Carson Hocevar finishes second at Nashville

LEBANON, TENN. — The finish finally matched the pace for Carson Hocevar, who came home second Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway.

Coming off of a strong run in the Coca-Cola 600 that ended suddenly with a blown engine, the No. 77 team unloaded with plenty of pace at Nashville. Although Hocevar qualified 26th for the race and scuffled with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in stage two, he finished seventh in the stage and grabbed four bonus points.

After a hectic first two stages, the final stage played out pretty straightforward as Ryan Blaney finished off his winning run with a comfortable margin. Behind him, Hocevar passed Denny Hamlin in the final green flag pit cycle to get second.

The result is a welcome sight for a team who has displayed a ton of potential but couldn’t put it all together for a solid finish. He runs inside the top-10 on a near-weekly basis but has only finished inside the top-10 at Talladega and Atlanta. 

In all, Hocevar collected the fifth-most points Sunday at Nashville. Now, he is four points below the playoff cutline with 12 races to go in the regular season.

Next week, he has a chance to increase on that lead at his home racetrack, Michigan International Speedway. Last season, he finished 10th there. 

Hocevar may have to look over his shoulder for Stenhouse, however.

Stenhouse is also near the cutline (-6) and wasn’t happy about getting wrecked by a rival in the points hunt.

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Catch the NASCAR Cup Series’ Firekeepers Casino 400 next Sunday, June 8, at 2 p.m. ET, on Prime Video, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.