Truck Series: Hocevar stays hot like a chili and wins Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Carson Hocevar storms to the lead on the outside to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Speedycash.com 250 in overtime at Texas.

Five days after his maiden Cup Series win, he stayed as hot as a chili to win his first Truck Series race of the season – the sixth of his career.

Carson Hocevar won stage two and looked like he was going to walk away with his first Truck Series win of the season until his lone green flag pit stop midway through the final stage.

His crew had trouble getting the right front bolted on which cost them around five seconds. They did not have those seconds to lose and the Tricon Garage duo of Gio Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt leaped him off pit road.

The faster Layne Riggs then passed Hocevar on the racetrack and set him back to fourth – a place he seemed destined to stay.

Then a late caution with 20 laps remaining bunched the field back together and Hocevar radioed in the possibility of a loose tire, an issue that did not deter him.

He rallied from fourth to retake the lead and fought his challengers hard until a caution occurred with under three laps to go.

Jake Garcia started the day in second and even obtained the fastest lap point on lap two but it was what happened at the end of the race that defined his day.

As the leaders fought in turns one and two with three to go, Garcia tried to pit after a flat tire in turn four. His sudden decision to pit caused the final caution of the day.

Multiple trucks took huge hits which put the field under the second red flag of the event. Justin Haley took the brunt of the damage and even wheelied after hitting the infield grass. Connor Jones, his teammate Andres Perez De Lara, and Tanner Gray also retired from the wreck.

That second red flag event caused the overtime finish where Carson regained the lead from Gio Ruggiero on the restart and never looked back to win.

Notable Finishes

Kyle Busch made up immense ground on the final restart to provide Spire Motrosports their second 1-2 finish of the truck series season.

He battled through adversity early in stage one after he pit for a loose wheel which set him down a lap which he got back midway through the race to finish second.

Kaden Honeycutt went home to Texas and collected a nice top five effort in third. He unfortunately chose the wrong lanes to make a run from late but left the track as the points leader once again.

Brandon Jones played the a good hand in the strategy game to take the lead in stage two. He led the third most laps on the day and came home fourth after taking advantage of a sliding Ruggiero.

Ben Rhodes qualified on pole and led the first stage wire to wire to collect his third stage win of the season. He led the second most laps on the day and captured his third top five of the season in fifth.

Layne Riggs charged to the front after his 34th-placed start. He looked like the truck to beat in the later half of the race but finished sixth.

Daniel Hemric, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski, and Chandler Smith all had a relatively quiet race but came through to round out the top ten finishers.

Parker Kligerman finished his stint in the RAM free agent truck in 11th while Cup Series regular Ross Chastain finished behind him in 12th.

Toni Breidinger made her first start of the season and wound up with a nice top twenty finish in 18th.

Finally Cole Butcher started a career-best fourth but found the wall in stage two to render him 35th and last.

The full results of the SpeedyCash.com 250 is below

Full Results