Carson Hocevar is officially a NASCAR Cup Series pole winner.
The Portage, Michigan-native will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, after posting the quickest time late in Saturday’s single-vehicle session.
It’s the first career pole at NASCAR’s top level for Hocevar, and the second for three-car organization Spire Motorsports — both of which have now come on intermediate racetracks this season.
Hocevar, piloting the No. 77 Chili’s Ride The ‘Dente Chevrolet, posted a lap time of 28.175 seconds (191.659mph) on his way to his maiden pole in the NASCAR Cup Series. It’s the quickest qualifying time at Texas Motor Speedway since 2018.
“Yeah, it’s really big. It’s really big for these guys. It’s super impressive for what they’ve been able to do. You know, this is the same group on pit road, off pit road, at the shop,” said Hocevar. “Everybody working on the No. 77 is the same as when I started at Spire last year. They are a lot of the same guys, who were in the thick of it. It’s just huge where we’ve been able to bring this team.”
NASCAR Cup Series points leader William Byron will start alongside Hocevar in Sunday’s 400-mile contest from Fort Worth, Texas, after recording a lap time just 14 one-thousandths slower than polesitter Hocevar.
PRACTICE RESULTS: Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway
Austin Cindric, winner of last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway and the fastest of the drivers on the 10-lap average in practice, qualified in third place.
Kyle Larson will start Sunday’s event from fourth place, while Michael McDowell, a teammate of polesitter Carson Hocevar, completes the top five. For the first time in their NASCAR Cup Series tenure, Spire Motorsports has placed a pair of entries in the top five in qualifying.
Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger (who was quickest in Group A in practice) will round out the first five rows for Sunday’s event at Texas Motor Speedway.
STARTING LINEUP: Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway
Other notable drivers starting outside the top-10 at Texas Motor Speedway include: Alex Bowman (11th), Christopher Bell (16th), Tyler Reddick (17th), Chase Brscoe (22nd), Ryan Blaney (24th), Kyle Busch (26th), Joey Logano (27th), Chase Elliott (29th), Brad Keselowski (30th), and Ross Chastain (31st).
The Würth 400 Presented by LIQUI MOLI at Texas Motor Speedway will take place on Sunday, May 4 at 3:30 PM ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
