NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

November 6, 2026

Kaden Honeycutt

Kevin Ray

Scott Zipadelli

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the championship-winning crew chief of the No. 11, that is Scott Zipadelli. Scott's third championship, all with three different drivers. First two Brett Moffitt and Corey Heim, and of course tonight Kaden Honeycutt.

Scott, maybe talk about tonight, the season, and Kaden's championship overall.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: To go back-to-back championship at any level is very rewarding, especially after the year we had last year with Corey with 12 wins and a lot of statistical records and all.

Then Kaden came over, took over the ride. Started off a little rocky. Once we got our first win knocked out at Watkins Glen, I could see a big weight lifted off of Kaden's shoulders. I think he felt he had to perform at the level we were when Corey drove last year.

It was kind of smooth sailing right after Watkins Glen. We just let our heads down, kept working hard, and Kaden did an amazing job of growing in all kinds of areas and aspects as a young man and a race car driver.

I'll be honest with you, this is probably one of the most rewarding championships I've had in that aspect.

THE MODERATOR: If you have a question for Scott...

Q. You mentioned how rewarding this one is. You mentioned the Watkins Glen win being a turning point. How did you get that to stick, that level of performance?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: I mean, you have to just kind of take the pressure off of Kaden, try to help take pressure off of Kaden. I think anybody coming into that situation would have automatically had a lot of pressure on them, right?

I put myself in his shoes saying what if I was the crew chief coming into that team, the prior team had won 12 races, same driver, new crew chief. That's a lot of pressure.

Once you separate yourself from that, say hey, look, you know, we've had talks, we just have to win our first one. When we get that over with the rest are going to be a lot easier. Every time you win one, it's going to be easier to win the next one.

As a group, once we knocked Watkins Glen, we checked that box, I think I saw a difference in the weight that he carried on his shoulders. I think collectively it just kind of fell into place.

Q. This was also a challenging year for you with the injuries. Having to come back from that, get back on the pit box, what has this year been like on and off the racetrack?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: Me personally? My injury.

KADEN HONEYCUTT: It's pretty bad.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: I mean, honestly, yeah, it's pretty bad.

KADEN HONEYCUTT: This kid has never see his leg turn upside down before.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: When you see your leg facing the wrong way, it's really not a good day.

My personality is, Yeah, it will be all right. Put a couple screws in it, I'll be okay. Six, eight months later, I still can't walk. It's a little more serious than that.

I'm looking forward to doing this festivities this week. You know, that's going to be a big deal for all of us. And then I'm looking barred to taking some time off and working on getting my health back 100%, get my strength back.

It's really hard to do both. It's hard to do physical therapy and work 12- 14-hour days. When I did physical therapy in mid-summer, I made the mistake of doing it for months and then trying to go to the racetrack it was brutal. The doctor said just take that off, do what you can, and when the season ends I'll get back at it. Hopefully I can catch up.

THE MODERATOR: Of course, we're also joined by the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion driver, Kaden Honeycutt.

We'll continue with questions.

Q. Three championships. What is it that you see with these drivers? How do you work with them to get them to the level where they're winning championships?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: Well, I mean, Toyota picks the drivers, right? They do a lot of vetting pros. I trusted what Toyota had picked. They said, Here is Corey Heim, here is Kaden Honeycutt.

Obviously when I did my due diligence, watched some of his races, watched his past, you can say he's got a lot of talent. Then once he came into our program with Toyota and all the tools, driver coach, workout facility, all of that type of stuff, he just put it all together.

Honestly they're either going to make it or they're not. It's up to them. This kid right here has more desire and want-to than probably anybody I've worked with. He's pretty resilient. He just put his head down and did all the work.

We laid out how we did it in the past, how we got to where we were with other drivers. Man, kid did all the work. You can't take somebody that doesn't want it and doesn't have the talent to do this and win races, right? It's all about people. I have the best people around me that help me do my job. It's a team effort.

Kid right here did it.

