{"id":59914,"date":"2026-07-25T15:15:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59914"},"modified":"2026-07-26T10:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:57:15","slug":"carson-hocevar-delights-fans-with-pole-winning-run-for-the-brickyard-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/25\/carson-hocevar-delights-fans-with-pole-winning-run-for-the-brickyard-400\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Hocevar Delights Fans with Pole-Winning Run for the Brickyard 400"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SPEEDWAY, Ind.\u2014Standing on pit wall as Denny Hamlin completed his qualifying lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Carson Hocevar raised his arms in exultation and turned to hug Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n

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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 25: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, (L) celebrates with Daniel Suarez, driver of the #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, after winning the pole during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hocevar knew at that moment that Saturday\u2019s time trials at the historic 2.5-mile oval would not be a repeat of Michigan in June, when Hamlin, as the final qualifier, knocked Hocevar off the provisional pole at the 23-year-old\u2019s home track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In fact, after earning his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season and the third of his career, Hocevar will lead the field to green in Sunday\u2019s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET on TNT, IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI got out of the car, and they were cheering,\u201d Hocevar said of the crowd in the grandstands near the Yard of Bricks start\/finish line. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they were cheering for me or because I beat Denny (who qualified fifth at 185.835 mph).<\/p>\n

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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 25: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDenny stole one from me at Michigan. That\u2019s my home track, but this is my favorite track. I love Indy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With a pole-winning lap at 186.598 mph in the No. 77 Chevrolet, Hocevar edged Suarez (186.382 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.056 seconds. The session was a triumph for Spire Motorsports and owner Jeff Dickerson, an Indianapolis native.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With Michael McDowell qualifying sixth at 185.762 mph, Spire put all three of its cars within the first three rows of the grid.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt felt really good,\u201d Hocevar said of his blistering lap. \u201cMichael McDowell went out early and gave me the confidence that the car was going to be able stick with him putting up a good lap.<\/p>\n

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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 25: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI felt really comfortable. I love this place\u2026 You race differently if you\u2019re comfortable and confident here. I\u2019ve been confident since the first lap I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Toyota driver Tyler Reddick posted the third fastest lap at 186.077 mph and will start next to Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Ty Gibbs (185.966 mph). Naval Base Coronado winner, Corey Heim, claimed the seventh starting spot, followed by Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The top 10 featured six Chevrolets and four Toyotas. Ryan Blaney, competing against Todd Gilliland for the $1-million In-Season Challenge prize, drove the fastest Ford (185.197 mph) to a 13th-place starting spot. Gilliland qualified 36th at 182.460 mph.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Blaney will make his 400th career Cup Series start on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Defending race winner Bubba Wallace (183.861 mph) earned the 29th grid position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Suarez was ahead of Hocevar\u2019s pace early in his lap but lost time through the final two corners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI felt like I left a little bit out there,\u201d Suarez said. \u201cA little mistake in corner 3, but I\u2019m very proud of my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interview: Busch Light Pole Award Winner Carson Hocevar (No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet) –<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind.\u2014Standing on pit wall as Denny Hamlin completed his qualifying lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Carson Hocevar raised his arms in exultation and turned to hug Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez. Hocevar knew at that moment that Saturday\u2019s time trials at the historic 2.5-mile oval would not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":59930,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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],"tags":[303,894,421,16],"class_list":["post-59914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brickyard-400","tag-carson-hocevar","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287628965-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fAm","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59914","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59933,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59914\/revisions\/59933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}