeycutt and the field that fanned out for a full lap. Brown retained the lead by nearly half a second on Lap 20, seven-tenths of a second by Lap 25 and by eight-tenths of a second at the Lap 30 mark. Behind, Annunziata was more than two seconds ahead of Honeycutt to retain the runner-up spot while Reaves and Isabella Robusto were in the top five. Meanwhile, Gavan Boschele, Bryce Applegate, Jake Bollman, Andrew Patterson and Ashton Higgins were racing in the top-10 mark ahead of Isaac Kitzmiller, Quinn Davis, Jason Kitzmiller, Zachary Tinkle and Hunter Wright while Dystany Spurlock, Takuma Koga, Austin Vaughn, Jackson McLerran and Crain Pellegrini Jr. were scored in the top 20, respectively.
Through the Lap 45 mark, Brown continued to stretch his advantage as he led by more than two seconds over Annunziata. Behind, Honeycutt was fending off Reaves for third place while Isabella Robusto trailed the latter two by within half a second. Reaves prevailed in his long-lasting battle on Honeycutt to assume third place a lap later while Boschele, Applegate, Bollman, Patterson and Higgins were scored in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Brown retained the lead by nearly two seconds both at the Laps 50 and 60 mark.
On Lap 61, the caution flew when Michael Maples got loose through the frontstretch, spun by himself and hit the inside wall on the right side. Seconds later, Ashton Higgins, who was racing in 10th place, spun through the first two turns after he made contact with ninth-place Andrew Patterson.
The next restart on Lap 68 featured Brown motoring away from Annunziata, Honeycutt, Reaves and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. As Brown led the next lap, Honeycutt moved into second place ahead of Annunziata and Reaves while Boschele joined the battle. Amid the battles, the caution returned just past the Lap 70 mark when Dystany Spurlock spun through the first two turns.
Following Spurlock’s incident, ARCA Menards Series’ officials ruled this latest caution to serve as the midway intermission period scheduled for Lap 75, with the entire field led by Brown pitting non-competitively for service on Lap 72.
When the break concluded and the event resumed with 75 laps remaining, Brown used the outside lane to barely fend off Honeycutt through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then as Honeycutt tried to draw even with Brown, the latter barely slipped through Turns 3 and 4, but he retained the top spot over the next two laps before Honeycutt, who transitioned from the inside to outside lane, used the backstretch to assume the lead for the first time with 72 laps remaining.
Another lap later, the caution returned due to a multi-car wreck in the first two turns. The incident started when Robusto made contact beneath Reaes while battling for sixth place entering the first turn and sent both for a spin. As Reaves spun from the top to the bottom of the course without making further contact, Robusto was hit on the left side by a spinning Applegate while Jason Kitzmiller and Hunter Wright sustained minimal contact against Roberto’s wrecked entry.
During the next restart with 63 laps remaining, Honeycutt used the outside lane to fend off and motor ahead of Brown to retain the lead. As Honeycutt led the next lap, Brown retained second place ahead of Boschele and Annunziata while Jake Bollman reeled in on the latter two from fifth place for more. Behind, Ashton Higgins, who recovered from his Lap 61 spin, was reeling in on Isaac Kitzmiller for sixth place as Honeycutt led by half a second with 60 laps remaining.
Following another caution that flew with 50 laps remaining due to debris on the course, the next restart with 44 laps remaining did not last long when Tristan McKee bumped Rita Goulet for a spin through the backstretch. At the time of caution, Honeycutt fended off Brown to retain the lead. For the following restart with 38 laps remaining, Honeycutt rocketed away from Brown and the field to lead the field for a full cycle. As teammates Boschele, Bollman and Annunziata battled for third place, the former two overtook the latter as Honeycutt led by eight-tenths of a second with 35 laps remaining.
Down to the final 25 laps, Honeycutt stretched his lead to a second over Brown while Boschele occupied third place in front of teammates Annunziata and Bollman. Behind, Isaac Kitzmiller was racing in sixth place ahead of Ashton Higgins and Patterson while Reaves navigated his way up to ninth place ahead of Zachary Tinkle. As the laps dwindled, Brown started to reel in Honeycutt, with the former trailing by six-tenths of a second as Honeycutt was also approaching lapped traffic. After navigating his way through the lapped traffic, Honeycutt maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Brown with 15 laps remaining.
