By: Ashley McCubbin

Sometimes when you stick a microphone in front of a driver’s face – especially when they’re mad, you have no clue what they may say and a couple of times you’ll hear something that surprises you or gives you a bit of a perspective.

Throughout the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, there were quite a few of these moments. So it seems only fitting we take a glance back through the year at what was said.

“In my opinion, the truck series needs to for sure continue to go to the dirt. I think it’s what it made our series special ever since they first put a truck on the track at Eldora, there was always a level of excitement there and a little electricity around that race. It was always something special and I feel like it has lost its luster a little bit. Not to say that it wasn’t an awesome idea – I feel like the first year was awesome to put dirt on Bristol. I think that was a great move. I don’t think we need to continue to do that. I think we need to go to a true dirt track. I think we left a great one in Eldora. I think there’s some other great ones out there. I don’t think Knoxville was supported enough to justify going back there, but I feel like DuQoin or Eldora or something like that is something the truck needs to experiment with and go to. If we have a diverse series – running dirt tracks, short tracks, big tracks – we’re going to North Wilksboro this year. I think the dirt track is part of that blue collar roots of the truck series and I think we need to continue to go to a dirt track.” – Grant Enfinger

#04: Kaden Honeycutt, Roper Racing, FlyAlliance/Car Quest Ford F-150

“I think any type of stock car experience is very useful and late model stock racing is probably the most useful of all late model racing before moving onto (NASCAR) Cup (Series) or Xfinity (Series) nowadays. I’ve used it quite a bit. I’ve used the experience towards my racing goals, speed that I’ve tried to gain last couple seasons. Everything just comes together at some point and the late model racing just really helps. It’s just the next step before going into NASCAR. It has helped me a tremendous amount.” – Kaden Honeycutt

“I don’t know if there’s a single thing. I just think you learn over time. You’re so new, especially in late models now that most people – it’s not normal now to start in a four-cylinder or street stock. Everybody starts at late model, and that’s kind of just being birth into stock cars and learning big cars. So you’re just learning everything so new that you’re learning everything there, and learning the little details – the basics how to shift on restarts, how to restart, how to pass a car, how to set them up, how to build runs, what loose is and how you’re getting loose – just the no-brainer basics that a professional driver should know so when you get to that level you know how springs and shocks work, how changes. For me, late models was just learning how set-ups work, honestly, how to build the racecar. I’m not very hands-on, I’m not very good at it. They don’t like me touching it most of the time, but I like to know a lot of ins-and-outs of set-ups. I’ve learned over time how the shocks and springs work, and how different set-ups react. I feel I’m in a decent spot that I know exactly what they change without telling me. I think that’s been a huge affect on when I come to these trucks, as it just helps the learning process go quicker.” – Carson Hocevar

“When the opportunity arose first of all to come to ThorSport my eyes lit up and then second of all to be able to have Rich as my crew chief, I think, it just became almost like a dream came true. I was so happy, so excited and just so positive when it came to the outlook about it.  If everything is right and all those pieces to the puzzle are right and everything kind of makes up the perfect ideal situation for me, that’s what I want.  I don’t want to be looking at it like, ‘Man, I wish I had this.  I wish I was able to get this.’  If I have everything that I feel I need, that just motivates me to work harder and really do everything that I possibly can and go out there and try to maximize everything on the track.” – Hailie Deegan

“I think it’s a talent across the entire shop. There’s depth – there’s not just the drivers, there’s so many just smart guys and great leadership there. Obviously, you know our main leader there is Mike Beam whose run the company since 2015. Under his direction, he’s been able to get a lot of wins there on the truck series side, and obviously they’ve broken through on the (NASCAR) Cup (Series) side to win there at Darlington (Raceway). But across the board, you’ve got Dave Elenz, Luke Lambert over there now, so many great engineers. Those are guys that myself, Jeff Hensley, and all the guys in there can lean in when we need to and there’s talent behind the wheel for sure, but the man there’s a ton of talent and ton of smart racing minds in that building. I think that’s one advantage that we have at GMS Racing.” – Grant Enfinger