Carson Hocevar doubled down with the Ride the ‘Dente scheme, prevailing through a wild overtime shootout to win the SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 23-year-old Hocevar from Portage, Michigan, led five times for a race-high 76 of 172 overscheduled laps. He qualified in 11th place and spent a bulk of the event racing at the front. He led 20 laps during the first two stages, finishing second in the first stage and winning the second.
Hocevar was mired with a slow green flag pit service with less than 45 laps remaining, costing him time and the lead. But, Hocevar utilized two late-race cautions due to on-track carnages to engage himself within tight battles for the lead that involved teammate Kyle Busch, Giovanni Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt, Layne Riggs and Brandon Jones.
Then, through an overtime shootout, Hocevar prevailed in another late duel with Ruggiero to clear the field prior to the final lap and motor away from the field to achieve his second NASCAR national touring series victory in recent weeks, but his first in the Craftsman Truck Series division under the lights and at the Lone Star State.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday. Ben Rhodes secured his first pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 185.096 mph in 29.174 seconds. Teammate Jake Garcia started alongside Rhodes after he posted the second-fastest lap at 184.925 mph in 29.201 seconds.
Before the event, Cory Roper was the lone competitor who started at the rear of the field due to repairs made to his No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry after he hit the Turn 4 outside wall during Friday’s practice session.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Ben Rhodes, who elected to start on the inside lane, fended off teammate Jake Garcia and Giovanni Ruggiero through the frontstretch and the first two turns to take an early stab of leading the field through the backstretch. As the field fanned out and jostled for early spots, Rhodes cycled back to the frontstretch and led the first lap. Behind, teammate Garcia fended off Ruggiero to retain the runner-up spot while Ruggiero retained third place in front of Chandler Smith, Tanner Gray, Cole Butcher, Kyle Busch, Stewart Friesen and a hard-charging Carson Hocevar.
Over the next four laps, Rhodes maintained a steady advantage over his hard-charging teammate of Garcia, with Garcia using the turns and straightaways to reel in with every opportunity on deck, while Ruggiero, Smith and Gray remained within pursuit in the top-five mark. Behind, Hocevar moved up into seventh place behind Butcher, Kyle Busch dropped to eighth place, Kaden Honeycutt was scored in 10th place and Layne Riggs carved his way into the top-20 mark after he started towards the tail end of the field. Meanwhile, Rhodes led by two-tenths of a second over Garcia at the Lap 10 mark.
Through the first 20-scheduled laps, Rhodes, who grew his advantage to two seconds over the previous 10 laps, continued to lead teammate Garcia, Smith, Ruggiero and Gray while Hocevar, Kaden Honeycutt, Stewart Friesen, Butcher and Tyler Ankrum trailed in the top 10, respectively. Grant Enfinger, Daniel Hemric, Layne Riggs, Brandon Jones and Ross Chastain were racing in the top 15 while Christian Eckes, Andres Perez De Lara, Ty Majeski, Conner Jones, and Dawson Sutton were mired in the top 20, respectively. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was mired a lap down and at the tail end of the field in 35th place after he made an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 18 due to getting loose and scraping the Turn 4 wall on his right side earlier.
On Lap 23, the event’s first caution flew when Cory Roper spun in Turn 2 and wrecked his No. 62 Drydene/Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry against the inside wall. During the event’s first caution period, some led by the runner-up Garcia and including Gray, Riggs, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski, William Sawalich, Parker Kligerman, Kris Wright, Brandon Jones and Toni Breidinger pitted their respective trucks while the rest led by Rhodes remained on the track. Among those who also pitted was Corey LaJoie, whose No. 10 Kaulig Racing pit crew spent extensive time diagnosing an issue beneath the right front of LaJoie’s entry.
The start of the next restart on Lap 29 featured Rhodes and Smith briefly dueling for the lead exiting the frontstretch before Rhodes gained the advantage from the inside lane entering the first two turns. Rhodes’ advantage was due to Hocevar trying to throw a three-wide move beneath Smith and Ruggiero. As Rhodes led the next lap, Hocevar muscled his way into the runner-up spot and Ruggiero trailed in third place while Honeycutt navigated his way into fourth place over Smith, Friesen, Enfinger, Ross Chastain and Ankrum, respectively. Amid a variety of battles around the field, Rhodes continued to lead by the Lap 35 mark despite having Hocevar reeling in and challenging for the top spot.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 40, Rhodes fended off Hocevar to claim his third Truck stage victory of the 2026 season. Ruggiero fended off teammate Honeycutt to settle in third while Smith, Friesen, Enfinger, Riggs, Majeski and Ross Chastain were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 29 of 35 starters were scored on the lead lap while rookie Brenden Queen, who served a pass-through penalty due to pulling out of line before the previous restart, was scored the first competitor a lap down in 30th place over Kyle Busch.
