After multiple back-and-forth battles in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, it was Cup Series champion Kyle Busch capturing his third-consecutive checkered flag at EchoPark Speedway.
It wasn’t a walk in the park for Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion and now 68-time NCST winner. Right behind him at the finish was his Spire Motorsports teammate Carson Hocevar in the No. 77 Chevrolet. Before that, Busch and Truck Series regular Stewart Friesen traded the lead back and forth for multiple laps.
While he did lead 10 laps, Friesen had an electrical problem that relegated him to a 20th place finish.
NASCAR Driver Carson Hocevar and Stewart Friesen Battled Winner Kyle Busch
Before the 135-scheduled lap race, NASCAR let teams know the race would end at 4:20 p.m. ET because of time constraints when their race started one hour late because of weather. Following the NCTS race was the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
In the latter portions, Busch would race his No. 7 Chevrolet running in the top five. During that time, he had Friesen in the No. 52 Toyota ahead of him, then beside him, then ahead and such for almost 20 laps.
While this was going on, his fellow Chevrolet NCS regular driver of Hocevar was coming on strong. As the two-wide racing was taking place throughout the top-10 positions, bump drafting was thrusting Trucks forward in both lanes.
Hocevar Helps Busch to Victory
Hocevar, a five-time NCTS winner himself, worked his way behind Busch’s bumper as the clocked ticked toward the cut off time. He would remain there and watch his Spire teammate take the victory.
“Selfishly, I really would have loved to win,” said a smiling Hocevar on pit road. “But, I was overheating the whole time and the bottom kept surging. I didn’t really have anything to pass him (Busch).
“If I had nothing, the team was going to have something. This is good for the company, good for the team and a one-two finish is great. If I wasn’t going to win, I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize our program here.”
After taking the checkers, Busch did a burnout at the finish line creating quite the smoke show for fans in the stands. As he started lighting up the tires, Hocevar pulled alongside to congratulate the winner.
“I just went to go high-five him, thought it would be cool,” Hocevar said. “If nothing else, I figured it would make a good picture. Ultimately, I wish we would have swapped positions because has about a 1000 of these Truck wins.
“It was fun out there today. I passed a lot of trucks, did a lot of things.”
Stewart Friesen Bid for Win Thwarted by Electrical Issue
Friesen, who started 16th, quickly made his way into the top 10 and then top five positions. Using the low line, he was pushed to the lead as the race continued knowing he was racing the clock, as well.
After taking the lead, Busch would race him on the outside side-by-side for multiple laps. Just when it looked like Friesen would better Busch, after finishing second to him in this race last year, his No. 52 Truck would fall back and then out of contention to a 20th-place finish with electrical issues.
“It was freaking awesome to be up there,” Friesen said in the pits. “The Truck was good, it was fast and super stable in qualifying. In the race, we could hang, make some moves and dice out there.
“Unfortunately, it started to shut off and on there and we fell back. It was great having a teammate out there (John Hunter Nemechek). When I heard the No. 62 was pushing, I knew I wasn’t going to be hung out to dry.
“He gave me some really good shoves.”
Next up for Friesen and the NCTS is the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sat. Feb. 28.
NASCAR’s Carson Hocevar and Stewart Friesen Come up Short Battling Kyle Busch in Atlanta Truck Race