Carson Hocevar Stays Hot With Texas Truck Win

Carson Hocevar won his second straight NASCAR race on Friday, taking the Craftsman Truck Series checkered flag at Texas Motor Speedway. Just days after his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, Hocevar kept it rolling with his first Truck Series win since May 2025. Fittingly, he took the No. 77 Chili’s Chevrolet to Victory Lane twice in six days.

“We’ve gotta go burn down Chili’s here somewhere,” Hocevar said in his frontstretch interview. “It’s been a struggle on the Truck side, but I’m so thankful to get it done here.” Hocevar is now a six-time winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Texas Motor Speedway was the site of his first career Truck win in May 2023, driving for Niece Motorsports.

In order to win on Friday, Hocevar had to fend off some of the Truck Series’ best drivers in a multi-phase battle to the finish. Over the last three restarts the racing was intense, pitting Hocevar against the likes of Kyle Busch, Gio Ruggiero, Brandon Jones, Layne Riggs, and Kaden Honeycutt.

After leading the most laps in the race, Hocevar was set back by a slow pit stop in Stage 3. Cycling out fifth, the 23-year-old appeared too far back to catch the leaders under green. Fortunately for the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team, a spin from Tyler Ankrum created a brand new race.

Another caution flew when Stewart Friesen lost control of his No. 52 Toyota exiting Turn 4 with ten laps to go. After backing into the outside wall, Friesen rebounded back into traffic and caused Grant Enfinger to sustain damage in the infield grass. The field was red-flagged while crews scrambled to clear the racetrack.

The Final Two Restarts

On the penultimate restart Hocevar surged and narrowly cleared Busch and Ruggiero. The trio nearly went four-wide for the lead alongside Jones in Turn 1. Hocevar led with Ruggiero in close pursuit, and the two then dueled intensely until another they were halted by another yellow-red flag combination. This time it came from a wreck involving Connor Jones, Justin Haley, Tanner Gray, and Jake Garcia.

Going back to green, Ruggiero almost cleared Hocevar with two laps to go. The No. 77 Chevy rallied back on the outside and Hocevar checked out for the win. Kyle Busch finished second, a major rebound from a blown tire that knocked him from the lead lap in Stage 1. Kaden Honeycutt was the best-finishing Truck Series regular in third, followed by Brandon Jones in fourth and pole-sitter Ben Rhodes in fifth.

“We had an eventful night,” Busch said. “When we put tires on, our last set of tires, we were really fast there, felt really good.”

Points Outlook

Kaden Honeycutt seized the points lead from Chandler Smith on Friday, and now sits 14 points ahead for Tricon Garage. Smith hung on to second, while his Front Row Motorsport teammate Layne Riggs sits third in points 19 points out.

Jake Garcia has the tenth and final spot for the Truck Series Chase by a slim one-point margin over JustinHaley. Daniel Hemric is nine points outside the cutoff line, with Brenden Queen behind him at 11 points back.

Race Results