Carson Hocevar Achieved The "Coolest Thing" With Texas Pole

Carson Hocevar is on a heater right now. Since last Sunday, the Spire Motorsports driver has racked up his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, which came at Talladega Superspeedway, and a NASCAR Truck Series win at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night. On Saturday, the driver added his second career NASCAR Cup Series pole to his list of accomplishments during this newfound hot streak.

Hocevar, who turned a 28.222-second circuit around the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Saturday's qualifying session, was able to topple Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsports teammate, by a narrow margin of 0.003 seconds to take the pole.

After the incredible week he's had, Hocevar is feeling pretty good, and the driver says with being the final car on track in Saturday's qualifying session, and coming home with the pole, he was able to achieve something that he always felt was the coolest thing when he was a racing fan growing up.

"It feels pretty good, right now. It's so awesome," Hocevar said. "I was watching in 2008 when Dale Jr. got the pole here. I was watching that footage before. And I knew we were going out last. I was like, man, I really want to get the pole again. And be the last car, and get it. I didn't expect to steal it from our teammate, but it's just the coolest thing, when I was a fan for sure, when the last car goes out and steals it at the last second."

While there had to be disappointment for Suarez, who was starting to think he had a pole sewn up, himself, Hocevar says the impressive speed from the Spire Motorsports team as a whole is what he's excited about, and he hopes the team can close out a win two weeks in a row.

"A testament to all of the Spire guys, though. This is a front row. This is a team effort, here. Two cars on the front row, right after a win. Hopefully, we can do it at a non-superspeedway now," Hocevar said.

Hocevar's pole-winning run marked the driver's second career NASCAR Cup Series pole position, both of which have come at Texas Motor Speedway.

Chris Buescher, the driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, was able to snag the third starting spot for Sunday's Wurth 400, as he clocked in just ahead of Denny Hamlin, and Chase Briscoe, who are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

Kyle Busch, who is trying to shake off the funk of a tumultuous start to the 2026 season, secured the sixth qualifying spot for Sunday's race with his new crew chief Andy Street atop the pit box.

Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's race.

While Rookie of the Year contender Connor Zilisch didn't qualify in the top-10, the Trackhouse Racing driver put together possibly his most impressive qualifying effort of his young NASCAR Cup Series career on Saturday, as he'll start 12th in Sunday's race.

Wurth 400 Starting Lineup

1. 77-Carson Hocevar
2. 7-Daniel Suarez
3. 17-Chris Buescher
4. 11-Denny Hamlin
5. 19-Chase Briscoe
6. 8-Kyle Busch
7. 20-Christopher Bell
8. 45-Tyler Reddick
9. 48-Alex Bowman
10. 54-Ty Gibbs
11. 5-Kyle Larson
12. 88-Connor Zilisch
13. 2-Austin Cindric
14. 9-Chase Elliott
15. 24-William Byron
16. 1-Ross Chastain
17. 67-Corey Heim
18. 35-Riley Herbst
19. 71-Michael McDowell
20. 60-Ryan Preece
21. 43-Erik Jones
22. 47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
23. 22-Joey Logano
24. 21-Josh Berry
25. 6-Brad Keselowski
26. 16-AJ Allmendinger
27. 41-Cole Custer
28. 4-Noah Gragson
29. 51-Cody Ware
30. 97-Shane van Gisbergen
31. 12-Ryan Blaney
32. 34-Todd Gilliland
33. 42-John Hunter Nemechek
34. 38-Zane Smith
35. 10-Ty Dillon
36. 66-Chad Finchum
37. 23-Bubba Wallace
38. 3-Austin Dillon

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