Carson Hocevar just can't stop scoring wins and neither can Spire Motorsports, as the organization earned their first 1-2 start in the NASCAR Cup Series during Saturday's qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway.
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Carson Hocevar just can't stop scoring wins and neither can Spire Motorsports, as the organization earned their first 1-2 start in the NASCAR Cup Series during Saturday's qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway.
Hocevar, the winner of the last two NASCAR national series races, will lead teammate Daniel Suarez to the green flag in Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. The Hurricane beat his teammate for the pole by 0.003 seconds in his No. 77 Chevrolet.
Suarez will start second, continuing a fantastic start for him and his No. 7 Chevrolet. So far, the Monterrey, Mexico, native is on track to achieve the best average finish of any season in his career so far, dating back to 2017.
Hocevar and Suarez are eighth and 14th in the points standings, putting them both in contention to make the Chase after 10 races.
Saturday's qualifying session was great for a few drivers who needed something good to go their way.
Starting sixth, Kyle Busch earned just his second top-10 start on a non-drafting track this season and his best non-drafting track start since Michigan in June. In that race, he started second, placed ninth in the first stage and finished eighth.
Last year at Texas, Busch had a chance at winning before a crash took him out of contention while running inside of the top-five late.
Alex Bowman was the highest-qualifying Hendrick Motorsports driver, in ninth, giving him a glimmer of hope in a season that has otherwise been bleak for the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet. Bowman is coming off of his first top-five finish of the season, third at Talladega, and his best finish since getting second at Richmond last August.
Connor Zilisch also earned his best start of the season, qualifying 12th as the highest-qualifying Trackhouse Racing driver. The rookie has averaged a 27th-place finish and has just two finishes of 26th or better: 14th at Circuit of the Americas, 18th at Darlington Raceway.
Corey Heim qualified 17th, just ahead of his full-time counterpart, Riley Herbst.
Their teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start 37th after crashing in practice. He won't start last as Austin Dillon will start behind him, in 38th, after his team changed his engine.
Back inside the top-10, Chris Buescher (third) was the lone Ford to qualify inside the top-10. Chevrolet took four of the top-10 spots while Toyota took the other five.
Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs will start fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively.
Here's the full starting lineup and practice results:
