October 21, 2023 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Carson Hocevar flies NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series checkers at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Carson Hocevar secured his first NASCAR CRATSMAN Truck Series Championship 4 appearance with a victory Saturday in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway earning all four of his career series wins this season – the trophy Saturday most impactful among them.

Hocevar put his No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead with 11 laps remaining and held off the hard-charging Zane Smith by 2.705-seconds to claim the win over the reigning series champion, whose runner-up effort was disqualified by NASCAR after a post-race technical inspection found the defending series champion’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford was illegal – using an unapproved windshield support.

“We are disappointed in the disqualification,’’ Front Row Motorsports said in a statement after the NASCAR inspecition. “We will continue to work and discuss with NASCAR officials back at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C. before making any further comment.’’

The DQ moved ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes into runner-up on the afternoon helping him to advance to the Playoffs – prevailing in a tiebreaker with rookie Nick Sanchez; the polesitter who finished 17th after making contact with another truck coming to pit road for his final stop.

Regular season champion, TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, GMS Racing’s Grant Enfinger and Hocevar’s Niece Motorsports teammate Bailey Curry rounded out the top five at Homestead.

Heim, Hocevar, Enfinger and Rhodes will now race for the championship Nov. 3 at Phoenix Raceway.

Hocevar celebrated the clutch win by climbing high atop the flag stand to claim the checkered flag in person. He threw it down to the cheering fans behind the fence then climbed back down on the grandstand side to high-five fans and celebrate the biggest win of his life – to date.

“It kills me I can’t do a burn-out but we have to take this truck to Phoenix,’’ a grinning Hocevar said. “This truck was so good. We just got behind on pit stops and just lost track position which was unfortunate, but man, it’s so good to feel [like this]. I love it.

“I thought we could win today with our truck, even with all the setbacks from the debris and everything, we had a shot to win and we did just that.’’

The battle for that final Playoff position was as dramatic as the fight for the victory.

Rhodes came into this final regular season race only five points behind Sanchez for the fourth championship-eligible transfer position. He finished 24th in the opening stage and 10th in the second stage. It still left him outside looking into the Championship 4, so Rhodes’ ThorSport team opted to pit for fresh tires early and out of pit sequence. The move allowed his No. 99 ThorSport Ford to take the race lead as the other frontrunners pit later.

He held the point with 30 laps remaining only to have Hocevar and Smith chase him back down. Hocevar passed him with 11 laps remaining, Smith a lap later.

“We failed Ben today, we didn’t give him a very good truck and he bailed us out at the end there,’’ Rhodes’ crew chief Rich Lushes said. “It was the only call we had. We had to do something different than everybody else and it all worked out so I guess we’re going to [championship] again.’’

It was a heartbreaking ending for the 22-year old Sanchez, who is from nearby Miami and raced often at Homestead-Miami Speedway as he was coming up the junior ranks. He won the pole and led the opening five laps, only to see his Playoff hopes in jeopardy after a miscue approaching his final pit stop with 34 laps remaining. His No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet hit the back of Tanner Gray’s truck as the two were slowing to enter pit road causing noticeable damage to Sanchez’ Chevrolet.

“Obviously I lost a lot of time there and just lost time in the pits trying to fix it,’’ Sanchez said. “Just my fault, no two ways to it. I really didn’t know the 15 was pitting and didn’t slow down [enough]. So that’s on me. I apologize to my team. They’re going to support me. To miss by one-point is pretty rough, but all you can do it go to Phoenix and try to win.’

Heim led a race best 57 of the 134 laps and swept both Stage victories. His third place finish marked the series best 15th-consecutive top-10 finish of the season.

“I really thought we had them covered today, I mean we were smoking the first two stages and kind of waiting on the third stage and then it went out like a light switch so we’ll look everything over,’’ Heim said, adding, “We’ve got bigger things on the horizon so we’ll focus on that.’’

Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Rajah Caruth, Ty Majeski and Chase Purdy rounded out the top 10 finishing order. Majeski joins Smith, Sanchez and Christian Eckes to be eliminated from Playoff contention.

Eckes finished 20th after what looked like a sure-bet top-10 finish was hampered by penalties and miscues on the afternoon. He was called for moving lanes on a restart and another time for speeding on his pit road exit late in the race.