Q. Kaden, you brought this home as you said you would for all the people when you were growing up. What does this championship mean to you now?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Man, it means everything. 2022 when I did part-time schedule, I was working on the race vehicles that I was driving. Those owners gave me an opportunity to race at the same time while working. I did that all the way from On Point, from G2G, to Niece Motorsports. When I got the first opportunity to run a full season last year, I took a step back from that, focused on driving.

Last year was somewhat of a success. This year working with Scott, I never saw the side of racing like he did until I got introduced to him. There's no reason why. Like, most races I ever won in a year was seven. This year I've won 22. The fact that that's a coincidence, it's not.

It's because of his mentorship and how I've viewed life differently, off-track stuff differently, how to handle things focusing forward is something I really struggled at the first half of the year that I was not happy with.

Second half of the year I definitely turned up a lot more, went to work with him. He works with me off the racetrack and sim. My guys on the race truck just build amazing vehicles, man. Everyone back at the fab shop builds amazing, fast race trucks. Growing up, doing dirt stuff mainly, I probably have more dirt starts than asphalt because of how much I raced, how many cars. I raced a lot.

From my state of Texas, my wife, Hall of Fame crew chief, Hall of Fame race team I get to race for. You can't do this without people. The team we've got is pretty amazing, pretty resilient.

THE MODERATOR: Now we are joined by the general manager for TRICON Garage, Kevin Ray.

Q. Scott, this is your third championship, ties the most as a crew chief in series history. How meaningful is that to you?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: I think that means I'm old (laughter).

KADEN HONEYCUTT: All-time wins is next hopefully.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: It's pretty cool, I'm not going to lie. To win 'em back to back is really cool. To win it in the fashion that we won this one is really special.

One thing you can ride around and finish 10th or something, but we won five races this year, in his rookie year with us, the last one being for the championship.

I guess we did our jobs pretty well today. Really proud of that.

Q. Kaden, there's a lot of talent in the Toyota pipeline. How do you feel like this sets up your future?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: I really try not to focus on anybody that's up-and-coming other than myself. We have great resources at Toyota, great simulator, great people. I have great coaches, Trevor and Blake, that stay on me every single day. We talk and work on things to be better.

If I just focus on myself, focus on what I'm doing in my vehicle instead of what's around me, I think it's very easy to psych yourself out mentally. We've seen that a lot through other cars and other trucks.

Yeah, just so thankful for the opportunity to race here at TRICON. If you told me this when I was 17, 18, when I was working on these trucks, I couldn't even look you in the face. I'd probably laugh at you and fall on the floor.

Thanks to Kevin, Johnny Gray, David Gilliland, everyone at TRICON Garage for the opportunity and everyone at Toyota Racing.

Yeah, just not looking any farther forward. My goal is to be in the Cup Series, but I got a lot more to go to be able to be in that series. I'm hoping to be back here next year talking to you guys about a championship, but we're going to celebrate this one.

I am going to hopefully have my boy a week before Daytona. It's going to be hectic, but we're going to have fun. That trophy is going to go in his room. Yeah, we're just going to focus on next year when Daytona practice comes around. Me and this team are going to soak it up.

Q. Kaden, you were talking about the opportunities that you have with G2G, On Point, some of those other teams. Humbling experiences, I guess. What did that teach you that ultimately led you to this day, being a champion?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Yeah, man, I can't tell you how many things I've learned just this year alone. I think when I was starting I was just trying to get my name out there. I was just trying to turn the trucks that we were capable to build, up seven, eight, spots, maybe 10 spots a week.

When you have guys like Kevin, the owners, they look through the results list and like, how the hell did he finish 10th today? Let me go back and watch.

I had to do stuff like that in order to get my name out there. I was able to do that at Darlington three years ago actually with Tyler Young. I actually beat Ross. That's how we kind of got connected to move on to my next opportunity.

