Leland Honeyman Jr. Eager to Absorb Experience With Cope Family Racing

“Names are made here.”

That slogan has resounded as the foundation of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the second-highest level of stock car racing in the United States.

While the division is one step closer in a driver’s Everest-like climb to the NASCAR Cup Series, it comes with limited opportunities. A stark contrast from the parity of the Cup level, maybe less than half of the Xfinity Series’ cars can compete up front on a weekly basis. That stirs the rest of the field to enter the hornets’ nest and fight for the interest of a stronger team while achieving goals with smaller teams.

One driver looking to establish himself in the series is Leland Honeyman Jr., whose pursuit of that dream will take an unconventional path in 2025. After a solid rookie season with Young’s Motorsports, Honeyman shifts over to a part-time schedule at the newly established Cope Family Racing, owned by former Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope.

The 19-year-old recorded a solid freshman campaign with Young’s in the team’s first full-time season, scoring a pair of top 10s en route to a 22nd-place points finish. Honeyman was also on the doorstep of his first win at Talladega Superspeedway, mixing it up with the leaders before scoring a career-best finish of fourth. But despite overachieving at times, Honeyman isn’t satisfied with reaching for the low-hanging fruit of top 20s — he wants to advance even more.

Honeyman detailed his transition to CFR with Frontstretch over the offseason, as well as what he can learn from Cope, how he and Thomas Annunziata (who is sharing the ride with Honeyman) can build off each other and the challenges he has faced competing in the dawn of his career.

Luken Glover, Frontstretch: Tell me what sparked the conversation with the Cope family [to join CFR in 2025).

Leland Honeyman Jr.: I always knew Nick Tucker (Cope’s cousin), through the go-karting days and racing around with him. He was kind of getting into karting as I was getting out, but it was kind of a weird friendship. We always knew each other, and I’ve always known of him the last couple of years.

He told me that Derrike was starting an Xfinity team, and he asked me if I’d be interested in running a partial schedule with them. Obviously, a little bit of the difference is the motors for this year, a new team, different crew chief, etc., just a different workstation. I would say the biggest thing was Nick bringing me together with Derrike to make this deal happen.

Glover: What is the biggest challenge to making that transition from where you were at last year, running full-time to part-time this year with a new team?

Honeyman: I would say getting those motors (Author’s note: the team is using ECR Engines) and using them on tracks where we needed them last year. A lot of the tracks we were really good at with Young’s [Motorsports], we just didn’t have the motors we needed. Obviously, there’s a different kind of budget for us compared to [Joe Gibbs Racing], JR Motorsports, etc.

I’ve seen what Derrike has done with teams in the past, and how he’s scaled and grown teams, and how he’s worked with the budget. He’s done an amazing job, and I feel like he’s done a great job with his resources. I think with what I’m bringing him, me and my sponsors coming to his team in 2025, I feel like it’s a great opportunity to see how everything plays out.

Glover: Was there a certain track type that you all looked at to get you in the car for?

Honeyman: I know Thomas [Annunziata], with his schedule and what he’s been used to growing up racing road course stuff, this is his first time getting into the oval stuff. He’s still learning all of this, he’s been doing the Trans-Am stuff and doing really well. I raced against him last year a couple of times, and he seems to be a really nice kid. I haven’t spent much time with him, but this year I want to help him as much as I can.

We were looking more at the bigger tracks and the mile-and-a-half tracks. I’ve learned a lot and felt like I ran really well at the mile-and-a-halves this past year with Young’s. Derrike and I talked about how I ran, and he was very excited to put me in his bigger-track cars, just because he’s really excited about the superspeedways coming off his Daytona win too. I think he’s really excited about that and Thomas getting more used to the road courses on the NASCAR side of things, and the short tracks are going to be a learning experience for him too.

Glover: We’re going into the 35th anniversary of [Cope’s] upset win at Daytona. You almost pulled off a win at Talladega [Superspeedway] last year. What is that feel going to be like when you roll into Daytona?

Honeyman: Having Derrike’s knowledge, having someone with a win at the superspeedways is definitely big. Obviously, he’s been in my shoes, right? He will coach me as much as he can on the superspeedway stuff, and even the mile-and-a-half stuff. He’s been in the sport for so long that he’s someone I can look up to and listen to. He’s such a great spokesman. I feel like I’m a really good superspeedway racer and that this year is going to be really dangerous for us on the superspeedways. Everyone should be worried. I think it’s going to be a really good relationship, knowing his past on the superspeedway stuff and knowing his past. Putting two and two together, I think it’s going to be really good.

Glover: NASCAR made some changes to extend practices from 20 to 25 minutes. Do you think that’s going to be valuable, even just a few extra minutes, to have that time to prepare for the weekend?

Honeyman: With 2024 not having much practice whatsoever, and then you get to go to certain races this year, and the practice lengths change a little bit, I just don’t think having 20 minutes for someone like me last year and Thomas this year is enough. It’s very hard because a couple of years ago, it used to be 50-minute [or] hour practices. For someone like me that’s a rookie (last year), that has to compete against these veterans like Anthony Alfredo or Justin Allgaier, they’re really good and know what they’re doing, and know how to race around other racers. I’m not saying that I don’t, just building up that confidence booster at the beginning of practice, especially with a new team like Cope Family Racing.

We’re going to go into these race days and practices hoping to be the best and pull down the best that weekend. We’re going to go the best of our ability every single weekend, there’s no doubt about that. I just don’t think this practice stuff is long enough for new teams like ours. You have to have someone who knows what they’re doing, and that’s why I’m comfortable with George [Church, crew chief] because he’s been in this situation before. He knows how to work on these cars, and I think he’s going to do an excellent job this year.

Glover: A lot of fans like to compare eras. Do you feel like the era we are in currently, post-COVID — compared to the ’90s, 2000s or 2010s, when there was more practice time — challenges younger drivers to raise their level even more than what it used to be?

Honeyman: Yeah, for sure. I feel like a lot of people compare these veteran drivers like the Dale Earnhardts, the Michael Waltrips, and the Ricky Rudds, and people compare us to them. They used to have a lot of practice, they were able to test, and they were able to do a lot of things. Now, it’s so restricted to where you’re not able to do many things with the cars. Obviously, some things have opened up, some things have closed, but the biggest thing has been testing. Testing here and there and having longer practices, that’s just the biggest thing for someone like me. I’m still new, I’m still learning a lot every single day, and there’s no stopping. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still learning, a lot of these people are still learning every time they get back in a race car. Dale Jr. gets back in a car at Bristol, and he hauls the mail, but he says he’s still learning.

Glover: Last year, you mentioned not reaching for just top 20s. So what are your goals to accomplish with Cope Family Racing this year?

Honeyman: The biggest thing for me right now is, I talked to Derrike a little bit, and we talked about goals. I asked Derrike myself, “Do you have any goals for this year?” He goes, “As of right now we don’t have any points, I think we’re still looking at that perspective of having points and if we’re going to get points or whatnot.”

He was telling me that you don’t want to set your expectations too high, and I did learn this from last year because there were ups and downs. That was my first season racing something full-time in a very long time, and I haven’t raced that many races since I raced bandoleros in 2017. Ever since 2017, I’ve raced a couple races a year, nothing crazy compared to a lot of people out there. You just don’t want to set your expectations too high, and if you go out there and you exceed your expectations, then you have one race that goes bad, your mindset is just screwed up mentally.

That’s one thing that he told me, and now that you say that, it’s like a “what are your expectations?” and I don’t have any expectations. I’m going to go out there and do the best that I can.