NASCAR Weekend Preview: Texas Motor Speedway

After breakout win, Carson Hocevar brings confidence to Lone Star State

For Carson Hocevar, success arrived a week early.

Before last Sunday, it would have been reasonable to pick Texas Motor Speedway as a possible venue for Hocevar’s first NASCAR Cup Series win, given his performance at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.

After he stole the show last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, however, the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet is seeking his second straight victory in Sunday’s Wurth 400 Presented by LIQUI MOLY (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Far-fetched? Perhaps. But Hocevar has a history at the Fort Worth Track that might suggest otherwise.

In 2023, he claimed the first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory of his career at Texas on the way to a four-win season.

Last year in Cowtown, he won the only pole position of his Cup Series career with a lap at 191.659 mph.

“I feel good about it,” Hocevar said of Sunday’s race. “Obviously, we were on the pole last year and had speed, and I won my first-ever Truck race there.

“We have a lot of momentum and excitement behind us right now, while we go into a track that it is realistic to be up front and contend all day. We have been looking forward to and circling Texas for a couple weeks, so what happened last weekend is really an added bonus.”

Hocevar’s victory at Talladega was the second of the season for Chevrolet. Ford drivers have only one win so far this season—Ryan Blaney’s triumph at Phoenix Raceway.

The defending winner of Sunday’s race at Texas is Joey Logano, whose victory in Fort Worth last season is the last time a Ford driver not named Ryan Blaney won a Cup Series event.

Logano’s victory had a special emotional component that made it unforgettable to the three-time series champion.

“I remember, probably as much as anything, the day after, just because a little friend of mine—Liam—passed away the next day,” Logano said. “I remember his mom saying one of his last moments of enjoyment was sitting in the hospital watching us win.

“I thought that was probably one of the most incredible moments of my life, hearing that and just realizing what that win really meant and how it happened. I remember us not being the fastest car, and I remember just kind of finding ourselves in position to win late in the race, and we were able to take advantage of that.

“It made me feel like things were bigger than just the race. That race will always be one of the most remembered wins I’ve ever had because of that.”

To defend his victory at the track, Logano will have to overcome several obstacles in terms of statistics and performance. In the last nine Cup races at TMS, there hasn’t been a repeat winner.

Logano’s average finish at Texas (13.3) narrowly misses the top 10 all-time. At the last Cup event on a 1.5-mile track (April 19 at Kansas Speedway), Logano had a miserable time with the handling of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford and finished 30th.

Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season, has the best average finish at Texas among active drivers (11.0) and third-best all-time. Reddick also was the winner at Kansas two weekends ago.

Reddick scored his first Cup Series victory on an oval track at Texas in 2022.

Texas Motor Speedway features two fundamentally different sets of corners, the product of repaving and reconfiguration in 2017. Turns 1 and 2 are relatively flat, with Turns 3 and 4 higher-banked and faster.

Perhaps the new layout has contributed to unpredictable results at the track. Daniel Suarez boasts the longest active streak of top-10 finishes at Texas with three. Austin Dillon, a 2020 winner in Fort Worth, is second with two.

The tire combination Goodyear is providing this weekend has never been used at Texas before, but it’s a known quantity to Cup drivers and crew chiefs, having been run at Las Vegas, Darlington and Kansas this year.

Justin Allgaier hopes to turn close calls into a victory at Texas

Justin Allgaier’s statistics at Texas Motor Speedway render it nothing short of remarkable that the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has never won at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway in Fort Worth.

Allgaier has qualified in the top 10 in 12 of the last 13 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series events at the track, with a pole in 2023. He has finished in the top-five in five of the last seven races, with a best of second in 2021.

In the last three races combined, Allgaier has led 349 laps. He has won five of the last six stages at the track and a record seven overall.

Yet Allgaier is seeking his first victory at TMS in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 (3:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The irony is that Allgaier, the career leader in Dash 4 Cash wins with eight, isn’t eligible for the $100,000 bonus in the final race in this year’s Dash 4 Cash program. A victory, however, would suffice on its own merits.

“Texas has been a really good track for us over the last few years,” Allgaier acknowledged. “I know that (crew chief) Andrew (Overstreet) and all the guys on this Roto-Rooter Chevrolet are working really hard to give us another car capable of running up front again this weekend.

“We’ve come close here before, and hopefully we can be in a position at the end of the day to get that one spot better and come away with a Cowboy hat.”

Standing in Allgaier’s way is defending race winner Kyle Larson, who is making his fourth start of the season in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Larson has a victory, a second and a fourth in his first three 2026 starts in the car.

Sheldon Creed is seeking his third straight Dash 4 Cash bonus, having won at Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway with respective finishes of second and third. To collect the $100,000 prize, Creed must finish higher than three other eligible drivers—Corey Day, Sammy Smith and Brent Crews.

Fresh from his first career O’Reilly Series victory at Talladega, Day is eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus for the first time. Interestingly, in last Saturday’s race, Day became only the sixth driver in series history to notch his first career victory while leading only the final lap.

Kyle Busch hopes to add to impressive win total at Texas

Kyle Busch returns to action in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, and that may spell bad news for series regulars hoping to win Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series hasn’t raced on a 1.5-mile intermediate track since last May at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a gap of more than 11 months. In Texas, the series returns to a venue that presents unique challenges, where the backstretch flows from relatively flat Turns 1 and 2 into high-banked, high-speed Turns 3 and 4.

The 52nd CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Texas (most of any track) is unlikely to present a problem for Busch, who has won six of the previous 51 races there. In fact, Busch is nearly as prolific at Texas as he is at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Across all three of NASCAR’s national series, Busch has won 20 times in Fort Worth (four Cup, 10 O’Reilly and six Truck) versus 22 total victories at Thunder Valley.

“Texas is a track where I’ve had a lot of success in the Truck Series, including a win with Spire a couple of years ago,” said Busch, who will drive Spire’s No. 7 Chevrolet on Friday night.

“We had a lot of speed in our HendrickCars.com Silverado at Atlanta, and I know (Carson) Hocevar was really fast at Texas last year, so hopefully we can capitalize on the speed that Spire is bringing to the mile-and-a-half tracks and add another trophy to the trophy case.”

Hocevar will compete in the No. 77 Spire Chevrolet Silverado. He, Busch and Ross Chastain (No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevy) are the only three full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers entered in Friday night’s race.

However, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regulars Brandon Jones and William Sawalich will be driving Toyotas for TRICON Garage.

Last year’s winner, Corey Heim, is not entered. Busch is the most recent Texas winner in the field (2024).

NASCAR This Weekend

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
Track Length: 1.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Sunday, May 3
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: FS1, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400.5 miles (267 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 80),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 165), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 267)

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: Andy’s Frozen Custard 340
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
Track Length: 1.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, May 2
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,753,590
TV: CW, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 300 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200)

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: SpeedyCash.com 250
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
Track Length: 1.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, May 1
The Time: 8 p.m. ET
The Purse: $789,700
TV: FS1, 8 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 250.5 miles (167 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 40),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 80), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 167)