Carson Hocevar proved he belongs in victory lane.
Hocevar scored his first win at Texas by assuming the lead when the leaders crashed, resulting in questions about whether the young driver deserved to be in victory lane. But he won Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway in thoroughly dominant fashion – leading the last forty laps and surviving a desperate restart with three-to-go – to prove that he belonged there.
“I’m so excited I can finally put that other to rest, and hopefully I can win a lot more races,” Hocevar said.
The win continues a strong streak throughout all levels of NASCAR for the driver, too. In the Trucks, it’s his fifth-consecutive top-five finish. He’s finished in the top ten in both of his last Xfinity Series starts. And in the Cup Series, Hocevar impressed by climbing through the field in a Spire Motorsports car, subbing for Corey Lajoie, before brake failure forced him out of the race. The win puts a cherry on top of a remarkable start to the season.
The win also earns him the $50,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus. Ben Rhodes and Grant Enfinger also scored the bonus with wins in the last two races, but neither were able to win again and convert the bonus to a possible $150,000. This was the final race of the Challenge.
Though Zane Smith couldn’t quite catch Hocevar on the final restart despite, his runner-up finish is still a major return to form: it’s his first finish inside the top-twenty in four races. And he got a stage win to boot.
“It’s been a rough four to five weeks,” Smith acknowledged. “So, to leave here with a stage win and being able to contend all night long, we should all be pretty proud.”
Before the caution flag flew, Smith was catching Hocevar on track, halving his lead and running fast laps on track. The restart didn’t play to his favor, as Smith struggled to time the jump.
“We just simply just struggled from first to second, but we were really good from third to fourth,” he added. “That’s all there was to it. I was honestly kind of bummed out when the caution came out there, because I knew we struggled all day on restarts. But we had a really fast Speedco Ford. Just wish we had the clean air there.”
Nick Sanchez went off-strategy in the restart, pitting for tires, and was able to use them to full effect in the restart. He challenged the leaders through the final turn and nearly passed Smith for second, settling for third in a photo-finish at the line.
Sanchez had a great day throughout, earning the pole and leading 37 laps early. But that just made the ending all the more difficult to bear.
“At the end of the day, it was a good points night, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” he acknowledged.
Fourth-place Corey Heim maintains the series lead with a strong run at a track he readily admits isn’t a favorite. Still, he led the most laps and won the second stage. The performance leaves him optimistic in the final three-race run to the Playoffs.
“We’ve had really fast Tundra TRD Pros throughout the whole year,” Heim said. “I said this throughout the 2023 season, I’ve felt like we’ve been progressing every week. This isn’t one of my best tracks, so I feel like it was a solid run for us, good points. We will keep that momentum rolling – keep plugging away at it.”
Part-time Truck Series competitor Bayley Currey rounded out the top five.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – Rackley Roofing 200
Nashville Superspeedway
Nashville, Tennessee
Friday, June 23, 2023
1. (7) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 150.
2. (8) Zane Smith, Ford, 150.
3. (1) Nick Sanchez #, Chevrolet, 150.
4. (4) Corey Heim, Toyota, 150.
5. (2) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 150.
6. (12) Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 150.
7. (15) Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 150.
8. (17) Tyler Ankrum, Toyota, 150.
9. (16) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 150.
10. (21) Jake Garcia #, Chevrolet, 150.
11. (5) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 150.
12. (24) Jake Drew, Ford, 150.
13. (6) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 150.
14. (10) Taylor Gray #, Toyota, 150.
15. (23) Matt Crafton, Ford, 150.
16. (22) Timmy Hill, Toyota, 150.
17. (28) Toni Breidinger, Toyota, 150.
18. (18) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 150.
19. (29) Nick Leitz, Chevrolet, 149.
20. (32) Mason Maggio, Ford, 149.
21. (34) Cory Roper, Ford, 148.
22. (9) Daniel Dye #, Chevrolet, 148.
23. (14) Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 148.
24. (27) Jonathan Shafer, Toyota, 147.
25. (33) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 147.
26. (35) Chase Janes, Ford, 147.
27. (31) Layne Riggs, Chevrolet, 147.
28. (20) Hailie Deegan, Ford, 146.
29. (25) Colby Howard, Chevrolet, 144.
30. (13) Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 144.
31. (11) Ty Majeski, Ford, 133.
32. (3) Rajah Caruth #, Chevrolet, 119.
33. (36) Dean Thompson, Toyota, DVP, 104.
34. (26) Bret Holmes #, Chevrolet, Accident, 92.
35. (30) Memphis Villarreal, Toyota, Electrical, 26.
36. (19) Lawless Alan, Chevrolet, Accident, 7.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 102.075 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 57 Mins, 16 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.271 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 43 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: N. Sanchez # 1-35;R. Caruth # 36;N. Sanchez # 37-38;Z. Smith 39-49;C. Heim 50-61;B. Currey 62;C. Heim 63-87;M. DiBenedetto 88-90;C. Heim 91-110;C. Hocevar 111-150.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Corey Heim 3 times for 57 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 40 laps; Nick Sanchez # 2 times for 37 laps; Zane Smith 1 time for 11 laps; Matt DiBenedetto 1 time for 3 laps; Bayley Currey 1 time for 1 lap; Rajah Caruth # 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 38,2,41,42,11,16,15,23,25,17
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,42,25,38,99,16,41,15,66,19
- Denny does Dover after surviving hard-charging Kyle Larson to tame the Monster - April 28, 2024
- The Monster Mile brings short track style to high banking - April 25, 2024
- Sam Mayer scores Xfinity win by an inch in photo finish at Texas - April 13, 2024