FORT WORTH, Texas — For Carson Hocevar, success arrived a week early.
Before last Sunday, it would have been reasonable to pick Texas Motor Speedway as a possible venue for Hocevar’s first NASCAR Cup Series win, given his performance at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.
After he stole the show last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, however, the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet is seeking his second straight victory in Sunday’s Wurth 400 Presented by LIQUI MOLY.
Far-fetched? Perhaps. But Hocevar has a history at the Fort Worth Track that might suggest otherwise.
In 2023, he claimed the first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of his career at Texas on the way to a four-win season.
Last year in Cowtown, he won the only pole position of his Cup Series career with a lap at 191.659 mph.
“I feel good about it,” Hocevar said of Sunday’s race. “Obviously, we were on the pole last year and had speed, and I won my first-ever Truck race there.
“We have a lot of momentum and excitement behind us right now, while we go into a track that it is realistic to be up front and contend all day. We have been looking forward to and circling Texas for a couple weeks, so what happened last weekend is really an added bonus.”
Hocevar’s victory at Talladega was the second of the season for Chevrolet. Ford drivers have only one win so far this season—Ryan Blaney’s triumph at Phoenix Raceway.
The defending winner of Sunday’s race at Texas is Joey Logano, whose victory in Fort Worth last season is the last time a Ford driver not named Ryan Blaney won a Cup Series event.
Logano’s victory had a special emotional component that made it unforgettable to the three-time series champion.
“I remember, probably as much as anything, the day after, just because a little friend of mine—Liam—passed away the next day,” Logano said. “I remember his mom saying one of his last moments of enjoyment was sitting in the hospital watching us win.
“I thought that was probably one of the most incredible moments of my life, hearing that and just realizing what that win really meant and how it happened. I remember us not being the fastest car, and I remember just kind of finding ourselves in position to win late in the race, and we were able to take advantage of that.
“It made me feel like things were bigger than just the race. That race will always be one of the most remembered wins I’ve ever had because of that.”
To defend his victory at the track, Logano will have to overcome several obstacles in terms of statistics and performance. In the last nine Cup races at TMS, there hasn’t been a repeat winner.
Logano’s average finish at Texas (13.3) narrowly misses the top 10 all-time. At the last Cup event on a 1.5-mile track (April 19 at Kansas Speedway), Logano had a miserable time with the handling of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford and finished 30th.
Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season, has the best average finish at Texas among active drivers (11.0) and third-best all-time. Reddick also was the winner at Kansas two weekends ago.
Reddick scored his first Cup Series victory on an oval track at Texas in 2022.
Texas Motor Speedway features two fundamentally different sets of corners, the product of repaving and reconfiguration in 2017. Turns 1 and 2 are relatively flat, with Turns 3 and 4 higher-banked and faster.
Perhaps the new layout has contributed to unpredictable results at the track. Daniel Suarez boasts the longest active streak of top-10 finishes at Texas with three. Austin Dillon, a 2020 winner in Fort Worth, is second with two.
The tire combination Goodyear is providing this weekend has never been used at Texas before, but it’s a known quantity to Cup drivers and crew chiefs, having been run at Las Vegas, Darlington and Kansas this year.
