{"id":57696,"date":"2026-05-01T23:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=57696"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:12:58","slug":"hocevar-hammers-out-overtime-nascar-truck-series-victory-at-tms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/hocevar-hammers-out-overtime-nascar-truck-series-victory-at-tms\/","title":{"rendered":"Hocevar hammers out overtime NASCAR Truck Series victory at TMS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) celebrates winning the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH \u2013 Carson Hocevar is NASCAR\u2019s definition of \u201csmokin\u2019 hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) takes the checked flag in the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Five days after scoring his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway, Hocevar emerged as the winner of a two-lap shootout at Texas Motor Speedway that served as an exclamation point to a frantic NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250.<\/p>\n

The night\u2019s second red flag stoppage for 6 minutes, 12 seconds for a frontstretch incident involving five trucks set up the overtime after 166 laps of a race originally scheduled for 167 around TMS\u2019 high-banked\/1.5-mile oval. When the race went green on Lap 170, leader Giovanni Ruggiero \u2013 racing from the bottom lane \u2013 and Hocevar ran side-by-side\u2026until the latter used the momentum generated by the outside lane to clear Ruggiero.<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) celebrates after winning the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Once clear of a scrambling pack, Hocevar bolted to a margin of victory of 0.730-seconds over Spire Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. It means a lot,\u201d Hocevar said after exiting his No. 77 Chili\u2019s Ride the \u2018Dente Chevrolet Silverado and walking to the flag stand to retrieve the checkered flag. \u201cEverybody on the fence (chanting his name), thank you. What a fun race! I was having such a fun time out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran in reverse order, obviously, 1-2 with Kyle. Yeah, I watched him win a lot of truck races. But I\u2019m good with him\u2026I have all the respect in the world for him and enjoy racing with him. I mean, he\u2019s won a thousand of these, basically.\u201d Busch, 40, is the all-time Truck Series race-winner at TMS with six.<\/p>\n

A 23-year-old native of Portage, Mich., Hocevar said his win on Talladega\u2019s daunting 2.66-mile oval definitely gave him a confidence boost heading into \u201cThe Great American Speedway\u201d in Cowtown.<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) celebrates winning the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYeah, I look at myself a lot different,\u201d said Hocevar, who led five times for a race-high 76 laps. \u201cThe heroes I grew up watching just won everything. And there\u2019s no excuses. Ultimately, I enjoy every little bit of this. If you\u2019re a hero, you should take whatever they give you and win with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocevar won his first career NCTS race here on April 1, 2023 driving the No. 42 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports. He now has six wins in 87 career NCTS starts.<\/p>\n

Asked to explain the difference between himself and his peers on this night, Hocevar quipped, \u201cI think the cocky answer would be _ the difference is in what\u2019s in the seat, for sure. But we were really good on restarts. These (Spire) guys do a really, really good job. It\u2019s been a struggle on the truck side but so thankful to get it done here and give Spire a 1-2.\u201d Hocevar\u2019s crew chief is Chad Walter.<\/p>\n

Busch was looking to extend his status as the all-time Truck Series winner at TMS with Victory No. 7. \u201cWe had an eventful night,\u201d said Busch, who was forced to pit under green during Stage 1 to replace a blown right front Goodyear Eagle tire. That unscheduled stop dropped Busch one lap down.<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar (77) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Brandon Jones (1) during the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cStruggling with grip all night long,\u201d said Busch, driver of the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. \u201cOn the last set of tires there we were really fast, felt really good. Brian (Pattie, crew chief) and the guys made a lot of good calls to get us dialed back in. Would have been nice to be in Victory Lane but it\u2019s good to have a teammate in there and get his shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texan Kaden Honeycutt finished third in the Safelite\/Foster Love Toyota Tundra fielded by TRICON Garage. \u201cI\u2019m proud to be able to drive a truck like this. It\u2019s disappointing that I just keep failing,\u201d said Honeycutt, a 22-year-old native of Willow Park who led once for three laps. \u201cThere\u2019s no excuse for it. As soon as I got the lead, I didn\u2019t protect it right, I didn\u2019t do the right things and ultimately that\u2019s what led us to lose.<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Clayton Green (2) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Jake Garcia (98) during the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAll my guys have done such an excellent job. Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) did really good adjustments all day to help me out and I felt like once we got the track position at that last stage I thought we were one of the best trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust gotta figure out how to get restarts done. I\u2019ve gotta figure out how to win races. It\u2019s eating me alive, I can promise you that. Just want to thank everyone at Toyota Racing \u2013 Toyota Tundras are built here in Texas, and I just wanted to get a win for them today because we definitely had a truck to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honeycutt was followed by teammate Brandon Jones in the No. 1 Sprecher Toyota and pole-sitter Ben Rhodes in the No. 99 TYM Ford fielded by ThorSport Racing.<\/p>\n

\"\"

