FORT WORTH, Texas — “Hurricane Hocevar” has just been elevated from a watch to a warning.
Carson “Hurricane” Hocevar has taken Texas Motor Speedway by storm in the last 24 hours with a victory in Friday evening’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 and following up with a NASCAR Cup Series pole-winning performance in Saturday’s Machinery Auctioneers & Byrd Oilfield Services Qualifying.
Hocevar, the final qualifier, posted a lap of 191.340 miles per hour (28.222 seconds) in his No. 77 Chevrolet to edge Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez by a mere 0.003 of a second. This is the 23-year-old Michigan native’s second pole of his Cup Series career, the first coming at TMS a year ago when he became the youngest polesitter in the speedway’s history.
Hocevar will lead the 38-car field to the green flag for Sunday’s WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY Cup Series race. He will be chasing his second consecutive Cup Series victory after earning his career first last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
“It feels pretty good right now, it’s so awesome,” Hocevar said. “…I knew we were going out last and I was like, man, I really wanted to get the pole again and be the last car. I didn’t expect to steal it from our teammate. You know, it’s just the coolest thing when I was a fan, for sure, when the last car goes out and steals it at the last second.
“A testament to all the Spire guys, though. This is a front row; this is a team effort here. Two cars on the front row right after a win so hopefully we can do it at a non-superspeedway now.”
Suarez helped Spire Motorsports to a front-row sweep with his lap of 191.320 mph (28.225 secs.) in the No. 7 Chevrolet. It is a season-best starting position – topping fourth at Phoenix – and also marks his best qualifying effort in 14 visits to Texas Motor Speedway.
RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, a native of Prosper, Texas, qualified third in his No. 17 Ford with a lap of 190.981 mph (28.275 secs.). The starting position is a season best and second-best effort in 17 appearances at TMS, only bettered by a second in 2023.
Joe Gibbs Racing rounded out the top five qualifiers with Denny Hamlin taking fourth (190.786 mph, 28.304 secs.) and teammate Chase Briscoe fifth (190.786 mph, 28.304 secs.). JGR placed all four of the organization’s drivers in the top 10 with Christopher Bell qualifying seventh (190.456 mph, 28.353 secs.) and Ty Gibbs 10th (190.168 mph, 28.396 secs.).
Also securing top-10 qualifying positions from three different teams were Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (6th), 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick with a series-leading five wins (8th) and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman (9th).
