KANSAS CITY, Kan: Carson Hocevar and crew chief Phil Gould threw a Hail Mary at Kansas Speedway, but they came up one lap short in Friday night’s Kansas Lottery 200.
Struggling with the handling of their No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST throughout the final round of the opening race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs, the team opted to top off for fuel at the end of the fourth caution flag of the night and hope they could stretch the fuel tank to the finish.
A 53-lap green flag would see Hocevar work through the field and take control of the race on Lap 106 during green flag pit stops. His mission to vault into the race lead work but he had to stop a hard-changing John Hunter Nemechek who found himself on the bumper of the No. 42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet coming to the white flag.
Nemechek made his pass on Hocevar entering Turn 1 and by the exit of Turn 2 onto the backstretch, the entire tank had been consumed of fuel with Hocevar rocking his truck back and forth hoping the fumes would carry him to the finish.
His efforts worked with the Niece Motorsports driver delivering a second-place effort.
Despite their gamble, however, it wasn’t enough as Christian Eckes the driver on the outside looking in was able to pass several trucks in the closing lap and with his 10th place finish was able to take one of the coveted eight positions in the NASCAR Playoffs putting Hocevar the first man out.
After the race, Hocevar was understandably dejected.
“I don’t know,” Hocevar said. “I don’t know how your supposed to handle these as many times I’ve come this close I should be used to these. I’m going to be my bridesmaid at my own wedding. I don’t know.
“I thought I saved too much and could have gone harder and built a gap. Into Turn 3 coming to the white flag, I started sputtering, I knew it was game over. The No. 19 (Derek Kraus) had an issue and I lost three seconds there. Looking back, I wish I could have gotten those back.”
Hocevar, 19, wasn’t sure if his crew chief strategy was going to work out, but he knew he had to faith in his leader.
“Phil Gould made a hell of a call even though I didn’t see it,” added Hocevar. “56 laps to go, there’s going to be a yellow, right? It’s a cut-off race and it’s the Truck Series of all things. I was sitting there shaking my head. (He) made the right call. He deserved to win that race. Worldwide Express deserved to win that race just on strategy – we were nowhere near the best car (truck).
“Kyle (Busch, Kyle Busch Motorsports team owner) needs to go to Kaulig or RCR wherever he’s going so I don’t have to run against the No. 4 truck as much. It seems like I always run second to him. They were the class of the field all night. I just got beat.”
Knowing he didn’t have the speed to win the race, it was tough for the Portage, Mich. native to accept that their winning plan didn’t work out.
“We had the winning strategy, obviously it didn’t’ work out,” he said.
In the Round of 10, Hocevar was joined by three-time Truck Series champion Matt Crafton as the other driver who failed to advance to the Round of 8 which begins with the UNOH 200 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Sept. 15, 2022.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
