After a suddent exit from Niece Motorsports, Kaden Honeycutt has managed to secure a playoff spot at Richmond Raceway. The 22-year-old drove Stewart Freisen's No.52 Toyota after Freisen was ruled out of the season due a dirt racing injury.Earlier this month, Niece Motorsports announced their split with Honeycutt after the latter informed them of switching teams next season. It's heavily remoured that Honeycutt will replace Corey Heim at TRICON Garage next season, but no concrete details have emerged.Meanwhile, the Texas native's playoff hopes hung in the balance without a seat, but he managed to secure a one-off drive with Young Motorsports at Watkins Glen, followed by a stint with Halmar Freisen Racing for the remainder of the season.At the time of getting axed, Honeycutt was tenth on the playoff bubble with 73 points ahead of the cutline. His DNF at The Glen made matters worse, but the Truck Series driver rounded out the top-10 at Richmond to secure his spot on the championship fight."Clinched the chance to race for a championship.@KadenWHoneycutt is locked into the NASCAR Playoffs!," NASCAR wrote on X.Kaden Honeycutt will now compete against the top-seeded driver Corey Heim, along with Jake Garcia, Layne Riggs, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski.Niece Motorsports GM reveals reasoning behind Kaden Honeycutt exitNiece Motorsports' General Manager, Cody Efaw, recently spoke with SiriusXM NASCAR radio and revealed the reason behind Kaden Honeycutt's sudden exit. He explained how Honeycutt's 2026 drive with a different OEM compromises the Chevrolet program at NM, which ended up being the primary cause for the split.We went to him with a offer to extend his racing opportunities or career here at Niece Motorsports for several years to come. He informed us that, he appreciated it and we meant a lot to him, but he was going to go a different route in the future, with a different OEM. My job is to make sure all our partners are taken care of. One of our large partners is Chevrolet and... they've been great partners for 10 years with us," he said."Chevrolet's not going to let him walk into their their tech center and get on the simulators and I'm not going to let them come into our meetings, our comp meetings," he added.Kaden Honeycutt went on to drive Young Motorsports's No.2 Truck at Watkins Glen. He had a poor qualifying among the backmarkers and suffered an even worse fate on the main race. A drive train issue forced him retire early in just 29 laps. The result marked him 34th in a 36-field car.Up next, he heads to Darlington Raceway for 147 laps around the 1.366-mile oval. The race is scheduled for Saturday, August 30 at 12 PM ET.