May 1, 2026; Ft. Worth, Texas, USA; The wrecked truck of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Conner Jones (42) sits in the infield during the 28th Annual SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHeck, I\u2019ll take that,\u201d said Jones, a 29-year-old native of Atlanta. \u201cWhat a long, crazy night that was. Just trying to learn these trucks again. This was our first of four (starts) this year, and just fun to come over to TRICON and have Sprecher Root Beer come on board. I think we had a really fast truck here tonight and circumstantial \u2013 could\u2019ve won the race. It all just depended on what lane you were in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of chaos at the end of that race, obviously. A lot of beating and banging so it was just about picking the right lane and being in the right place at the right time. I was happy with that. Gio (Ruggerio) almost had one, too, so we were really close as an organization, I think. Just really, really fun tonight.\u201d Ruggiero led twice for 22 laps in TRICON Garage\u2019s JBL Toyota.<\/p>\n

Hocevar prevailed at the end of Stage 2 by 0.293-seconds over Honeycutt, who exited Texas with a 14-point lead over Chandler Smith in the standings. Completing the top-10 in Stage 2 were Ruggerio, Dawson Sutton, Tyler Ankrum, Mini Tyrrell, Grant Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Smith and Andres Perez De Lara of Mexico. Rhodes made quick work of Stage 1, leading all 40 laps. He finished with 41 laps-led as one of nine leaders.<\/p>\n

Kyle Busch and crew chief Andy Street <\/strong>will make their competitive 2026 debuts in Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series WURTH 400 presented by Liqui Moly.<\/p>\n

Street has replaced Jim Pohlman, who joined Busch\u2019s No. 8 Chevrolet team from JR Motorsports during the offseason. But 10 races into the 2026 schedule, Busch is mired in 27th<\/sup> in the standings. A two-time Cup champ, Busch has logged one top-10 finish, no top-fives, an average start of 22.6 and an average finish of 22.1. \u201cRowdy\u2019s\u201d best result for the team owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Childress is 10th<\/sup> at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis move is about putting our people in the best position to succeed,\u201d Childress said in announcing the change on Tuesday. \u201cWe have strong talent across this organization, and we\u2019re focused on having each person in the right position to help deliver the results we expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Street, who briefly worked with Busch at the end of last season, reportedly has the job for the rest of 2026. Pohlman reportedly is moving into a leadership role in RCR\u2019s Competition Department in Welcome, N.C.<\/p>\n

Busch, 40, won his Cup titles in 2015 and 2019 driving Toyotas for Joe Gibbs Racing.<\/p>\n

Austin Dillon, Busch\u2019s RCR teammate, believes the move is not an overreaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think there’s no reason not to (change),\u201d Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops\/Winchester AA White Flyer Chevrolet, said during a presser in the track\u2019s infield media center Friday afternoon. \u201cThey weren’t very performing and I think everybody was looking at that. But I think Jim also wanted to make a change. I think that there’s multiple reasons, but the obvious reason was that we had someone in-house that had some success with Kyle at the end of last year and was willing to step-up and do the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was something that Jim also wanted to do\u2026whatever we needed to do as a company to run better, and if that’s moving Andy into that role. I hope that Jim stays and can be an asset to the company and help us make our cars better in another role than just being on the box on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really moves the needle, truthfully, for all these teams is what gets done at the shop during the week. Jim has proven, over his long tenure in NASCAR, that he can build fast race cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recall that Dillon \u2013 the 36-year-old grandson of Childress \u2013 won the 2020 Cup race on TMS\u2019 high-banked\/1.5-mile oval. But Dillon\u2019s team is in a similar situation to Busch \u2013 24th<\/sup> in points with no wins, top-fives, top-10s, or poles. Austin\u2019s average start is 21.1 and his average finish is 21.6. Amazingly, the No. 3 Chevy made famous by seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt has led only five laps this season.<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier secured pole position <\/strong>for the 22nd<\/sup> annual Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 340 Friday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway with a hot lap of 28.631-seconds\/188.607 mph. Driver of the No. 7 Roto-Rooter Chevrolet fielded by JR Motorsports, Allgaier will be joined in the front row by Brandon Jones in the No. 20 Menards\/Sylvania Toyota fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing.<\/p>\n

The pole is the 13th<\/sup> in 516 career series starts for Allgaier, a 39-year-old native of Springfield, Ill. The pole also is the second in 29 races at TMS for Allgaier, who \u2013 ironically \u2013 has yet to win an O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series event at \u201cNo Limits, Texas.\u201d Allgaier is paired with crew chief Andrew Overstreet.<\/p>\n

Completing the top-10 are Cup Series regulars Kyle Larson and Connor Zilisch, both of JR Motorsports; rookie Brent Crews of Joe Gibbs Racing, Corey Day of Hendrick Motorsports, Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing, Jeremy Clements of Jeremy Clements Racing, Ryan Sieg of RSS Racing and Parker Retzlaff of Viking Motorsports.<\/p>\n

Houston native David Starr will start 35th<\/sup> in the 38-car field via owner points in the No. 38 Clean Burn Chevrolet fielded by Joey Gase Motorsports. Starr\u2019s crew chief is Garrett Harrington. Starr, 58, owns and operates Team Texas High Performance Driving School, which offers high-speed driving experiences at TMS.<\/p>\n

The event will be televised beginning at 2:30 p.m. (CDT) on the CW Network.<\/p>\n

