FORT WORTH, Texas — Carson Hocevar is suddenly spending a lot of time out front in NASCAR and already is feeling different as a Cup race winner.
Hocevar will start on the front row at Texas for the second year in a row Sunday, a week after his breakthrough victory at Talladega in his 91st Cup start. He earned the pole again in the Lone Star State, even after running with the back half of the pack during practice earlier Saturday.
“Internally for sure, I think (a win) establishes all of us that we’re all winners,” Hocevar said of his Spire Motorsports team. “Probably before Talladega, I’m trying to win practice, win qualifying and try to talk myself into we’re going to win the race. … Everybody’s just kind of slower and more relaxed and everything. I can just tell by the way they’re pulling the hood pins and the little things. They just have a lot of confidence.”
Oh, and Hocevar already has been to Victory Lane this weekend in Texas, winning the Truck Series race Friday night. And he celebrated similarly to how he did after winning at Talladega, hanging out of the window of his Chevrolet while doing a burnout.
Hocevar, who last year at age 22 became the youngest pole sitter ever at Texas and then led the first 22 laps, earned his second career Cup pole with a lap of 191.340 mph. That was just .0003 seconds ahead of Spire teammate Daniel Suarez (191.320 mph), who overcame a flat tire in practice.
“There’s not quite often that I’d sit there and just go, 22nd in practice and I go, yeah, we’re going to win the pole as long as I don’t mess this up,” Hocevar said. “Especially when I saw Daniel roll out, our cars are very similar.”
The defending race champion is Joey Logano, who hasn’t won in his 35 races since an overtime win at Texas last spring. He starts 23rd.