Kansas City, Kan. – Carson Hocevar survived the last-touch contacts of the Ford of Layne Riggs, rebounded on the outside wall and a U-turn took the checkered flag to win the heart of health care on Saturday evening 200 at Kansas Speedway.
The victory was the first of the Hocevar season in his second Nascar Craftsman Truck Start series this year, his first on the 1.5 mile track and the fifth of his career.
Related: Race results | At-track track photos
But Hocevar had to keep the Riggs fast fence truck behind him. In the last lap, Riggs went to the interior of the Hocevar Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, arrived at the Silverado left district and slipped the track into the Hocevar truck.
After contact, Hocevar and Riggs maintained control, and the two scraped the outside wall before continuing to the finish line. With William Byron looking at what was then third place, Hocevar arrived 0.262 seconds ahead of Riggs, which seemed to finish second in Kansas for the second consecutive time.
However, Riggs was disqualified after the inspection after the race, where the officials discovered a truck bed cover violation on its first row of the Ford first row, raising Byron in second place.
“I was just hoping that they would crash, but they did not do it,” said Byron, who fought a tight Spire N ° 07 truck when the final race progressed and finished 0.718 seconds behind the winner of the race.
“I just thought that I would make him entertaining,” joked Hocevar after climbing his truck for an interview with Frontrech. “This 34 truck (Riggs) was great, super good. This truck was really good on short races – I didn’t think it would happen to us for the distance it was, but it was super good.
“Yeah, it’s been a while since I’m not in such a finish like that where everything was there. So deserves him. I know he was going for everything there.”
Riggs and the third place finisher, Corey Heim, lost the track position on the bad side of a stop cycle of the green flag stands halfway from the last stage. Riggs recovered to challenge the head, while Heim hired a penalty for an inappropriate restart to waste his chances of victory.
“Dude, I gave everything,” said Riggs. “We were really bad with the track position there.
“I got to him, I entered him a little. We both hit the wall, and he won the race. I think he was angry with me. I think he spilled me all along the frontrasse by coming to the checkerboard. But how can you be crazy when you win the race? “
With disqualification, however, Riggs had many reasons to be disappointed. Truck No. 34 was relegated to a 31st place, the last in the ranking.
Heim led 52 of the first 53 laps and won the first step, but lost 15 positions on Pit Road under caution in turn 53 when the air cannon of the rear tire changer broke. Heim returned to the fourth row of the racing order, but lost all his progress when the sixth caution, for the rotation of Frankie Muniz in the grass on the ground, interrupted the cycle of Green Flag Stop at 97, trapped Heim a tour and forced him to take a wave.
It was at this moment that Hocevar, who stayed on the head after the bites, took control of the race, which included seven warnings against 33 laps. Hocevar led three times for 75 laps.
Heim damaged his own chances more by changing her way behind the Toni Breidinger truck before the starting line / final on a restart of the 103 Tour 103. Through his attempt to win a third consecutive race in Kansas, Heim returned to third place on arrival.
“I started with this stand from a stand pistol – no fault for my stand team there,” said Heim. “They did a great job all night. It seemed to be a type of situational situation there, then took the exact bad time on the green cycle.
“I had to take the wave and start on the back and get out of line for a penalty on my part. A day of roller coaster today. ”
The GIO Ruggiero recruit finished fourth, followed by Stewart Friesen, Brandon Jones, of the winner of pole Jake Garcia, of Kaden HoneyCutt, Grant finallyger and Daniel Hemric.
Note: No other problem was born from the technical inspection after the race, confirming Hocevar as a winner of the race.
