HLs: Craftsman Truck Series Texas Motor Speedway
Watch highlights of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway in the SpeedyCash.com 250 Friday night.
Video Transcript
Fans are on their feet and ready to go to kick off NASCAR weekend here at Texas Motor Speedway.
For the first time this season, Ben Rhodes will lead them to green on the inside.
Jake Garcia on the outside.
We're green at Texas.
Gio Ruggiero wasting no time, guys.
Looking at, for an opening.
Moves into the second spot, side by side now with Jake Garcia.
You can see him roll off the gas there.
His teammate, Tanner Gray, right into the back of him.
Good start for Gio down on the bottom, but it looks like that outside lane's gonna prevail.
You see these cars bottom out.
You see that smoke a little bit there.
That's the trucks bottoming out in that big banking in three and four.
We talked about how the ends are so different.
Low air pressures, you're gonna see that, and everyone's just barreling down into here to turn one where you gotta come out of the gas a lot more.
The trucks are gonna slip around a lot more, but it presents a lot more options for people to move around the racetrack.
How about an attaboy for the guy right there in the red truck, number 13, Cole Butcher.
Great qualifying effort for him.
Rolled off 13th, the rookie from Canada.
I just like the way that 15 truck, Tanner Gray, looked in practice, and he's solid here in the early going.
He's up a little bit higher, as you saw Kyle Busch taking that line too.
These keepers- Yeah, Hosar.
Oh, lookit there.
Three wide, that's no surprise.
Oh, you gotta be careful with that grass.
Oh, sideways, Hosar.
That grass in that second dogleg right he about clipped.
We've seen it rip the nose off of these trucks year after year.
You gotta be careful with that.
It's pretty impressive though to make that move and be able to finish the pass on Friesen.
As I say that, Friesen drives right back up on the outside, but that's a good handling truck to be able to do what Hocevar did there.
See Stuart Friesen, he was off a bit in practice, but he's running Kyle Busch right down.
Let's hear what he's saying from behind the wheel of that truck.
Can you turn the steering wheel?
It'll get better.
Look at this, moments ago.
This is just a classic example of getting loose off the turn, and it happens a couple of times.
Right here early, Joey, he corrects it and saves it, but then, then it just snapped again.
Right, and, and the 11 truck getting close to him didn't help that situation either, as it took air off the side, or off the back of his truck.
Yeah, I think he felt it go, he felt it go down off turn two over there.
Kyle on his way down pit road.
Those issues got worse.
He was hanging on.
Michael, you mentioned his, his lap times.
He had only lost one spot after hitting the wall.
Oh, here's his caution.
Caution is out.
This is gonna be his opportunity.
Cory Roper- Ah back in a truck for the first time in three and a half years, and didn't go well earlier for him.
First lap of practice he got in the wall.
Got in the wall off turn four.
Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith.
We'll see what the 38 truck is capable of here.
Big push on the outside.
Oh, it was a push.
Oh, wow.
Carson Hocevar trying to make it three wide.
Gio Ruggiero, the 17.
And, and those are the typical moves.
Here he is three wide the other way, and in the bottom now, now two wide.
That's Carson Hocevar.
He just makes moves that really there's no hole, and he kind of forces it there to make it happen.
Well, Lee Diffy nicknamed him The Hurricane.
He's on the left.
He's on the right.
He's giving you things to talk about.
Look at this gaggle.
Look at the 38.
Fell back, lost those two spots since the restart.
There's Cayden Honeycutt in the 11 back in the mix.
It didn't take him long to work his way into the top five.
We knew this 11 truck would be one of the guys you'd have to beat to win.
Looking to the outside off of turn two.
This might be the run down the back straightaway here.
Oh yeah, look at that.
Ben says, "Uh-uh, not so fast."
I like- You're gonna have to go around the top if you're gonna do it I like that block.
So close up front.
One lap to go here in stage number one.
Ben Rhodes, he's all about the points.
