That is a 43-point cushion to play with, but Kaden Honeycutt knows better than to celebrate early. The Tricon Garage driver carries that healthy advantage over Front Row Motorsports competitor Layne Riggs into Friday night's Black's Tire 200 presented by Down East Heating & Air Conditioning at Martinsville Speedway. With only two races left to settle the championship trophy, neither driver is ready to call the fight finished.
Fresh off a wild overtime finish at Talladega Superspeedway last week where he rallied to fifth place, Honeycutt is shifting his focus straight to one of the smallest tracks on the calendar. Riggs finished eighth in his No. 34 Ford at Talladega, and now faces a massive 0.526-mile bullring where every inch of asphalt matters. Looking ahead to the battle, Honeycutt kept his feet on the ground.
"Looking forward to Martinsville, and got a good cushion, but you never say it is over till it is over," Honeycutt said after the Talladega checkered flag. "I'm sure we will be racing hard for the win next week."
Riggs has four finishes of 15th or better at Martinsville, and his mindset remains crystal clear despite the points deficit. He has four finishes of 15th or better at the venue, and his father Scott won here back in 2001. His mathematical threshold was simple: anything 45 points or worse back would spell trouble. Now, he has his sights set on total domination.
"Obviously, I think the 11 can't be as good as us. We're gonna have to go dominate the next two races. I know this team can do it. We've done it all year long. I'm excited. This is gonna be fun," Riggs stated.
There is plenty of hungry competition waiting in the shadows on Friday night. Defending series champion and defending race winner Corey Heim is back to defend his crown for Tricon Garage after taking the trophy last October ahead of Honeycutt, whose runner-up finish that day stands as his best and only second top-10 in six starts at the track. Riggs also brings some serious past pace, having started from pole, led 27 laps, and finished a career-best third in the fall 2025 race where he is also the defending pole winner.
And let us not forget Sammy Smith, who just won last week at Talladega and announced his new contract to team with Honeycutt next year at Tricon, will be right there in the field keeping the title fighters honest. Meanwhile, Christian Eckes is the winningest Chase-eligible driver at Martinsville in the field after sweeping the 2024 races here. Eckes sits 144 points behind Honeycutt but remains mathematically eligible, unlike McAnally-Hilgemann Racing teammate Daniel Hemric (spring 2025 winner) and CR7 Motorsports' Grant Enfinger (fall 2020 winner), who have both been mathematically eliminated.
The midfield battles are just as brutal across the final two rounds. Eckes dropped two positions after Talladega to fifth in the standings, yet sits just three points out of third place. Hemric tumbled four spots to seventh at Talladega and trails sixth-place Gio Ruggiero by 17 points, while Enfinger arrives ranked last among the 10 Chase drivers, 25 points behind Hemric. The machines hit the track for practice at 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday, followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 1:35 p.m. ET with both sessions live on FS2.