Under the event’s first stage break period, a majority of the field led by Rhodes pitted for service while the rest led by Brandon Jones and including Gray, Kligerman, Sawalich, Kris Wright and Spencer Boyd remained on the track. Following the pit stops with mixed strategies ensuing, Majeski, who only pitted for fuel, exited pit road first over Riggs and Clayton Green while Rhodes, Honeycutt, Enfinger, Ruggiero, Hocevar, Garcia and Friesen followed suit, respectively.
The second stage period started on Lap 47 as teammates Brandon Jones and Tanner Gray occupied the front row. At the start, Jones emerged with the lead from the inside lane through the first two turns while Hocevar, who restarted in 12th place and the sixth truck in line on the outside lane, used the outside lane and four fresh tires to rocket his way through the field. As the field fanned out and jostled for spots, Hocevar rocketed up to fifth place by the next lap as Jones retained the lead over teammate Gray and Kligerman. Hocevar, however, gained another four spots and moved into the runner-up spots over the next two laps.
Then, as Hocevar started to challenge Brandon Jones for the lead with Riggs reeling from behind, the caution returned on Lap 50. This was due to Cole Butcher spinning, wrecking against the outside wall in Turn 2 and destroying the rear end of his No. 13 Atlantic Tilt Load/ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 entry. At the time of caution, Kyle Busch was awarded the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap as he was the first competitor who was scored a lap down.
As the event restarted on Lap 56, Jones received a strong push from Riggs from the inside lane to boost ahead of Hocevar and lead through the first two turns. The field jostled through the backstretch as Jones led the next lap while Riggs fended off Hocevar to claim the runner-up spot. As Rhodes battled Hocevar for third place, Riggs then tried to get beneath Jones and overtake him for the lead. With Riggs unable to clear Jones through the backstretch, Hocevar reeled in the latter two as Jones maintained the lead during the next lap.
Hocevar then used the outside lane and battled dead even with Jones. As both Chastain and Rhodes tried to make the battle for the lead into a tight four-truck battle, Hocevar capitalized on Lap 59 to motor ahead with the lead. Behind, Rhodes moved into second over Chastain, Jones, Gray, and Riggs, the latter of whom hit the backstretch’s outside wall, while Hocevar led the next lap, Lap 60.
At the Lap 65 mark, Hocevar maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Rhodes while Riggs and Chastain fiercely battled for third place. Meanwhile, Jones retained fifth place ahead of teammates Gray, Honeycutt and Sawalich while Enfinger and teammate Ruggiero followed suit ahead of Smith, Kligerman, Ankrum, Majeski and Conner Jones. As Riggs overtook Rhodes for the runner-up spot on Lap 69, Hocevar retained the lead by half a second during the next lap.
Following another caution on Lap 73 due to an incident involving Kris Wright in Turn 3, nearly the entire field pitted while Dawson Sutton, Mini Tyrrell and Spencer Boyd remained on the track. Chastain, Honeycutt, Rhodes, Hocevar, Enfinger, Ruggiero, Ty Majeski, Tanner Gray, Chandler Smith and Tyler Ankrum were the first 10 competitors to exit pit road, respectively, while Riggs, who spent extra time in his pit stall to have braces that kept his rear window taped and secured, dropped to the tail end of the lead lap field in 29th place.
With the second stage period restarting with two laps remaining, the field fanned out to four lanes deep as Mini Tyrrell led through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Tyrrell led through the backstretch before Hocevar used the outside lane and fresh tires through Turns 3 and 4 to reassume the lead as he led the next lap.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 80, Hocevar captured the stage victory over Honeycutt and Ruggiero. Sutton and Ankrum settled in the top five over Tyrrell, while Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Smith and Andres Perez De Lara were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 28 of 35 starters were scored on the lead lap while Riggs was mired back in 26th place. During the event’s second stage break period, Sutton and Tyrrell, along with Chastain, Riggs and Eckes, pitted their respective trucks. The rest, led by Hocevar, remained on the track.
With 81 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Hocevar and Honeycutt occupied the front row in front of Ankrum, Ruggiero, Tanner Gray and Enfinger. At the start, Hocevar rocketed ahead with the lead as he led through the first two turns and the backstretch while Ankrum pursued in the runner-up spot. With the field fanning out and jostling for spots around every turn and straightaway, Hocevar led the next lap and nearly lost the lead after he briefly got loose while Ankrum tried to gain a run beneath Hocevar. Hocevar, though, maintained his momentum and continued to lead with less than 80 laps remaining over Ankrum, Honeycutt, Ruggiero and Smith.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Hocevar stretched his late lead to a second over a side-by-side battle between teammates Ruggiero and Honeycutt while Ankrum and Smith remained within striking distance of the latter two. As Gray, Enfinger, Friesen, Rhodes and Kligerman raced in the top 10, respectively, Riggs was up into 15th place and Kyle Busch was mired in 12th place while Garcia and Chastain were mired in 17th and 22nd, respectively.
