Kaden Honeycutt had a blistering start to the Watkins Glen race weekend, as the Tricon Garage driver brought home an all-important victory at the Bully Hill Vineyards 176 on Friday. After the win, Honeycutt fulfilled a promise to fans he had made back in early April.

"It’s just amazing," Honeycutt said after the Truck Series win. "I can’t believe I just won on a road course. It’s just unbelievable. On the restart, I think Zilisch missed a shift a little bit coming off of (Turn) 7, and I was tight to him. The only option I had… we were three-wide going into (Turn) 1, and I barely got to his right rear and touched him a little bit."

After getting out of his No. 11 Toyota, he went in front of the stands, looked at the fans, and though he couldn't get on the other side of the fence, he shotgunned a Busch drink and dedicated the victory to them. He followed up almost exactly on what he promised on X last month in a post that got over 134,000 impressions.

Having started the Truck race from seventh place only hours after winning the ARCA race, Kaden Honeycutt fell to 21st position by the end of Stage 1. In Stage 2, he returned to 15th place. Moreover, a penalty at the end of Stage 2 for pitting when the pits were closed landed him a penalty and pushed him to the rear of the field.

A win from that part seemed far-fetched. Fortunately, several cautions and restarts helped the Tricon Garage driver rout through the field.

He started in the front row on the overtime restart and fended off Connor Zilisch at the end. Honeycutt crossed the finish line only 0.902 seconds ahead of the two-time and defending O'Reilly winner at the Glen to sweep the day with ARCA and Truck wins.

Connor Zilisch disappointed as Kaden Honeycutt picks maiden win

Connor Zilisch was left disappointed after he failed to win the Watkins Glen Truck Series race and start off the race weekend with a bang. Zilisch, like SVG, is attempting a triple-header at the 2.45-mile road course this weekend, and a win would have been perfect for him.

"It was just an unfortunate way to end that race," said Zilisch. "I chose the top, hoping we could get through there without making contact. I knew that the bottom would be better if that happened, but I didn’t want to be that guy."

"Yeah, I just wish I could go back and redo it and pick the inside, but we’ve got two more races this weekend (O’Reilly and Cup). I appreciate Spire Motorsports for giving me a really fast truck," he further added.

Shane van Gisbergen, Daniel Hemric, and Chandler Smith finished the race in the top five. AJ Allmendinger, Brent Crews, Mini Tyrrell, Brenden Queen, and Connor Mosack rounded up the top 10.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yask Kotak