Carson Hocevar Turns Fastest Lap in Battle at Berlin Qualifying; Erik Jones on Pole After Invert

Carson Hocevar has proved to have a very fast car this week at Berlin Raceway. The NASCAR star was fastest in opening practice for the UARA National Series Battle at Berlin 250 on Wednesday afternoon, and in the evening qualifying session, he once again turned the quickest lap of anyone in the 31-car field.

It is worth noting that Hocevar will not start from the pole as there was a qualifying redraw invert prior to the start of Wednesday night’s Battle at Berlin 250. The top-eight qualifiers will be inverted, which means Hocevar will start back in eighth, while fellow NASCAR star Erik Jones will roll from the pole.

Hcoevar clocked in with a 16.430 second circuit around the 7/16-mile short track in the qualifying session in his No. 71H Zeigler Auto Group machine.

“I thought it was pretty good,” Hocevar said of his qualifying lap. “You know, it’s tough. Berlin isn’t like it was a year ago, or even in the spring here. It’s a lot different and the times have gotten a lot slower with this McCreary tire. But luckily we were really quick in this TK Racing / VanDoorn car, Zeigler Auto Group got a lot of really good folks here. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a fast time so to be able to do that tells us we feel good about our race car.”

Brian Campbell was second fastest in the session, and was just 0.009 seconds off the fast time set by Hocevar.

Dylan Stovall was perhaps the story of the day as he suffered a massive crash in practice earlier in the day after sliding in oil laid down on the track by another car, which wiped out his primary car.

A massive hit for Dylan Stovall in #BattleAtBerlin practice, luckily he was okay after the incident. He day is likely done before it really got started. Stay tuned for more updates from @BerlinRaceway.

? @kgeyer3 pic.twitter.com/JbMQZejC2R

— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) August 7, 2024

Stovall’s team rallied back to their shop and were able to get a backup car turned around in time to make it to the track for qualifying. And in qualifying, he impressed as he cranked out the third-fastest lap.

“Literally everybody in the pits helped us get the car together and get it ready here at the racetrack. Kind of just took a deep breath and cleared our mind and drove it into 1 and drove it into 3 and hoped it stuck in each corner and it laid down a lap, man. I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to say. We just put it P3 at the Battle at Berlin 250.”

Following the qualifying session, Stovall told the broadcast team that his primary car was a brand new race car from his VanDoorn Racing team. With it being wiped out, he’s back to driving “Old Faithful” for the remainder of the night.

“We call this [car] Old Faithful, man. We drove it all year last year at Berlin on the Hoosier tire. But we qualified like 28th in the race and drove all the way up to sixth. This car has done nothing but treat us good. We have good notes on this car, and I’ve got an amazing team behind me.”

Kyle Crump, Jeremy Doss, Kole Raz, Evan Szotko, and Erik Jones rounded out the top-eight qualifiers in the session.

Sean Gipson had turned the 14th-fastest lap on the opening lap of his qualifying run but experienced a stuck throttle on the second lap, which sent him into the tire barriers on the exit of Turn 2. After the crash, Gipson and his team were forced to withdraw from the event.

Another wild ride at Berlin, this time for Sean Gipson. He goes off the back stretch after an issue during #BattleAtBerlin qualifying. Luckily the driver was okay and unharmed.

Qualifying continues on Racing America! ? pic.twitter.com/sjRE9SCuae

— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) August 7, 2024

UARA National Series Battle at Berlin 250 Starting Lineup