Practice #1 : Texas Motor Speedway

• Saturday, May 3rd, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Hocevar's High-Speed Hoedown: First Career Pole Secured in Texas

Decked out in Texas-appropriate attire, Carson Hocevar put his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday’s WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway.

With the second fastest lap in the era of the Gen 7 car, Hocevar toured the 1.5 mile track in 28.175 seconds (191.659 mph) to edge 2023 race winner William Byron (191.564 mph) for the top starting position by 0.014 seconds.

The Busch Light Pole Award is the first of Hocevar’s career, and at age 22, he’s the youngest-ever pole winner at Texas.

Clad in a firesuit designed as a cowboy outfit—courtesy of sponsor Chili’s—and sporting a black 10-gallon hat, Hocevar reveled in the moment after his lap stood up to all comers.

“Having the cowboy outfit—what better place to be on the pole,” Hocevar said. “I’m normally so hard on myself, and I didn’t think I nailed that lap at all, but I’m super proud of this team.

“I’m so proud, because I’ve never had the No. 1 pit stall, and I’ve had a lot of issues with pit road and we’ve had a lot of bad luck. So I finally get the No. 1 pit stall, and I’m pumped about that.”

Austin Cindric, last Sunday’s Talladega winner, qualified third at 191.523 mph in a closely compacted field. Larson, the last driver to make an attempt, was fourth at 191.421 mph.

With 10 drivers to go, Ty Gibbs topped the chart at 191.293 mph, but Michael McDowell, Hocevar’s teammate, eclipsed his time by 0.006 seconds in a lap at 191.333 mph.

“Obviously, with Michael going out and putting up a really good lap time, I felt like we were faster than him in practice, and that gave me a little bit of confidence that our stuff was going to be as quick, if not hopefully a little quicker,” Hocevar said.

McDowell will start fifth on Sunday, with Gibbs sixth. Josh Berry, three-time Texas winner Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 on the grid.

One driver who left the session with regret was Cindric, who felt he could have gone faster.

“I feel like I left a pole lap out there,” he said. “I sent it into Turn 1 and didn’t quite get to the bottom and didn’t quite maximize my exit. I guess I can be happy with where we are at, but I definitely feel like you want to do it all.

“We’re in a great spot for (Sunday) and should have a good pit stall, so I feel good about where we are. We’ll try to go get another one.”

Defending race winner Chase Elliott will start 29th.

Note: Since the Gen 7 car was introduced in 2022, only Christopher Bell at Michigan International Speedway in 2023 has run a faster lap than Hocevar at Texas. Bell’s speed at the 2.0-mile track was 193.382 mph.

• Texas Motor Speedway
• W?rth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Carson Hocevar
• Age: 22
• Team : No 77 - Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet
• Owner: Jeff Dickerson
• Crew Chief: Lucas Lambert
• Carson Hocevar won the Pole Award for the W?rth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY with a lap of 28175 seconds, 191659 mph
• This is his first pole in 56 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and fourth top-10 start in 2025
• This is his first pole in three races at Texas Motor Speedway
• William Byron (second) posted his seventh top-10 start of 2025 and his fifth in 11 races at Texas Motor Speedway
• Austin Cindric (third) posted his second top-10 start at Texas Motor Speedway It is his seventh in 11 races this season
• Riley Herbst (21st) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Sunday, May 4th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Redemption in Texas: Logano Scores First 2025 Win After Talladega DQ

After Michael McDowell’s dream ended less than four laps short of the scheduled finish in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY, Joey Logano took control and rode the NASCAR Cup Series rollercoaster to his first victory of the season.

A week after a missing nut on a spoiler bracket cost him a disqualification from fifth place at Talladega Superspeedway, Logano beat runner-up Ross Chastain to the finish line by 0.346-second in overtime to score his second victory at 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway and the 37th of his career.

In fashioning his first top-five finish of 2025, Logano successfully pursued McDowell, who had charged into the lead after a restart on Lap 245 of 271 and held it through two cautions and restarts.

On Lap 264, less than four laps from a finish, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford went low on the backstretch, avoided a block from McDowell and passed the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet for the lead.

Passed for second by Logano’s Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney a lap later, McDowell lost control in dirty air behind Blaney’s Ford and slammed into the Turn 2 wall, ending his race in 26th place.

“Sorry, boys, I tried,” a rueful McDowell radioed to his team.

On the subsequent overtime restart, Logano made it look easy. The reigning series champion cleared Blaney through the first two corners, as Chastain charged into second from the bottom lane.

