If Carson Hocevar is the hurricane, perhaps it was the high winds trailing his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado that caused the drivers chasing him for the wind to kick sideways, allowing him to pull away and cruise to the win in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Race Results: SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas
Whatever the case, Hocevar, who collected his first career NASCAR Cup Series win a weekend ago at Talladega Superspeedway, was back in Victory Lane on Friday night.
This marks the sixth win of Hocevar’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, and the win came in his 87th career start. Hocevar was proud that he was able to come out on top of Kyle Busch.
Busch came back from a disastrous situation in the opening Stage of Friday’s race to record a runner-up finish, which allowed Spire Motorsports to enjoy a sweep of the top-two spots on Friday evening.
Busch slapped the outside wall off of Turn 4 in the opening Stage of the race, which caused a flat tire a couple of laps later. Busch was forced to pit road, where he lost a lap to the leaders. Busch would keep his nose clean the rest of the race, and would get his lap back on Lap 56.
From there, he methodically worked his way back to the front, and he became a true contender for the win, until he was shuffled to fifth in the closing laps. However, on an Overtime restart, the seas parted as Gio Ruggiero, and Layne Riggs went for a ride. Busch was able to claw his way to a runner-up finish.
Kaden Honeycutt, the series points leader would finish a disappointing third. Disappointing because he feels like he keeps letting his TRICON Garage team down in these late-race battles for the win.
“I’m proud to be able to drive a truck like this. It’s disappointing that I just keep failing. There’s no excuse for it,” Honeycutt said. “As soon as I got the lead, I didn’t protect it right, I didn’t do the right things and ultimately that’s what led us to lose.”
Still, Honeycutt further cemented himself as a championship favorite, as he took a 14-point lead over Chandler Smith in the series point standings with another great run on Friday night.
Brandon Jones, a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular, would finish in fourth, and he was followed across the finish line by Ben Rhodes, who started the race from the pole position.
Layne Riggs, Daniel Hemric, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski, and Chandler Smith rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