Also I kind of hate that I know what the truck is, so I let Scott do what he needs to do crew chief-wise. I don't want to be, oh, probably a spring or packer or something, whatever. Just strictly this year and last year I tried to focus on driving, what I need to do race craft-wise, because I can't sit there and think about changes, especially if you want to be successful.

It's so humbling, so great for the opportunities I've had. Not just truck racing, but late model racing. I've got to run my father-in-law's stockcar. He let me race that forever for free. I worked on my own race cars and modifieds at home on dirt.

Yeah, just thanks to my mom and dad, my amazing wife that's been with me for seven years together. She's seen me through the absolute worst and the best. I love her to death. Thanks to all of my family and friends for support.

And to be able to talk to you guys right now about a championship is pretty fricking amazing for sure.

Q. I wanted to ask you, you worked with Corey the last couple years. How does working with Kaden compare?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: There's a lot of similarities, but there's also a lot of differences. I would say Corey had more time in the Toyota program so he was more familiar with all the tools that we use to help us.

So that was a little bit easier, I'd say, because he was with ARCA cars, so he was in the simulator and he was in the TPC, which is the training facility. He was integrated with that for probably five years, probably four, right?

KEVIN RAY: KBM.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: He was in all of that. So that was a little bit easier. Other than that, just different personalities really. But it was a good change honestly.

Going in you never know what you're going to get, right? It's a new relationship. You don't know how it's going to work. Something about Kaden's personality that just worked. The eagerness to want to be better and to succeed and to get to that next level makes you work harder, as well.

It's been fun.

Q. Kaden, at one point over the radio late on a restart, you don't know if Chandler should be behind you. Did you not know that Riggs was seven laps down?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: I did, yeah. He pulled some moves that were quite questionable. Probably TV didn't catch it. It was like, oh, my gosh, it's kind of blatant.

I really just want to make sure I honestly just finished the race. When I had the restart with Christian I had a decent jump, but I wasn't going to try to attack him like side draft the hell out of each other, run into the side of him or anything like that. My goal was to finish.

Once I had a good lead I was able to pull a good move to get away from him. I tried to maintain the lead as much as possible; we ended up actually pulling away. It was a little bit easier after that.

Q. Since you knew he was that far down, did that relax you at all?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Honestly, yeah, it did. You can come down from maybe a lap or two. I think he was two down to start the first stage before he had a second issue.

First of all, I really wish we got to race it out. I think it would have been a hell of a race between both of us, whether we were going to win the race or somewhere in the top five.

Yeah, I knew the race wasn't over. I mean, anything could happen to me. I could blow an engine. I could blow a transmission. I could blow a right front tire and destroy the truck.

So I just was trying to stay mentally focused. I mean, I lost it when I took the white flag when I knew it was over. It was pretty awesome.

I wanted to win the race, first of all. He was on me about, Who cares if you win the race if you win the championship. I was like, I want to win.

Yeah, that last restart I tried to make methodical moves and not put my truck in a bad position to get crashed and not finish the race.

Q. You stepped into the 11 truck after what's undoubtedly one of the most successful seasons in the history of this series. I wanted to hear from you, did you place expectations on yourself to meet that standard of performance, which seems impossible? Kevin, as Kaden stepped in after that incredible year last year, what were the expectations that you had of him knowing what that team is capable of?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: I think when -- man, I can't tell you how things change, right? We had a new body rule this year. No ride height. People can get better from season, having time to work on it. The Front Row team definitely got better. The 34 was really good. They were on year three together, so we knew going in it was going to be tougher. It was definitely not impossible, whatsoever.

I mean, I can admit, yeah, the pressure definitely was on me to start, trying to get the first one. And then once we got the first one, had a couple months before we got the win at Richmond.

I mean, that's just the way it is for me. Like I put myself on a pedestal that if you're not perfect, then you need to get your butt to work and figure out what it takes to win. Even if with have a fifth place truck, figure out how to win with a fifth place truck.

Yeah, high expectations for sure. I know things change. We're constantly working at Toyota and TRICON with the body change and all that for this year, new rules. We were acclimating to that.