Two laps later, Logano was on his way to Victory Lane, having scored the second straight win for Team Penske after Austin Cindric won at Talladega last Sunday.

“The sport changes so quickly,” Logano said after climbing from his car. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these rollercoasters and just proud of the team. Finally got (sponsor) AAA Insurance into Victory Lane. They’ve been a partner of mine since I’ve been to Penske, so 13, 14 years. I’ve yet to win with them. It was awesome to get that done here.”

Logano had to work his way forward from his 27th-place starting position. He did so relentlessly and without the sorts of mistakes that doomed the winning chances of others.

“Slowly, methodically, a couple at a time,” Logano said of his drive. “We had a really tough pit stall situation. The pit crew did a good job of managing that and just grabbed a couple (of positions) here and there.

“The car was fast. I knew that yesterday. We just did a poor job qualifying. Just grinded it. Just keep grinding a couple here and a couple there and eventually get a win here. It’s nice to get one. Real nice.”

Similarly, Chastain started 31st and didn’t make his presence known until the closing laps.

‘Gosh, that’s a working day,” Chastain said. “Just no confidence in the car yesterday. Y’all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We’re just not confident, all three drivers.

“So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group—it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here in GM at Chevrolet. They made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”

Blaney came home third, followed by Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 90 laps but surrendered the top spot to McDowell on the Lap 245 restart.

“You don’t want to give up the lead on a mile and a half,” Larson said. “It’s hard to get it back. Yeah, Michael just did a good job timing it.”

Erik Jones was fifth, scoring his first top five since last year’s fall race at Talladega. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.

Other expected contenders fell by the wayside as the race progressed.

Denny Hamlin’s streak of 21 consecutive lead-lap finishes—eighth-most all-time in the Cup Series—came to an abrupt end on Lap 75. One circuit earlier, Hamlin lost power with an engine the team was running for the third time.

As Hamlin slowed, flames shot from beneath the chassis of the No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin stopped the car, which was enveloped in dark smoke and climbed to safety.

“It was blowing up for about a lap or so before it really detonated,” Hamlin said. “I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating.

“That was so they can diagnose exactly what happened to it. It’s tough to say exactly what it is, but they’ll go back and look at it and we’ll find out in a few weeks.”

A promising run for Las Vegas winner Josh Berry likewise ended early on Sunday. Berry had led 41 laps and was running at the front of the field on Lap 125 when the treacherous bump in Turn 4 upset his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.

Berry slid into the outside wall, slamming the barrier on the driver’s side of the car.

“Just started to approach the lapped traffic,” said Berry, who returned to the track after repairs, 84 laps down. “You have no choice but to run the opposite lane. Your car is never going to turn if you follow them. I went around the 62 (Jesse Love) on the outside and felt pretty decent about it. Then caught the 51 (Cody Ware) and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose.

“I don’t know what I would do too much different. Obviously, in these cars, especially at a place like this, if you’re going to be fast, it’s going to be uncomfortable and you’re going to be on edge. Unfortunately, it bit us today.”

In a race that produced 12 cautions for 73 laps, Austin Cindric led 60 laps but fell victim to a four-car crash on Lap 247. Ten laps earlier, pole winner Carson Hocevar, who led the first 22 laps but was relegated to the back of the field when caution interrupted a green-flag cycle of pit stops on Lap 219, suffered a similar fate in a three-car wreck.

William Byron, who finished 13th, retained the series lead by 13 points over Larson.

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 267
• Laps Actual: 271 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
• Margin of Victory: 0.346 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 28 Minutes 40 Seconds
• Average Speed: 116.885
• Cautions: 12 for 73 laps
• Lead Changes: 20
• Green Flag Passes: 2,074 (10.5 passes per green flag lap)

• Texas Motor Speedway
• W?rth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY
• Race Winner: Joey Logano
• Age: 34
• Team : No 22 - AAA Insurance Ford
• Owner: Roger Penske
• Crew Chief: Paul Wolfe
• Joey Logano won the W?rth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY, his 37th victory in 590 Cup Series races
• This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his second victory and 16th top-10 finish in 30 races at Texas Motor Speedway
• Ross Chastain (second) posted his second top-10 finish in nine races at Texas Motor Speedway It is his sixth top-10 finish in 2025
• Ryan Blaney (third) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 17 races at Texas Motor Speedway
• Riley Herbst (14th) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 13 points over Kyle Larson