Rare NASCAR Truck Series championship run swap taking place

Yahoo

06-08-2025

Rare NASCAR Truck Series championship run swap taking place originally appeared on The Sporting News
A championship contending NASCAR Truck Series team in search of a driver has connected with a championship contending driver in search of a team.
Starting at Richmond, Kaden Honeycutt will finish this season driving the Halmar Friesen No. 52 for the sidelined Stewart Friesen, who is still recovering from his crash last week in a Big Block Modified in his native Canada.
'While I continue to recover, it was important for us to put someone in our truck that can help us compete at the highest level,' said Friesen. 'I know Kaden will deliver strong performance in our truck and allow us to continue to run for the owner's championship.'
To his point, Friesen had qualified both himself and the team into their respective playoffs. Friesen will waive his own playoff eligibility but Honeycutt will now be able to race that truck for an owner's championship.
Honeycutt will also very likely advance into the Truck Series drivers championship after spending this whole season with Niece Motorsports. Honeycutt, however, was released from the team in the middle of the season on Monday because Honeycutt signed with a new team and a different manufacturer for next season.
Niece general manager Cody Efaw says it was just a business decision.
'It's tough, my job is to make sure all of our partners are taken care of, and one of our larger partners is Chevrolet and Team Chevy, and what they do for us on the engineering side, and they have been great partners for 10 years with us, and we have partners that help make these trucks go around the racetrack that are tied to General Motors and Chevrolet,' Efaw said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.
'With Kaden deciding to go to a different OEM, I respect that he came to us and told us, you know, it was hard. It was hard for him. He's a young man; he's got his racing career ahead of him. He's been racing since he was eight years old. This is everything he has ever wanted to do.'
Ultimately, with Honeycutt leaving Chevrolet, that OEM is not going to keep giving that driver access to their tools and that forced Niece into a bind.
'I commend him for being honest and upfront with us. I would love to finish the season but also look at it like it's a situation where now, it's a lame duck term,' Efaw said. 'Chevrolet's not going to let him walk into their tech center and get on the simulators, and I'm not going to let him come into our meetings or comp meetings, and you know, Phil Gould, who I think is a great name in this industry, he has certain things that he wants to live up to, and there's certain information that he needs out of a driver that I don't feel that we can continue moving forward and do it at a championship level in the No. 45 truck.'
Now, Honeycutt and Niece will race against each other for the owner's championship. Christopher Bell will drive the HFR car this weekend at Watkins Glen with Honeycutt making a one-off start at Young's Motorsports just to keep his playoff eligibility.