He said, "We've gotta win stages.
We've gotta take home these points."
On the deposit but- Can he hang on and get the stage win?
Carson Hocevar's doing everything he can.
Gio Ruggiero, Cayden Honeycutt watching the action just ahead.
It's a battle off turn four.
It's going to be Ben Rhodes.
He picks up stage win- Wow number one.
You gotta give it up for Ben Rhodes.
Made that block on Carson Hocevar and drives off to the stage win.
Brandon Jones, Tanner Gray, teammates for TriCon Garage.
Parker Kligerman for Ram.
William Sawalich on the second row.
How long before Carson Hocevar is three wide?
I almost got it out, Joey.
You Three wide, Michael.
Three wide.
Here he comes around the outside.
He's already been up there.
He knows there's grip.
There's three wide.
Can we go three wide again?
I mean, guys, he has got- That was on a show.
Carson- He's got three rows Hocevar.
That was amazing three rows at one corner.
Four wide behind him.
Ross Chastain trying to make moves.
That is what it's all about.
In baseball, you know, they hit them where they ain't.
Well, Ross or excuse me, Carson just goes where they're not, and up top was where they weren't, and he took advantage of it.
Hocevar's not done.
He's already up to fifth.
Here he is working on the five of William Sawalich.
And look at Lane Riggs back there.
He's trying to follow suit.
It's like he has another gear.
His truck fires off so fast.
Got so much grip, and he's willing to take huge risks.
He restarted outside the top 10.
Like, he was on row six, and now he's in third position.
Oh.
Oh, no.
Cole Butcher.
Cole Butcher goes around.
That'll bring out the third caution tonight.Get it fired up here.
Get it back to him That'll put Kyle Busch back on the lead lap.
Definitely drives a lot different than the short track stuff, and it takes a minute to figure it out.
Let's see what happened here.
You see Cole in the 13 truck here getting down to the bottom.
Ah.
As it gets loose, and gets into his teammate there.
Gets into his teammate, but he saves it.
Yeah, just down on the bottom and it's And these trucks, man, they squish so much when they hit the wall.
Look at, look how soft the back of this thing is.
Boop.
Really crushed a lot.
Needs to be able to clear him here off of turn four.
He does, into second.
Hey, guys.
That was- Our pole sitter is back.
Yeah, look who's back in the game.
Bring Ben Rhodes to the top of the story here.
Here we go.
Lane Riggs for the lead.
Those newer tires.
On the bottom.
He's gonna want to make sure he clears them here.
If not, Hocevar is gonna have a run down the back straightaway.
He can't clear them.
Here it comes.
Brandon Jones with a great run.
Hocevar.
Oh, wow.
Lane did a good job seeing that, making the block, but the run was so big.
That's why I said it's so important for him to clear him off of turn two, and now look it, he's gonna lose another spot down the front straightaway as they draft by him on the top.
Look at- One lap ago, Lane Riggs was trying to race for the lead down the back straightaway.
Now he's fifth.
Just like that.
Side by side up front.
Carson Hocevar trying to get cleared around Brandon Jones, not making it easy on him.
Look at Ross Chastain into third.
Well, Carson- Ross Chas- is in a good spot.
He's gonna be able to roll down the, the straightaway here.
Trucks are gonna help draft with him.
What a race.
Four wide, they thought about it for a second.
Ben Rhodes, he dove in there, made it work on the bottom.
20 laps to go in stage two.
It is flying by.
Oh, Riggs.
Great racing action.
Was that Kyle- Riggs caught the outside wall, I think, off turn two Look at, look at the speed of Riggs.
Just constantly, steadily.
He's there now.
Yeah, I thought this was gonna be a hard pass for Lane Riggs a few laps ago, but just looking at the speed in his truck, I think he's gonna The blocks are insane.
It's still gonna be a challenging pass, 'cause he is just in his mirror.
Carson's just in his mirror following him everywhere he goes.
Oh, and the caution's out.
Dang it.