Also, me and Scott got a lot better second half of the year with our communication. I felt like that's what helped us out a lot. I'm a high, intense guy. When I come on the radio it sounds like I'm pissed off at the world. I'm really not. I'm a high, intense guy, doing what I need to do to win the race.

We got better with our lingo together on and off the racetrack. That definitely pushed us farther forward.

Tonight we weren't the best truck to start. I stayed calm, gave him numbers, gave him what I needed so I can help him help me. We turned a third or fifth place truck into a winning truck by the end of the race.

Those are the wins that you can be really satisfied on and really happy with the communication with you and your crew chief at the same time, as well as your team.

KEVIN RAY: With Kaden coming into the program, he undoubtedly had very high expectations. We had very high expectations of him.

One of the contributing factors in my opinion of Kaden's late start with us, Zippy missed the first few races. He was injured and out. While they were building a rapport over the off-season, the team, Zippy was at home, but Zippy and his guys, they've been together for so long.

Kaden had very, very high expectations of he needs to win 10, 12 races a year. When we brought Kaden into the program our goal was three, four. Same as what Corey won year one with us.

As we're looking into the season with Zippy's well, getting back -- what, your first race back was Darlington.

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: Yeah.

KEVIN RAY: So we missed, what, three races together. So for this team, for the 11 guys, to come out and still win five races, I think it speaks to Zippy's leadership and the strength of the organization itself, just how we try to operate.

He's done an amazing job. I think Zippy has been doing a very good job of pulling Kaden back. Tony Hirschman on the spotter stand. These guys, they work extremely well together. It's very rewarding for myself and Johnny Gray and David to sit back and watch the rapport that they have every day in the shop.

Q. Kaden, in this moment, what would you tell yourself, the nine-year-old kid that was starting his racing journey years ago, of how far your journey has had to come? What would be your advice to yourself?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Well, when I was eight, nine years old, I was racing bando at Houston Motorsports Park. My dad was a racer as well. He ran ASA when ASA was a thing back in the day. He did it as a hobby. He didn't have the money to take it as seriously as I did.

Once I got started into it I would look back at myself and be like, Oh, my gosh, we're actually here doing this.

Yeah, just it's amazing, man. Just my family have worked so hard. We moved so many times to different homes to even afford to race. We eventually landed in a spot in Fort Worth, Texas, Aledo, Texas, that I got to dirt race a lot more. Ran my modified when I was 13, 14, 15 years old.

I had a phone call, I remember, an agent called my dad. He was like, Well, you realize that this is a one in a million shot someone like you that has no money, nowhere to go other than work on the truck and figure out how to drive, that can do this.

When he hung up the phone, I told my dad, I said, Well, I guess we're going to have to be that one 'cause we don't have a choice. Just looking back on it, man, it's just been unbelievable. So thankful for my family and my amazing wife that's been with me for so long. We met at the dirt track. How we're here truck racing and winning a championship. Something we never thought of.

She's always pushed me. She's always been on my back, as well as my mom and dad. People like Scott and everybody that's in my corner that keeps pushing me every day to be better.

Yeah, if I looked at my eight-year-old self I'd tell you, You're going to make it. Just keep working your butt off and eventually it will happen.

Q. And what was your mindset going into the final restart?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Well, I just think at that moment I was, like, we just need to finish, right? Me and Scott talked about it on the radio. If we don't pit, then I feel like we kind of put ourselves in a terrible position to get wrecked.

Honestly, the way the 34 was at with laps down, we were, If a caution came out with seven or eight to go, who the hell cares, right?

Yeah, we obviously made the right call. And then the last restart I didn't have a great launch, but I was still able to get to where I needed to be at to get in position. I know Christian hadn't won a race this year, so I knew he was going to be aggressive, as he should be.

He wasn't going to take a huge chance. I was leaving quite a bit of space. I didn't really side draft that much. Just wanted to make sure I had space to not get side sucked around or put myself in the fence; whatever I had to do to finish the race.

