FORT WORTH, Texas — The glass slipper still firmly on his foot from last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega, Carson Hocevar mashed the gas in overtime on Friday night and ran away to victory in the SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Beating runner-up and Spire Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line by 0.730 seconds in overtime, Hocevar notched his sixth career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory at the 1.5-mile intermediate track that gave him his first in the series in 2023.
The triumph reversed a 1-2 finish from earlier this season at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, where Busch beat Hocevar to the stripe by 0.114 seconds.
“It’s unbelievable—what a fun race,” Hocevar said after climbing from his No. 77 Chevrolet on the frontstretch. “We had to reverse the order, obviously the 1-2 with Kyle. I watched him win a lot of truck races, and it’s finally good to put an end to his Texas streak.”
Busch had won his last four Truck Series starts at Texas, but an early brush with the outside wall forced him to regain a lost lap as the beneficiary under caution for Cole Butcher’s crash in Turn 2 on Lap 51.
Busch fought through the field and challenged for the lead in the late going but failed to add to his record 68 Truck Series wins.
“We had an eventful night,” Busch said. “We didn’t start off very well. We were really, really loose and made a lot of adjustments to get it close. When we put the last set off tires on, we were really fast, felt really good.
“I was struggling with grip all night long, but (crew chief) Brian (Pattie) and the guys made a lot of good calls to get us dialed back in. It would have been nice to be in Victory Lane, but it’s good to have a teammate in there and have him get his shot. I got one, he got one, so now we’re even there.”
After the second stage break, Hocevar thought he might have a loose wheel, but that didn’t prevent him from going all-out during a succession of restarts late in the race.
Gio Ruggiero led the field to the overtime restart on Lap 171, but he lost impetus in the middle of a three-wide situation on the white-flag lap, as Hocevar charged into the lead and opened a gap of 10 car-lengths.
Kaden Honeycutt finished third, right behind Busch’s Silverado, with Brandon Jones and pole winner Ben Rhodes in fourth and fifth, respectively, as Ruggiero fell to 17th. Layne Riggs, Christian Eckes, Daniel Hemric, Ty Majeski and Chandler Smith completed the top 10.
Though Honeycutt left with the series lead—by 14 points over Smith—he remained frustrated with his inability to close out a victory.
“I’m proud to be able to drive a truck like this,” said Honeycutt, who is winless in 66 Truck Series starts. “It’s disappointing that I just keep failing. There’s no excuse for it. As soon as I got the lead (on Lap 149), I didn’t protect it right. I didn’t do the right things and ultimately that’s what led us to lose.
“Just got to figure out how to get restarts done. I’ve got to figure out how to win races. It’s eating me alive, I can promise you that.”
Ruggiero likewise missed an opportunity. He had passed Hocevar for the lead on Lap 165 of a scheduled 167, but a violent, five-truck accident on the frontstretch caused the eighth caution, necessitated a red flag for cleanup and forced the overtime.
Hocevar won the second stage and led a race-high 76 laps to 41 for Rhodes, who won the first stage wire-to-wire.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race – SpeedyCash.com 250
- (11) Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, 172.
- (6) Kyle Busch(i), Chevrolet, 172.
- (10) Kaden Honeycutt, Toyota, 172.
- (18) Brandon Jones(i), Toyota, 172.
- (1) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 172.
- (34) Layne Riggs, Ford, 172.
- (14) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 172.
- (12) Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 172.
- (20) Ty Majeski, Ford, 172.
- (8) Chandler Smith, Ford, 172.
- (19) Parker Kligerman, RAM, 172.
- (23) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 172.
- (17) Brenden Queen #, RAM, 172.
- (3) Giovanni Ruggiero, Toyota, 172.
- (13) Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 172.
- (22) Dawson Sutton, Chevrolet, 172.
- (21) William Sawalich(i), Toyota, 171.
- (27) Toni Breidinger, Chevrolet, 171.
- (7) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 171.
- (30) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 170.
- (28) Mini Tyrrell #, RAM, 170.
- (31) Josh Reaume, Ford, 169.
- (32) Frankie Muniz, Ford, 168.
- (33) Caleb Costner, Chevrolet, 168.
- (25) Corey LaJoie, RAM, 165.
- (29) Clayton Green, Ford, 165.
- (24) Justin Haley, RAM, Accident, 164.
- (5) Tanner Gray, Toyota, Accident, 164.
- (2) Jake Garcia, Ford, Accident, 163.
- (15) Andres Perez De Lara, Chevrolet, Accident, 163.
- (26) Kris Wright, Chevrolet, 163.
- (9) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 156.
- (16) Conner Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 155.
- (35) Cory Roper, Toyota, Suspension, 123.
- (4) Cole Butcher #, Ford, Accident, 51.