Oh, the 81.
That was gonna be fun.
Chris Wright, big damage.
So Ross Chastain- Wow meanwhile up three spots.
Let's see- Hun- Honeycutt and Lane Riggs continues to be on pit road with the mechanic.
They're pop riveting these braces back in.
They had the bear bond here.
Was the back window falling out of it?
It, it must have been.
I guess they're afraid that it would buffer and fall out of the truck at some point, because gosh it- Yeah, it looked- as fast as it was, I'd have a hard time- See- wanting to fix this see the window brace is not secure.
Yeah.
Yeah, so much for looking at the rear view mirror.
Get out, get out.
There you go.
Eyes forward, Lane.
Well, he's in the back.
That's about the only place he's gonna be looking right now.
Kayden Honeycutt with a great restart.
Looking to pick up that second spot, and he does.
Not quite cleared around Minnie Tyrrell.
You got to give it up for Dawson Sutton too.
Both those guys on the front row did a great job of not backing this field up.
It was fun to watch.
Here he comes out of turn number four.
Carson Hocevar picks up stage number two.
Kayden Honeycutt battles to second.
Gio Ruggiero.
Ooh.
Dawson Sutton hangs on to fourth.
Wow.
These guys, the 11 and the 17, were putting the pressure on me.
I need more speed to hold them off.
He's hoping he can do that the rest of this way as he looks for his second career truck win here.
Hey, Josh, they're, it's just all about no mistakes.
The driver can't make a mistake and the pit road- Oh, yeah, mistake on the right front here This is what happened to him earlier They're still trying to clock it to get it on there.
Finally gets it on.
Could- Hitting all five lugs.
Now they have to do the left side The tire carrier could not stud the right front.
They kept just playing wheel of fortune with that thing, trying to figure out how to get it on the studs.
That's a slow pit stop Huge moment for Carson Hocevar, who had command of this race.
Yeah, you just can't have that happen on your last stop Riggs is knocked off about a second, back in third.
And pretty much all of that happened right there with those lap cars.
That's why he was able to catch, Uh-oh, we have a caution here Oh, Tyler Ingram goes around.
Caution is out for the sixth time.
Whoa.
Nice spin there without any contact for Tyler.
Well, that changes things.
That changes everything.
Ben Rhodes.
Ben was in there.
He definitely had position there and, What a great save though.
He never quit driving that thing.
Kept his foot on the gas.
Great restart for Gio Ruggiero as they head into turn one.
Gets a little sideways.
Carson Hocevar is not patient.
He left the bottom open Here comes Hocevar on the bottom.
Look at Riggs.
Kayden Honeycutt out front.
Riggs got a little bit high, wasn't able to carry the momentum that he really needed to carry down the back straightaway.
Hocevar gets a huge push from Kyle Busch.
Kyle Busch is his teammate.
Falls back a bit.
Josh just talked about Kayden Honeycutt working on his late race restarts, guys.
He nailed it there.
He executed.
Kyle Busch three wide.
Oh my gosh, they're leaning on each other.
Kyle Busch, Gio Ruggiero.
And here comes that draft you talked of.
I would go high if I'm Honeycutt.
Carson Hocevar.
He is looking everywhere.
High, low.
He's trying to get to that quarter panel Trying to get around 11.
He's just trying to He gets to his quarter panel.
And that side draft.
Four.
You see that side draft work?
Pulling upper.
He's gonna make it.
He's in for the bump.
Oh, look at, look at Honeycutt.
He stays.
Here comes Kyle Busch.
He's gonna have a run now.
Remember at Atlanta, Hocevar helped Kyle win that race.
Will Kyle return the favor?
No.
Oh, look at that This time he turns down underneath him.
He's gonna get there.
Oh.
Gets him sideways.
Look at this race.
Look at this.
This is amazing .
13 laps to go.
Kyle again.
Hocevar knows one of the most aggressive drivers in the field, Kyle Busch in that seven truck.