Texas Motor Speedway is playing host<\/strong> to all three NASCAR touring series for a third consecutive season this weekend. This will be the only visit NASCAR will make into the Dallas-Fort Worth market.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s Craftsman Truck SpeedyCash.com 250 marked the series\u2019 52nd appearance at TMS \u2013 the most of any track on the schedule.<\/p>\n

The Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 340 NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race will be featured Saturday. The race title has been rebranded from the traditional “300” to “340” to celebrate Andy’s Frozen Custard’s 40th anniversary, but the race distance of 300 miles\/200 laps has remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup WURTH 400 presented by Liqui Moly will be the 46th NCS event contested at \u201cThe Great American Speedway\u201d since its inaugural campaign in 1997.<\/p>\n

Interview: NCTS race winner Carson Hocevar (No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet) – <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – SpeedyCash.com 250<\/b><\/p>\n

Texas Motor Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Fort Worth, Texas<\/b><\/p>\n

Friday, May 1, 2026<\/b><\/p>\n

                1. (11)  Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                2. (6)  Kyle Busch(i), Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                3. (10)  Kaden Honeycutt, Toyota, 172.<\/p>\n

                4. (18)  Brandon Jones(i), Toyota, 172.<\/p>\n

                5. (1)  Ben Rhodes, Ford, 172.<\/p>\n

                6. (34)  Layne Riggs, Ford, 172.<\/p>\n

                7. (14)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                8. (12)  Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                9. (20)  Ty Majeski, Ford, 172.<\/p>\n

                10. (8)  Chandler Smith, Ford, 172.<\/p>\n

                11. (19)  Parker Kligerman, RAM, 172.<\/p>\n

                12. (23)  Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                13. (17)  Brenden Queen #, RAM, 172.<\/p>\n

                14. (3)  Giovanni Ruggiero, Toyota, 172.<\/p>\n

                15. (13)  Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                16. (22)  Dawson Sutton, Chevrolet, 172.<\/p>\n

                17. (21)  William Sawalich(i), Toyota, 171.<\/p>\n

                18. (27)  Toni Breidinger, Chevrolet, 171.<\/p>\n

                19. (7)  Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 171.<\/p>\n

                20. (30)  Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 170.<\/p>\n

                21. (28)  Mini Tyrrell #, RAM, 170.<\/p>\n

                22. (31)  Josh Reaume, Ford, 169.<\/p>\n

                23. (32)  Frankie Muniz, Ford, 168.<\/p>\n

                24. (33)  Caleb Costner, Chevrolet, 168.<\/p>\n

                25. (25)  Corey LaJoie, RAM, 165.<\/p>\n

                26. (29)  Clayton Green, Ford, 165.<\/p>\n

                27. (24)  Justin Haley, RAM, Accident, 164.<\/p>\n

                28. (5)  Tanner Gray, Toyota, Accident, 164.<\/p>\n

                29. (2)  Jake Garcia, Ford, Accident, 163.<\/p>\n

                30. (15)  Andres Perez De Lara, Chevrolet, Accident, 163.<\/p>\n

                31. (26)  Kris Wright, Chevrolet, 163.<\/p>\n

                32. (9)  Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 156.<\/p>\n

                33. (16)  Conner Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 155.<\/p>\n

                34. (35)  Cory Roper, Toyota, Suspension, 123.<\/p>\n

                35. (4)  Cole Butcher #, Ford, Accident, 51.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  112.924 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 17 Mins, 5 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.730 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  8 for 39 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  14 among 9 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   B. Rhodes 1-41;C. Hocevar(i) 42;B. Jones(i) 43-58;C. Hocevar(i) 59-75;D. Sutton 76-77;M. Tyrrell # 78;C. Hocevar(i) 79-121;L. Riggs 122-127;T. Gray 128-129;D. Sutton 130-132;G. Ruggiero 133-148;K. Honeycutt 149-151;C. Hocevar(i) 152-164;G. Ruggiero 165-170;C. Hocevar(i) 171-172.<\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Carson Hocevar(i) 5 times for 76 laps; Ben Rhodes 1 time for 41 laps; Giovanni Ruggiero 2 times for 22 laps; Brandon Jones(i) 1 time for 16 laps; Layne Riggs 1 time for 6 laps; Dawson Sutton 2 times for 5 laps; Kaden Honeycutt 1 time for 3 laps; Tanner Gray 1 time for 2 laps; Mini Tyrrell # 1 time for 1 lap.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 99,77,17,11,38,52,9,34,88,45<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 77,11,17,26,18,14,9,15,38,44<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio FORT WORTH \u2013 Carson Hocevar is NASCAR\u2019s definition of \u201csmokin\u2019 hot.\u201d Five days after scoring his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway, Hocevar emerged as the winner of a two-lap shootout at Texas Motor Speedway that served as an exclamation point to a frantic NASCAR Craftsman Truck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":678,"featured_media":57758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[894,16,882,21],"class_list":["post-57696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-carson-hocevar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-craftsmen-truck-series","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A42Z4451a-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-f0A","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57696"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57765,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57696\/revisions\/57765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}