SpeedyCash.com 250

Carson Hocevar finds magic in NASCAR Overtime, wins at Texas

Nick Sanchez led an absolutely dominant 168 of 172 laps in Saturday’s SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway, but the 21-year-old rookie and reigning NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith collided at the front of the field after taking the white flag and Carson Hocevar instead drove through to take his first career victory in double overtime.

The 20-year-old Hocevar led only that last overtime lap in the No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet to claim his first win by 1.628 seconds over Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Chase Purdy — career-best finishes for both drivers.

After slight contact with Smith racing door-to-door for the win, Sanchez got loose and had to regain control of the truck heading to the white flag. Video replays showed that as he steadied his truck, he was hit from behind by Hocevar, whose truck was carrying the momentum as Sanchez was recovering from his slight miscue. The contact from behind was just enough to spin Sanchez back across the track and collect Smith’s truck while Hocevar drove forward to the finish line and waited for official word of the win.

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“I didn’t mean to get into him, I just meant to give him a push, and he got sideways the second I hit him, I apologize to them, I’ll take the fall for it. I wrecked a Chevy, and I’ll go talk to him about it – he deserved to win for sure,” Hocevar said of the contact with Sanchez.

“But all the times we were the fastest car, and I don’t win, and this team deserves to win more than anything, I can stop getting the same question asked all the time now,” continued Hocevar, who has four career runner-up finishes. “We didn’t deserve to win today, but we were in the right spot at the right time.”

Certainly, Sanchez got plenty of practice in mastering restarts, with six of the 12 cautions coming in the final 40 laps of the race. He drove his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet to the front each time, having to duel side-by-side with Smith late in the race.

“Obviously, coming to the last lap, me and the 38 [Zane Smith] were playing an aggressive side-drafting game, and I got a little too aggressive on him, got loose, went through the grass and saved it,” Sanchez said. “Just got hit by the 42 [Hocevar]. I don’t know what else to say about that. It is what it is, that’s racing.

“This is what we’ve been working hard to do,” continued Sanchez, who swept both stage wins. “We don’t want to just win, we want to dominate. Today we dominated, but we didn’t win, so just got to go back and see what I can do better. Try to build on strengths. I guess the positive is we got stage points, that’s something to fall back on. But I want to win, that’s my goal.”

MORE: Hocevar: ‘Didn’t deserve’ Saturday’s win at Texas | ‘It is what it is’: Nick Sanchez wrecks on final restart

Veteran Stewart Friesen finished third, with Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounding out the top five; Garcia was the highest-finishing rookie. Hailie Deegan equaled her career-best finish with a sixth-place run. Corey Heim, Ryan Vargas, Jack Wood and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top 10.

Smith scored 14th, and Sanchez was scored 16th. The race leaves Majeski now with a three-point edge over Smith atop the championship standings.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action next week in Saturday’s Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection in the Truck Series garage is complete with no issues, confirming Hocevar as the winner.