Carson Hocevar collects first career Cup Series pole at Texas

Carson Hocevar earned his first NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Award Saturday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway. His 191.659 mph qualifying lap in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet topped William Byron’s lap by 0.014 seconds.

“I’m normally so hard on myself,” Hocevar said, and I still didn’t think I nailed that lap at all. But super proud of this team and proud because I’ve never been the number one pit stall.

“I’ve had a lot of issues with pit road,” he continued. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck, so I finally get the number one pit stall and I’m pumped about that. I’m excited to lead my first-ever Cup race to green.”

Hendrick Motorsport’s William Byron will start beside Hocevar on the front row.

“I felt like I hit (turns) one and two pretty good,” Byron said. “I was just right on the edge of being two tight and then (turns) three and four were wide open. Just appreciate all the guys on the 24. They did a great job today. We’ve been good on the mile-and-a-halfs, obviously, just trying to dial in our race balance and feel like we’re really close.” 

“I felt like I hit (turns) one and two pretty good, I was just right on the edge of being two tight and then (turns) three and four were wide open,” Byron said. “Just appreciate all the guys on the 24. They did a great job today. We’ve been good on the mile-and-a-halfs, obviously, just trying to dial in our race balance and feel like we’re really close.” 

Austin Cindric, coming off the win at Talladega last week, will start third.

“We are in a great spot for tomorrow and should have a good pit stall, so I feel good about where we are at for tomorrow,” Cindric said. “We will try to go get another one.”

Kyle Larson and Michael McDowell round out the top five. Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 in the qualifying session.

You can tune into the Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon on FS1 with radio coverage provided by FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

Angie Campbell
Angie Campbell
A native of Charlotte, NC, Angela (Angie) was first introduced to racing by her father. An avid fan of NASCAR, she found a way to combine her love of racing with her passion for writing. Angie is also an award-winning member of the National Motorsports Press Association. Follow her on Twitter @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

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