Hocevar Excited for No. 1 Pit Stall After First Career Cup Pole

For the second consecutive race weekend, a driver has collected their first career NASCAR Cup Series pole position. Last week at Talladega, it was Zane Smith. This week, it was Carson Hocevar, the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, who turned up the wick in qualifying to secure the pole for Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

STARTING LINEUP: Wurth 400 at Texas

Hocevar's pole-winning run came in the form of a 28.175-second (191.659 mph) lap in Saturday's single-round qualifying session around the 1.5-mile speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. After the qualifying session was over, and it had sunk in that he had become a pole winner, Hocevar praised the strength of his team, which has remained essentially the same since his 2024 Rookie of the Year campaign.

"Yeah, it's really big. It's really big for these guys. It's super impressive for what they've been able to do," Hocevar said of the pole run. "You know, this is the same group on pit road, off pit road, at the shop. Everybody working on the No. 77 is the same as when I started at Spire last year. They are a lot of the same guys who were in the thick of it. It's just huge where we've been able to bring this team."

The 22-year-old racer, who paced NASCAR Cup Series practice earlier in the afternoon, clocked in 0.014 seconds ahead of William Byron to secure his first pole in what will be his 56th career NASCAR Cup Series start.

Not only will Hocevar benefit from the best possible track position on Sunday, at a facility, where it is extremely hard to pass, but he'll also get to utilize pit stall No. 1 for the first time in his Cup Series career. With how pit road has treated him throughout his young career, Hocevar is excited at the advantage that the pit stall brings.

"What better place to get on a pole. I'm normally so hard on myself, and I still didn't think I nailed that lap at all. Super proud of this team. And proud because I've never been the No.1 pit stall," Hocevar explained. "I've had a lot of issues with pit road, and we've had a lot of bad luck. So, I finally get the No. 1 pit stall, so I'm pumped about that."

He narrowly missed out on the pole position, but Byron comes into this race as the NASCAR Cup Series point leader. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will have a great starting spot as he attempts to nab his second victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Byron won this event in 2023.

Just behind the Hocevar/Byron front row was Austin Cindric, who is looking to score his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win this weekend. The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford won last weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway and was one of the best cars over the long run in Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Larson, Byron's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, will roll from the starting grid in the fourth position.

Michael McDowell, who has become a qualifying machine over the last two seasons, will start from the fifth position in the Wurth 400. With the run, McDowell secured a double-top-five qualifying run for Spire Motorsports.

Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the remainder of the top-10 starters for Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Other notables in qualifying session include Christopher Bell (16th), Tyler Reddick (17th), Ryan Blaney (24th), Kyle Busch (26th), Joey Logano (27th), Chase Elliott (29th), and Brad Keselowski (30th).

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