The truck was really good. The last run Scott made a great adjustment to drive off into the sunset and just ride the rest of the run.

It was really awesome. Just thankful for this team. This is a Hall of Fame type guy, a Hall of Fame crew chief, and Hall of Fame race team I get to race for.

Q. When Tyler Gibbs was in here earlier I asked him about TRICON becoming the new juggernaut. He said Kevin is a driving force behind that with the leadership, occasionally breaking out the stick when he needs to. Kaden and Scott, what does Kevin bring to the table that makes it a championship-winning operation?

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: Kevin takes care of all of the operations side. We don't have to worry about pretty much anything. I just have to worry about building fast race trucks and executing when I get to the racetrack.

Kevin handles from travel to all the general manager detail stuff, budgets, all that stuff. We get to just focus on what we need to do to go to the racetrack.

There are a lot of things that he could have us do to help him, right? The way it works is they want us to strictly worry about this and not have to worry about all of the other stuff, the day-to-day operations.

We've all worked at different race teams where we've had a lot of other things to do other than just this, whether it be managerial, office stuff, contracts, all that kind of stuff, where we don't have to focus on any of that.

That allows us a lot of extra time to just focus on executing. Execute whether it's truck builds, stuff that goes in the shop, then execute to the racetrack.

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Yeah, I think if you can just show up and do your job, have someone like Kevin that shows up, here is your travel schedule, here is what you're doing, this is where we're going to fly and what time.

Like Scott said, he said it, all the guys work on building fast race trucks. They don't have to worry about travel, hotel rooms, nothing. That's because of K-Ray, how hard he works for us. There's no telling what the effort he puts in. I honestly don't even want to know because of how stressful it might be for him.

I thank him and David and Johnny Gray for the opportunity for me to race this year at TRICON Garage. Never would have thought seven, eight years that I was growing up.

Like I said, the KBM type deal, I don't know, man. It's going to take a lot of wins to get to the Kyle Busch Motorsports standard. Kyle is a different human being. He's one of a kind and no one will be able to match that.

I think for TRICON's legacy, what we're worried about is winning races and a championship. Kevin gives us every single tool to be successful for us to show up at the racetrack, have fun, go back and do it all again at the next one.

Q. Kevin, there's so many young drivers in the Toyota pipeline moving up in the sport. What was it about Kaden that made you think you have to have him in the 11 truck for next season?

KEVIN RAY: Just watching Kaden. Watching him, how he carries himself. Watching what he was able to accomplish in other equipment. Just looking back at stats, watching from afar. You can tell a lot about a person.

Kaden has that desire, that burning, winning desire in him to be successful. We felt like he would be a great candidate to go into the 11 with that attitude, with that experience.

We felt like, at TRICON, in our equipment, Kaden would be successful. I think he's done an exceptional job of that this year. Expect more next year.

Q. Kaden, Pocono '23, doing part-time rides. I asked you where you saw yourself in five years. I believe your answer was winning truck championships. Here we are only three years later and you met that goal. Is it a little bit jarring how quickly all this success has come together?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Man, honestly, it definitely it's for sure. I remember that Pocono race. I didn't get across the start/finish line before I wrecked. That was so frustrating. I worked so damn hard on that truck.

But no, just to be able to work with a race team like this, I never would have thought I'd be able to race for Toyota or TRICON, or let alone a guy like Scott and this race team.

It's been an amazing time. To be honest, I can sit here and say I was not a champion driver to start this season. I really took losses to the heart really, really bad. I gave bad interviews, bad looks outside of the racetrack. I didn't handle 'em very well.

I went to work really hard, perfected my crafts a lot better. He worked with me on sim, outside the shop, getting together and talking about life, things like that. I think that can transfer to the race shop, also driving the vehicle. I really think it has for me.

I've been a lot calmer, a lot more focused forward more than I ever have been. I don't think I win Phoenix, I don't think I win today if I would have been a hothead like I used to be.