Then with 11 laps remaining, Brown and Honeycutt dueled for the lead through the frontstretch, with Brown seizing a late opportunity after reeling in Honeycutt for several laps, until the former used the inside lane through the first two turns to return atop the leaderboard. Honeycutt, however, drew back alongside Brown for the following lap as both were mired in more lapped traffic. Honeycutt, who remained on the outside lane and navigated his way through the lapped traffic amid another dive bomb move by Brown through the turns, would reassume the lead and maintain it by four-tenths of a second with nine laps remaining.
Brown then fell off the pace through the frontstretch after he lost power with seven laps remaining. This allowed Annunziata and Boschele to overtake Brown and drop the latter to fourth place, though Brown was able to re-fire and resume under race pace. While Brown tried to rally from his late deficit, Honeycutt maintained a reasonable lead of more than three seconds as the laps dwindled.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Honeycutt remained in the lead by more than three seconds over Annunziata and by more than five seconds over Brown. With no competition lurking nor reeling in from behind, Honeycutt cycled the No. 17 Mohawk Northeast/MMI/Cook Racing Technologies Toyota Camry around Lucas Oil IRP smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and took the checkered flag.
With the victory, Honeycutt, who led 72 laps, notched his second ARCA Menards Series career win, both occurring this season, and his first since he won at Watkins Glen International in early May. After proceeding to win his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career race at The Glen hours after winning the ARCA event, Honeycutt will attempt to double down for a second time at the conclusion of tonight’s Truck event at Lucas Oil IRP.
“I’ve never felt so prepared in my career, and every week I’ve been going to, I’ve been feeling so right,” Honeycutt said on the frontstretch on FS1. “This [win’s] all for [team owner] Bruce Cook. These [No. 17] guys, I don’t know if that shows them enough that they could come compete at this level and beat these guys. Me and Carson [Brown] had a hell of a race. I don’t know what happened to him. I hate that happened, but it was wild through lapped traffic. I had to body-slam one guy, very sorry for that, but I had to go. So awesome. It’s a really good experience for a couple hours.”
Thomas Annunziata, who is coming off a victory at Lime Rock Park two weeks ago, settled in second place for his seventh top-five result of the 2026 season while pole-sitter Carson Brown, who led a race-high 78 laps, ended up in third place.
Gavan Boschele and Isaac Kitzmiller finished in the top five while Andrew Patterson, Jake Bollman, Ashton Higgins, Max Reaves and Zachary Tinkle, all of whom finished on the lead lap, completed the top 10 in the final running order.
This event featured three lead changes for two leaders, and six cautions for 42 laps. In addition, only 10 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 13th event of the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season, Jake Bollman, who finished seventh at Lucas Oil IRP, leads the championship standings by three points over Thomas Annunziata. In addition, Max Reaves, who rallied from his pair of on-track incidents to finish ninth, assumed the lead in the ARCA Menards Series East standings by three points over Tristan McKee with two-scheduled races remaining.
Results:
- Kaden Honeycutt, 72 laps led
- Thomas Annunziata
- Carson Brown, 78 laps led
- Gavan Boschele
- Isaac Kitzmiller
- Andrew Patterson
- Jake Bollman
- Ashton Higgins
- Max Reaves
- Zachary Tinkle
- Quinn Davis, one lap down
- Hunter Wright, one lap down
- Dystany Spurlock, one lap down
- Austin Vaughn, two laps down
- Jackson McLerran, two laps down
- Jason Kitzmiller, two laps down
- Craig Pellegrini Jr., two laps down
- Landon Brown, three laps down
- Takuma Koga, three laps down
- Alex Clubb, six laps down
- Jeff Maconi, seven laps down
- Rita Goulet, seven laps down
- Chase Buscaglia, eight laps down
- Brad Smith, nine laps down
- Nate Moeller, 10 laps down
- Dale Shearer, 11 laps down
- Brayton Laster, 16 laps down
- Ivis Earley, 17 laps down
- Michael Maples – OUT Mechanical
- Isabella Robusto – OUT, Accident
- Bryce Applegate – OUT, Accident
- Tristan McKee – OUT, Mechanical
- Michael Clayton – OUT, Mechanical
- Kevin Campbell – OUT, Did Not Start
Next on the 2026 ARCA Menards Series schedule is Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Atlas 150 that will also be a combined event between the ARCA and ARCA Menards Series East divisions. The event will occur on August 7 at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
Before this event, the ARCA Menards Series East schedule resumes next Saturday, August 1, at Flat Rock Speedway in Flat Rock, Michigan that will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing.