He's won more in the Truck Series than any other driver.
Oh, no.
Oh, Stuart Friesen goes around.
Oh.
Trucks through the infield.
The grass completely destroyed- There's the camera Enfinger's truck.
Oh.
It's- That Enfinger.
Ooh.
Well, we get to see more of it.
I'm glad.
Catch our breath and take a look at this replay, what just brought out this caution.
He says bumps, the bumps that are working the back of Stuart Friesen's truck- Ah and got it loose.
Just spun him around.
That's a shame.
He had such a great run going.
And watch Grant- Ooh, Grant Does a good job missing him, but that grass, man.
Yeah, big push.
Hocevar's clear already.
Look at the 88, Ty Majeski, taking a look.
Other four wide.
Brandon Jones on the bottom.
Kyle's got to the outside of Hocevar.
Hocevar out front.
And he clears him.
Wow.
Six laps to go at Texas.
Three wide behind him.
Brandon Jones slips back.
Look, the 17 wiggles all over the place.
Watch this run on the outside for Kyle Busch.
He's got to get clear that inside.
He's gonna get a big push.
Gio's gonna be able to pull him back.
He's gonna get some of a push.
Kyle's just trying to get clear.
He needs to get clear.
Gio's gonna get clear.
Oh, wow.
Big slide there for Kyle Busch with the nose.
Oh, so close to clearing him, but they'll run side by side.
Gio's on Hocevar's back bumper.
He's gonna go to the inside into turn one.
He's- Side by side.
Can he clear him?
Josh, he's gonna try to work him up here.
It's gonna be a tight clear.
He's got to give him room.
It's not enough.
Not clear.
Squeeze him.
Just a couple feet apart.
Squeeze him.
Half a truck length.
Gio not giving up.
Oh, he's on his door.
They're both loose.
Up the hill.
Meet him up the hill.
Keep coming.
Still on your quarter pipe.
Out of turn four, three laps to go here from Texas.
Now remember, they're side by side, so look at that blue truck behind him.
Look at- Honeycutt He'll be there.
Where does he go when he gets there, though?
Kayden Honeycutt with a great run.
Lane Riggs still digging there outside.
Oh, no.
Caution.
Caution's out here on the front straightaway.
Caution is out.
We got a slow truck.
We got a couple of trucks around.
There it is right there, Jake Garcia with big damage.
Got somebody else stopped down the front straight.
So it looks like he's got a left front down and- And he's trying- he's trying to come down pit road And then he got clobbered.
Yeah.
Yeah, that- That wasn't a good decision You got to stay on the Oh, golly.
That was huge.
That's a hit.
That's a big hit to the outside wall for Justin Haley.
I saw Justin Haley get out and walk to the ambulance.
Can he back it up with a Truck Series win here this week?
Bottom lane didn't get quite as good of a push as they did before.
Pretty even going through turn one.
Into turn two, side by side.
A two lap shootout.
Kayden Honeycutt back there.
Look at Lane Riggs on the outside into third.
And Gio's gonna try to work him up here, but he's not clear enough to work him up.
He's gonna get loose underneath him.
Here comes Honeycutt to the bottom.
Carson Hocevar at the white flag.
Three wide behind him.
Look at those guys.
Kayden Honeycutt on the bottom.
Hocevar's got a huge lead here.
Sideways, and he hangs onto it.
Gio Rigero went sideways.
He's gonna lose a ton of spots.
Hocevar is checked out.
It's over, baby.
Falls back to ninth.
Meanwhile, up front, Carson Hocevar loves what he's seeing out of turn number four.
First career cup series win came last week, and what a celebration.
He wins it Friday night in the Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway.
Oh, oh, here he goes.
Uh-oh, here he goes .
Say, he's trying to get out of that baby.
That's pretty awesome.
There's a lot of him to get out of that truck, isn't there?
How fitting.
Looks like he's wearing cowboy boots and a big belt buckle.
That's a great uniform
