Kaden Honeycutt Dominates Pro Late Model Race at North Wilkesboro to take home the win

North Wilkesboro Speedway is a track filled with cherished memories for Kaden Honeycutt in the zMAX CARS Tour.

During his last visit to the venue in October, Honeycutt clinched the CARS PLM Tour championship by leading 99 out of 100 laps that night. On Thursday, Honeycutt returned to North Wilkesboro with Bryson Lopez Racing, the same team that helped him secure the PLM Tour title, eager to continue his success.

From the start of The Reverend Sour Mash Whiskey 75, Honeycutt set an impressive pace in Bryson Lopez’s blue No. 47 Pro Late Model. Despite Dawson Sutton closing in during the final laps, Honeycutt held firm to claim his fifth PLM Tour victory and his eighth overall on the CARS Tour platform.

As dominant as he was in Thursday’s The Reverend Sour Mash Whiskey 75, Kaden Honeycutt admitted there was a moment where he was unsure about holding onto the win.

Slower traffic drastically slowed Honeycutt’s pace and brought Dawson Sutton to his rear bumper at the white flag. Instead of trying to overtake the lapped cars, Honeycutt elected to be conservative by taking the bottom line from Sutton, which was enough to keep the young driver behind him as the checkered flag waved.

“[My spotter] told me [Sutton] was 15 [car lengths] back when I caught those three lap cars, then I looked in my rearview mirror and he was three [car lengths] back from me,” Honeycutt said. “I just decided to take evasive action and tried not to lap those guys, but man, what an unbelievable car.”

When Honeycutt made the decision to move over to Bryson Lopez’ program with five races remaining on the 2024 CARS PLM Tour season, the two sides established immediate chemistry. Honeycutt never finished outside the top five in a Bryson Lopez car and ended the season with two consecutive victories.

Now a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Niece Motorsports, Thursday served as Honeycutt’s second PLM Tour start of the 2025 season. He previously competed with Bryson Lopez at Orange County Speedway in April, but issues with his car relegated him to 13th, one lap off the pace.

A more typical, efficient outing for Honeycutt with Bryson Lopez kicked off a hectic weekend that will also include the Window World 100 alongside his Truck Series duties. Honeycutt was grateful that he could return to Bryson Lopez for North Wilkesboro and help them build some cohesion ahead of the remaining PLM Tour races.

“This is a different race car,” Honeycutt said. “Fury [Race Cars] gave us a great race car to come back with. We’ve had so many unfortunate accidents with our drivers. It’s not their fault, but we almost didn’t have any race cars left. [This team] busts their tails and they’ve been working extremely hard getting this thing ready.”