With 70 laps remaining, the battle for the lead started to intensify as Ruggiero reeled in and trailed the leader, Hocevar, by a tenth of a second. Amid Ruggiero’s late surge, teammate Honeycutt pursued within close distance in third place while Hocevar maintained a steady lead through every turn and straightaway. Honeycutt then gained a run and dueled with Ruggiero with 66 laps remaining through the frontstretch before the former assumed the runner-up spot. Despite moving into the runner-up spot, Honeycutt could not reel in close enough towards Hocevar’s rear bumper as the latter led by up to six-tenths of a second with 60 laps remaining.
As the event reached its final 55-lap mark, Hocevar continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Honeycutt while third-place Ruggiero remained within striking distance. Meanwhile, Riggs charged all the way back up to fourth place while Hocevar, who made a bold overtake on three lapped competitors two laps earlier, maintained the lead by a second over Honeycutt with 50 laps remaining.
Then, with 46 laps remaining, a late wave of green flag pit stops commenced as teammates Honeycutt and Ruggiero pitted their respective TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entries. The leader, Hocevar, pitted a lap later, as more names that included Sawalich, Rhodes and Justin Haley pitted. During Hocevar’s pit service, he endured a slow pit service as his pit crew had issues changing the right-front wheel.
While both Ruggiero and Honeycutt cycled ahead of Hocevar on the track, Riggs, who assumed the lead when Hocevar pitted, retained the top spot until he pitted under green flag conditions with 40 laps remaining. Kyle Busch, Ankrum, Jones, Daniel Hemric, Jones and Garcia also pitted with Riggs, while more names that included Friesen and Queen pitted over the next handful of laps. With nearly the entire field having made at least one pit stop, Gray, Eckes and Dawson Sutton were the remaining trio of competitors who had yet to pit.
With 34 laps remaining, Ruggiero cycled to the lead after Sutton pitted. By then, Ruggiero was leading by a second over teammate Honeycutt, while Hocevar’s late, slow pit service proved to be costly as he trailed the lead by more than five seconds in third place. Riggs also trailed by five seconds in fourth place, but he overtook Hocevar for third place shortly after while Honeycutt tried to reel in teammate Ruggiero for the lead.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Ruggiero, who was navigating through lapped traffic, led by only two-tenths of a second over his hard-charging teammate, Honeycutt, through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, third-place Riggs trailed by more than three seconds and fourth-place Hocevar trailed by more than seven seconds.
A lap later, the caution flew when Ankrum, who was racing in ninth place, was sent spinning through Turn 2 after he made contact with Rhodes, though he managed to straighten his entry and proceed without sustaining any significant damage nor make any contact with the wall. During this latest caution period, some, including Eckes, Kligerman, Sawalich, Chastain and Ankrum pitted while the rest, led by Ruggiero, remained on the track.
The next restart with 19 laps remaining featured an eight-lap shootout of intense side-by-side repetitive battling and swapping between Hocevar, Ruggiero, Kyle Busch, Riggs and Honeycutt for the lead, with the latter five dueling inside of the top-five mark. Throughout this stretch, Honeycutt, who initially reported concerns of having a loose wheel within his No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet Silverado RST entry, led the first four laps of the battle before Hocevar assumed the lead with 16 laps remaining.
Then, with 11 laps remaining, the caution returned when Friesen, who was battling Jones for fifth place, ran over the track’s bumpy surface through Turns 3 and 4, spun and had the rear end of his entry hit the outside wall. As Friesen spun back across the track and towards pit road, Enfinger veered to the left and dodged Friesen’s wrecked entry, but he plowed his entry through the frontstretch’s grass and damaged the front splitter. The incident was enough to draw a red flag period for eight minutes and 33 seconds.
When the red flag lifted and the race restarted with six laps remaining, a tight six-truck battle at the front ensued between Hocevar, Busch, Ruggiero, Jones, Honeycutt and Riggs, with neither lifting off the throttle and giving an inch through every turn and straightaway. As Hocevar primarily led since the restart, Ruggiero, who fended off Busch for second place with five laps remaining, reeled in and spent a full lap dueling with Hocevar before he gained the edge with three laps remaining.
