Kaden Honeycutt Holds Off Eckes to Win Phoenix Truck Thriller and Extend Points Lead

Kaden Honeycutt is the winner of Friday night's Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 at Phoenix Raceway, taking the checkered flag in the 150-lap NASCAR Truck Series race with Christian Eckes 1.556 seconds behind in second.

The early part of the evening belonged to Ty Majeski, who swept both opening stages — taking stage one (laps 1-45) after a final-lap pass on pole-sitter Layne Riggs, then backing it up with a dominant stage-two win (laps 46-89) ahead of Honeycutt. Ben Rhodes' late stage-two flat tire and Tanner Gray's earlier fender damage were among the night's trouble spots.

But the final 61-lap run was Honeycutt's. After coming out second among the Chase contenders on the final pit stop at the stage-two break, he dispatched two-tire gambler Stewart Friesen and seized the lead on the lap-99 restart. With 30 laps to go the gap to Eckes was 1.6 seconds; with 17 to run it shrank to one second — close enough to keep the grandstand on edge. Honeycutt never blinked, crossing the line ahead of Eckes, with Riggs third, Majeski fourth and Jake Garcia rounding out the top five.

It is Honeycutt's fourth win of the 2026 season — all four of his career victories — and the 39th series win for crew chief Scott Zipadelli. The win strengthens Honeycutt's grip on the championship picture: he now leads Riggs by 39 points in the standings, with Eckes third at minus-112 and Chandler Smith fourth at minus-117. Notable finishers further back included 16-year-old Tristan McKee in 14th — the young phenom announced this week as a Dale Earnhardt Jr. JR Motorsports signee — while Frankie Muniz came home 31st. Post-race inspection cleared the No. 11 with no issues, making the win official.