SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Kaden Honeycutt is the King of the Krush.
The Aledo, Texas native took the lead from Bobby McCarty of Madison, North Carolina on the opening lap of the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish and held off McCarty by .508 seconds to win Saturday’s State Water Heaters Krush 250 presented by Rogers Heating and Cooling Late Model Stock Car Division race at South Boston Speedway.
Honeycutt earned $12,000 for the victory in the showcase event which was a fund-raising event for the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit conservation and outreach organization. In addition, he banked a $1,000 award from Jerry Epps Landscaping for being leader at the race’s second stage break, which came at lap 175, bringing his total winnings to $13,000.
This is the second year in a row that Honeycutt has won this event. He topped the field last season when the race was held at Orange County Speedway. This was also Honeycutt’s second straight win at South Boston Speedway. He won the 125 lap ZMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car race in September.
“It’s amazing,” Honeycutt said. “Jeb and Ward (Burton) and everyone that puts this race on is really, really good at what they do. They promoted it extremely well. and had a great crowd tonight. It’s an amazing race in front of a crowd like this.”
McCarty, who started sixth, clawed his way into second place with about 60 laps to go. From that point it was a battle between Honeycutt and McCarty. McCarty surged by Honeycutt to take the lead with nine laps left in regulation, but a caution flag for an incident in the third turn sent the race into overtime.
The race was restarted on lap 252 with Honeycutt leading, but another incident shortly after the restart resulted in another caution flag. Honeycutt got a great restart on the second attempt at a green-white-checker finish, took the lead on lap 264, and held off McCarty to take the win.
“I definitely couldn’t have gotten a better restart than that,” Honeycutt remarked. “We raced really hard into (turns) one and two, barely hit each other, barely tapped, and went into the third turn. I think he got into the speedy dry and got tight.
“I appreciate him racing me really clean,” Honeycutt added. “He’s a class-act guy. I love Bobby to death.”
The runner-up finish to Honeycutt was a big disappointment for McCarty, who, like Honeycutt, drove a stellar race.
“We had a really good car,” McCarty noted. “I’m proud of what we did. We can hold our heads high. We played everything right, did everything right, and still finished second. I couldn’t have drawn this race up any better. I put all of the pieces in the right place, did everything right, passed everybody the right way. I don’t have to make excuses for finishing second.”
Parker Eatmon finished a close third.
“We had a good for third. overall day,” Eatmon remarked. “I think we were a third-place car. We tried to make something happen there at the end but couldn’t quite get the car to turn and had to settle for third.”
Jeb Burton finished fourth and Blake Stallings rounded out the top five.
There were six lead changes among six drivers with Honeycutt leading twice for 112 laps.