Just as Ruggiero began to motor ahead of Hocevar, the caution returned after Garcia, who had made contact with Tanner Gray since the previous restart, blew a tire and hit the outside wall entering Turn 3. As Garcia tried to steer his wrecked entry onto pit road, he was plowed into by Conner Jones while Justin Haley, who just dodged Garcia’s entry, plowed through the frontstretch’s grass. The incident placed the event in a second red flag period for six minutes and 12 seconds.
As the event restarted in overtime, Ruggiero and Hocevar spent nearly a full lap dueling against one another before Hocevar had the upper hand and motored away from Ruggiero entering the frontstretch. By then, Ruggiero lost slight momentum and that allowed teammate Honeycutt and Riggs to pin him in a tight three-wide battle for second place.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hocevar remained in the lead ahead of a three-wide battle between Riggs, Ruggiero and Honeycutt. Then, Ruggiero made slight contact with Riggs and got sideways through the first two turns. Despite keeping his entry straight, Ruggiero lost a bevy of spots as Kyle Busch capitalized on the tight three-wide racing to move into second place. All of the battles, though, allowed Hocevar to motor away from the field. With no competition reeling in through the final two turns, Hocevar cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by seven-tenths of a second over Busch.
Hocevar, who achieved his first NASCAR Cup Series career victory this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, recorded his sixth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career win in his 87th series start. He also recorded his second victory at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s the track where he recorded his first Truck victory in 2023. And it’s also his first in the series overall since he won at Kansas Speedway in May 2025.
Hocevar’s latest Truck victory at Texas was the first for Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 entry. It was the second ever for crew chief Chad Walter and the second time this season where the organization’s Nos. 7 and 77 entries finished first and second in a Truck event.
“I mean, it’s unbelievable,” Hocevar said to the fans on the frontstretch on FS1. “Thank you, everybody. It means a lot. I’m going to go burn down Chili’s. I can’t leave, so we go to go burn down Chili’s here somewhere. I don’t know where it’s going to be, but everybody on the fence, thank you. What a fun race.
“We had to reverse order, obviously, the one, two [finish] with Kyle [Busch]. I watched him win a lot of truck races and it’s finally good to put an end to his Texas streak. We were really good on restarts. These [No. 77] guys do a really, really good job. It’s been a struggle on the truck side…great to do it, though, with Spire [Motorsports] and [co-owner] Jeff [Dickerson] and get a one, two [finish].”
Kyle Busch, who rallied from losing a lap and making an early unscheduled pit stop to have his entry’s right side repaired from hitting the frontstretch’s outside wall, settled in second place in his third of eight Truck starts this season.
“We had an eventful night,” Busch said. “[The race] didn’t start off very well. We were just really, really loose and made a lot of adjustments to get [the truck] close. When we put tires on our last set of tires there, we were really fast, felt really good. Finally felt in the racetrack and better, so that moon thing doesn’t work. I was struggling with grip all night long, but [crew chief] Brian [Pattie] and the [No. 7] guys made a lot of good calls to get us dialed back in.”
Kaden Honeycutt, who was in contention for his first Truck career victory, settled in third place for his fourth top-five result of the 2026 season while Brandon Jones and pole-sitter Ben Rhodes finished in the top five.
Layne Riggs, Daniel Hemric, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski and Chandler Smith completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Giovanni Ruggiero fell back to 14th place following his last-lap slip through the first two turns.
There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured eight cautions for 39 laps. In addition, 16 of 35 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the seventh event of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Kaden Honeycutt leads the standings by 14 points over Chandler Smith, 19 over Layne Riggs, 31 over Giovanni Ruggiero and 34 over Ben Rhodes.
Results:
- Carson Hocevar, 76 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Kyle Busch
- Kaden Honeycutt, three laps led
- Brandon Jones, 16 laps led
- Ben Rhodes, 41 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Layne Riggs, six laps led
- Daniel Hemric
- Christian Eckes
- Ty Majeski
- Chandler Smith
- Parker Kligerman
- Ross Chastain
- Brenden Queen
- Giovanni Ruggerio, 14 laps led
- Tyler Ankrum
- Dawson Sutton, five laps led
- William Sawalich, one lap down
- Toni Breidinger, one lap down
- Stewart Friesen, one lap down
- Spencer Boyd, two laps down
- Mini Tyrrell, two laps down, one lap led
- Josh Reaume, three laps down
- Frankie Muniz, four laps down
- Caleb Costner, four laps down
- Corey LaJoie, seven laps down
- Clayton Green, seven laps down
- Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
- Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident, two laps led
- Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident
- Andres Perez De Lara – OUT
- Kris Wright, nine laps down
- Grant Enfinger – OUT, Accident
- Conner Jones – OUT, Accident
- Cory Roper – OUT, Suspension
- Cole Butcher – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen (Watkins Glen International) in Watkins Glen, New York. The event is scheduled for next Friday, May 8, and will air at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
