By Matt Crider, Staff Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas — Fresh off his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, Carson Hocevar is still riding the ‘Dente to the top of the board.
Hocevar brought last Sunday’s race-winning Chili’s margarita livery from Talladega to Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night and won the Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250.
Then, on Saturday, Hocevar nipped teammate Daniel Suarez by .003 seconds to take the pole position for Sunday’s Wurth 400.
“Maybe going to Chili’s last night, it weighed the car down just a little bit more and I had a little left-side weight,” Hocevar said with a laugh. “I don’t know where those three-thousandths are. I’m just glad I had them in the bank. My lap felt pretty good.
“I was coming off Turn 4 and I was like, man, if this isn’t fast, I’m going to be so disappointed, because it felt good. And that’s the worst — when it feels good and it’s slow, so I’m just glad there was a lot of pace in it.”
In the No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet for Cup action at TMS, Hocevar picked up his second career pole — and second in a row for the Wurth 400. Hocevar’s lap of 191.340 mph tripped the clock at 28.222 seconds.
North Texas native Chris Buescher of Prosper (28.275) and Las Vegas winner Denny Hamlin (28.304) put Ford and Toyota, respectively, on the second row.
Hocevar’s win at Talladega was his third top-five finish of the year, already a new career high in his third full season.
“Probably before Talladega, I’m trying to win practice, win qualifying and talk myself into ‘we’re going to win the race,’” Hocevar said, adding that the winning feeling spread throughout his Spire Motorsports team. “Now everybody’s just jollier, I guess. Everybody’s just kind of slower and more relaxed. I could just tell by the way they were pulling the hood pins, the little things. They just have a lot of confidence.”
Hocevar finished 24th last year after starting from the pole in Fort Worth.
Suarez will make his third top-10 start of the season, all on intermediate tracks.
“When I saw Daniel roll out, our cars are very similar,” Hocevar said. “I didn’t expect it to be that close, but I’m just glad I was on the front end of it.”
In Friday’s truck race, Hocevar also relegated a Spire teammate to second place when he outdueled Kyle Busch in a two-lap overtime shootout. And like Cup qualifying, Spire’s 1-2 truck finish featured a No. 77 Chevy leading a No. 7 entry.
Hocevar has six truck victories. His first came in Fort Worth in 2023. He went on to win four races that year, his last full season in the series.
The Michigan driver will start Sunday’s Cup race just ahead of Buescher, who finished second to him last week at Talladega.