“We had a truck able to advance and just kept making mistakes,’’ Eckes said. “Just wasn’t good enough today.’’

IndyCar star Marco Andretti finished 18h in his second series start in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. He’s scheduled to race at Phoenix in two weeks.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series concludes the season with the Craftsman 150 at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 3 (10:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – Baptist Health Cancer Care 200
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Florida

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 42 Carson Hocevar (P) Worldwide Express Chevrolet 134 3 8 51 Running 1 11 5
2 21 99 Ben Rhodes (P) Campers Inn RV Ford 134  9 37 Running 1 22
3 8 11 Corey Heim (P) Chateau Elan/Explore Braselton Toyota 134 1 1 54 Running 3 57 2
4 3 23 Grant Enfinger (P) Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 134 4  40 Running  
5 17 41 Bayley Currey Unishippers Chevrolet 134  2 41 Running  
6 9 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Toyota 134 5 4 44 Running  
7 22 88 Matt Crafton Chi Chis/Menards Ford 134 8 6 38 Running  
8 13 24 Rajah Caruth # Wendell Scott Foundation Chevrolet 134  10 30 Running  
9 4 98 Ty Majeski (P) Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford 134 2 5 43 Running 1 1
10 14 4 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 134 9 7 33 Running  
11 6 15 Tanner Gray Waterfront Properties Toyota 134   26 Running 1 4
12 11 51 Jack Wood High Fives Foundation Chevrolet 134   25 Running  
13 12 17 Taylor Gray # Dead On Tools Toyota 134   24 Running  
14 32 25 Trevor Bayne(i) Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 134   0 Running  
15 15 35 Jake Garcia # Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet 133   22 Running  
16 5 5 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 133   21 Running  
17 1 2 Nick Sanchez # (P) Gainbridge Chevrolet 133 7 3 32 Running 1 5
18 27 7 Marco Andretti kin.com Chevrolet 133   19 Running  
19 23 45 Lawless Alan AUTODockit Chevrolet 133   18 Running  
20 10 19 Christian Eckes (P) Instacoat Premium Products Chevrolet 133 6  22 Running  
21 19 43 Daniel Dye # Bull & Boar Barbecue Shop Chevrolet 133   16 Running  
22 26 56 Tyler Hill HairClub Toyota 133   15 Running  
23 25 20 Nick Leitz Precision Measurements Chevrolet 133   14 Running  
24 18 02 Brad Perez(i) Space Beans Chevrolet 133   0 Running  
25 16 16 Tyler Ankrum LiUNA! Toyota 133 10  13 Running  
26 33 30 Jonathan Shafer Osgar's Autobody Toyota 132   11 Running  
27 29 22 Mason Maggio ACE Hardware Hobe Sound Ford 131   10 Running  
28 20 13 Hailie Deegan Fresh from Florida Ford 131   9 Running  
29 31 33 Memphis Villarreal Laredo Trailer Supply Ford 131   8 Running  
30 24 9 Colby Howard Grant County Mulch Chevrolet 129   7 Running  
31 34 46 Armani Williams Blue Sprig Toyota 121   6 Running  
32 28 04 Spencer Davis Fly Alliance/CarQuest Ford 65   5 Electrical  
33 30 12 Spencer Boyd Crowe Equipment Chevrolet 50   4 Electrical  
34 7 38 Zane Smith (P) Ambetter Health Ford 134   3 Running 1 34

Average Speed of Race Winner:  110.965 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 48 Mins, 41 Secs. Margin of Victory:  2.705 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  5 for 29 laps.

Lead Changes:  8 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   N. Sanchez # (P) 1-5;C. Heim (P) 6-33;T. Majeski (P) 34;C. Heim (P) 35-54;T. Gray 55-58;C. Heim (P) 59-67;Z. Smith (P) 68-101;B. Rhodes (P) 102-123;C. Hocevar (P) 124-134.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Corey Heim (P) 3 times for 57 laps; Zane Smith (P) 1 time for 34 laps; Ben Rhodes (P) 1 time for 22 laps; Carson Hocevar (P) 1 time for 11 laps; Nick Sanchez # (P) 1 time for 5 laps; Tanner Gray 1 time for 4 laps; Ty Majeski (P) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,98,42,23,52,19,2,88,4,16
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,41,2,52,98,88,4,42,99,24