Just so thankful for him, for my team. Everyone at Toyota, TPC, Caitlin, Wayne, Stephanie that has constantly been on my butt to work out efficiently, eat right, do the things that it takes to be a Cup Series-type driver.

I'm far from that right now, but I'm trying to just keep winning races, do the best I can for my race team. I got definitely big expectations next year obviously.

Yeah, we're going to have fun with this. There's going to be rule changes next year. We're going to adapt accordingly. We're looking forward to coming out with something new from our Toyota camp as well. That will later be announced.

Looking forward to celebrate with this team and hopefully again with these guys again next year.

Q. It seemed at a point this summer you were good and you were competitive, you had the win, but you still maybe were just not getting over that hump. Maybe expectations were too high compared to Corey. What was that moment for you when you felt like you could do this?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Yeah, I think Richmond was. We struggled immediately. We sucked at IRP and North Wilkesboro for no reason. We figured it out what it was. Had a new left side tire that we struggled on on the short track stuff, but then we went to work, Scott went to work and the guys, and we got much better at Richmond. Our short track stuff came alive a lot better; was able to win Phoenix.

I feel like we were great on mile-and-a-half's. Charlotte, the second race, we were okay. We missed it small. If I had done things right we'll still win the race, right?

I think for me, I took losses really badly. I was trying to win and beat the Cup guys the first half of the season to break over that hump. Just put a lot of pressure on myself. Didn't succeed, right?

But yeah, look forward to keep working and get better. I feel like I definitely have done that. Focusing forward is the number one key for me. Staying calm in situations that maybe aren't going your way, but you still got tires, you still got pit crew, you still got this guy on the box to make it better for you.

I'm learning all that. Be able to be a championship driver on a team at the end of the year when we weren't at the start, I wasn't the driver at the start, is satisfying and amazing that we have at Toyota and TRICON to succeed.

Q. Kaden, your first win was six months ago. You and Scott and Kevin, everybody has talked about how much of a change you have gone through personally and professionally. How did you go from the person and the driver you were before that first win to the person and driver you are now in just six months?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Man, I think it just took a lot of work and a lot of effort every single day. I feel like muscle memory stuff takes 14 days to change. If you take one day off, it resets.

I knew at that time, I won Watkins Glen, but after that still wasn't great. I was able to win my first race, but didn't perform well the next couple.

Yeah, the first one was great and all, but I needed to still work and figure out what I needed to do to be better. I think a little bit was pressure, but I think a lot of that was perfecting race craft, getting better at what I needed in my truck. Our connection getting a lot better at the racetrack and off the racetrack definitely helped that situation, too.

Yeah, I think in six months, I mean, I definitely had the expectation to be a champion. It wasn't because the vehicles weren't going to be fast enough. It was because I didn't do my job, right? I didn't want that. My desire to win is more than probably anybody you can ask for.

I just never want to stop working. Hell, I'm going to go race and race the week after, the week after, the week after. It's going to be fun to celebrate this, but I still have races to win and perfect my craft if I want to move up to the next level.

Yeah, we're going to celebrate this and have fun. Still got some things to work on for next year, and we're looking forward to that.

Q. Scott, all three of your championships have come in different ways. What were you thinking when you heard your driver start crying?

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Yeah, sorry about that (smiling).

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: He was crying like a little baby.

KADEN HONEYCUTT: Yeah, I was (laughter).

SCOTT ZIPADELLI: I mean, hey, that's human emotion. That solidifies what I said earlier about somebody who really wants it, really has a lot of humbleness and gratitude for the gifts that he's been given. He's been given this great gift, which is an opportunity. He's done an amazing job.

I mean, it's nice to see somebody actually show a little emotion sometimes about what it really means, you know? I'm saying that, and I show very little emotion. I'm not going to cry (smiling).

But no, I'm very proud of him. What can you say? That's real stuff.

THE MODERATOR: Kevin, Scott, Kaden, congratulations on an incredible season and this championship.