Dillon, Hocevar, Haley find Gateway to Top-10 at WWT Raceway

By Jonathan Fjeld and Joe Laracuente

MADISON, Illinois — Austin Dillon, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley all notched their second Top-10 finish of the NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday.

Dillon finished a season-high sixth at World Wide Technology Raceway. The Richard Childress Racing driver hasn’t finished this well since getting third at Bristol dirt last year. He also hasn’t finished that well on a regular oval since getting fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2022.

The lead-up to the good run began on lap 18. Austin Dillon and teammate Kyle Busch which let them stay out during the caution for stage one on lap 45. After going 1-2 on the restart, they pitted on lap 90 and again on lap 113 for fresh tires.

Busch took two tires and fared worse than Dillon at the end of stage two on lap 140. Busch wrecked out while Dillon held to ninth.

Dillon stayed out during the caution and pitted for the last time on lap 178. He ultimately held on to finish sixth.

“Man, just thank you to the good lord above. That was a huge run for this team. I didn’t expect it after practice, but the guys made some great adjustments and our No. 3 DOW / Rivers are Life Chevy, with Ducks Unlimited on the side of the car, was really solid all day long, even in traffic. It was just a solid day for the No. 3 Chevy team that we really needed,” Dillon said.

Sunday’s sixth-place finish was only his fourth finish better than 24th (22nd at Atlanta, 16th at Las Vegas and eighth at Texas the others).

Two positions behind him was Carson Hocevar who, like Dillon, didn’t start the race well.

“We had a really slow stop at the beginning of the race with a lug nut coming off. That really put us behind. We knew we had a great Chevy, so we just did everything we could,” Hocevar explained.

Hocevar stayed out long in stage two and benefited from a timely caution on lap 113. Hocevar was one of the lucky 17 lead-lap drivers who pitted then and shuffled to fourth when stage three started.

“We caught the caution right, but then after that, our car was really good. We ran as high of fourth and we were catching third,” he said.

On lap 173, Hocevar pitted for the final time. While he had some issues maintaining his track position, he held on to finish eighth.

“Our lights were off, so we were a little slow down pit road. That was probably the difference of getting a top-five finish or not. All-in-all, it was just a really good job by this No. 77 team,” Hocevar said after his second Top-10 of his rookie season.

Behind Hocevar was Justin Haley who continues to put up historic numbers for Rick Ware Racing. Haley scored just the second non-drafting track Top-10 finish for RWR, ever, and their second Top-10 finish in the last three races.

Haley had to take the wavearound on lap 113. Then, during the caution for stage two, he pitted on lap 143 and held on for 53 laps. The difference in tires let Haley climb from 18th on lap 197 to 14th on lap 220 and finally to ninth at the checkered flag.

“I’m really happy with the progress the team is doing. Justin is putting some blocks on some guys and protected his top-10. He’s a fighter. It’s a great weekend for RWR,” team owner Rick Ware told TRE. “We keep reinvesting and it’s starting to pay off. We have good infrastructure and the cars are good when the roll off the trailers. And Justin is doing a great job.”

All three drivers have a long way to go to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs on points. Hocevar is 21st in points (-109 points to the cutline) while Dillon is 30th (-158) and Haley is 31st (-163). With more performances like these, though, they may cure that problem with a win.