John Hunter Nemechek advances to Round of 8 after Hocevar heartbreak

Just one more lap. That was all Carson Hocevar needed to clinch a spot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series‘ Round of 8. Unfortunately, his fuel tank had other plans.

Below the cut line entering Friday’s Kansas Lottery 200 at Kansas Speedway, Hocevar need a win to advance to the next round. He led much of the final stage and appeared to be in position, but the exceptionally long green-flag run (fifty-three laps without a caution to the finish, the longest in a Truck race at Kansas since fifty-four in the 2021 WISE Power 200) forced Hocevar to begin driving conservatively to save fuel.

This strategy allowed pole-sitter John Hunter Nemechek, who had dominated the race by sweeping the stages, to catch up before passing him in turn one on the final lap. Hocevar would run out of gas halfway through the lap and settle for second, but would be eliminated as he was three points short. Hocevar later tweeted, “we tried”.

The win is Nemechek’s second of 2022 and first at Kansas. Three of his last four Truck victories have come when he started on the pole, joined by the 2021 SpeedyCash.com 220 and 2022 Dead On Tools 200. It is also Kyle Busch Motorsports‘ sixth triumph at Kansas.

“I got nervous there for a couple laps actually with all the lapped traffic in front of me and I kept dirtying myself with the dirty air,” said Nemechek. “I had to play it smarter and I didn’t play it smart there for a couple laps. I got myself a little bit behind, but had huge speed and got a huge run off turn four. I knew that the #42 (Hocevar) was saving fuel too and trying to block there.

“We’re a little behind from last year, but I said I would rather win five races in the playoffs and win a championship than win five races in the regular season and we’re going to try to do that.”

Also eliminated from the playoffs was Matt Crafton, who finished a fifteenth.

Brett Moffitt, pulling double duty by also entering Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, was one of two retirements after his truck briefly caught fire from an engine failure on lap 73. Armani Williams was the other DNF thirteen laps later to end a tumultuous second start of 2022: he started at the rear for unapproved adjustments, lost his radio communications shortly after the starting command was given, was parked for being too slow, and was replaced by team owner Josh Reaume shortly before bowing out.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
2	15	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
3	7	17	Ryan Preece^	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	134	Running
4	9	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	134	Running
5	12	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
6	5	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
7	3	51	Corey Heim^	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
8	2	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
9	18	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
10	4	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
11	24	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
12	14	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	134	Running
13	6	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
14	19	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
15	8	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	133	Running
16	10	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	133	Running
17	26	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
18	30	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
19	25	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	133	Running
20	11	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	133	Running
21	13	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
22	17	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	133	Running
23	23	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
24	21	30	Kaden Honeycutt	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	133	Running
25	22	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	132	Running
26	27	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	132	Running
27	16	44	Bayley Currey*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Running
28	33	20	Jesse Little	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Running
29	32	5	Tyler Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	130	Running
30	29	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	130	Running
31	28	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	130	Running
32	36	33	Mason Maggio	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	126	Running
33	34	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
34	31	46	Brennan Poole	G2G Racing	Toyota	123	Running
35	35	43	Armani Williams	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	86	Too Slow
36	20	22	Brett Moffitt*	AM Racing	Chevrolet	73	Engine
DNQ		26	Tate Fogleman	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet
DNQ		14	Trey Hutchens	Trey Hutchens Racing	Chevrolet

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Underline – Eliminated from playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points