SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Kaden Honeycutt had said it would be special if he could win the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 for the third straight year. Saturday afternoon his wish became reality.
The Texas native held off a fast-closing Trevor Ward to win Saturday’s 20th Running of the Thunder Road Harley Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway.
The win marked the third straight year Honeycutt has won the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200.
“It’s special because of how prestigious this race is,” Honeycutt remarked, “and you see how many times Philip Morris and Lee (Pulliam), and Peyton Sellers and these guys have won this race. “To win at South Boston is hard. It’s such a hard race track, so mentally challenging, so fast. You’ve got to stay on top of your game all 200 laps.”
Honeycutt made a clean sweep when it came to awards. Along with the $10,000 winner’s prize he earned the $250 GutterworX Stage 1 Leader Bonus, the $500 Sparks Oil Company/Sunoco Race Fuels Halfway Leader Award bonus, the $250 Southside Disposal Stage 3 Leader Bonus and the $400 Franklin’s Garage Fastest Lap of the Race Award, making a total payday of $11,400.
Honeycutt made the victory look easy, taking the lead from pole winner Landen Lewis on the 14th lap and gradually pulling away to sizeable leads over Lewis and Caden Kvapil in the first half of the race. His lead evaporated thanks to a caution period for an incident on lap 95. That caution period led into the 10-minute halfway break at lap 101.
He charged into the lead again at the start of the second half of the race and rebuilt his edge.
Ward, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was 5th at the start of the second half of the race. He passed Connor Hall for third place on lap 110. Rapidly gaining ground, he passed Lewis seven laps later to take over second place.
On lap 146 Landon Pembelton, who had started 14th after the halfway break, passed Lewis to move into third place. The running order stayed that way the rest of the caution-free second half of the race. Ward made a large cut into Honeycutt’s lead in the final 20 laps but trailed Honeycutt by .464-second at the finish, with Pembelton finishing five seconds behind Honeycutt.
“I tried really hard to show them what we had,” Ward said. “I came up one spot short in another Triple Crown race at South Boston Speedway, and it’s pretty bittersweet. I wanted to bring a win home for the hometown guys that race here very week and show all of those guys we are just as good as they are. Unfortunately, we came up one spot short.
“We came out with a good points night, and Pembelton came out with a good points night,” he added. “We can continue to seek what we’re doing here at South Boston Speedway on an everyday basis and got through the hard one.”
Pembelton noted he didn’t feel very good about the race at the halfway break.
“Until lap 100, I felt terrible about it,” he pointed out. “I didn’t think we were going anywhere. I just didn’t have the luck we needed. We found a problem at the halfway break, fixed, it, and the car came to life. We were able to charge up to the front from 14th to third. I had to work for it.”
Carson Brown of New London, North Carolina finished fourth and Lewis, from Supply, North Carolina, finished fifth.
Tristan Brunelli started on the pole and led the entire way in winning Saturday’s 40-lap Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division race.
