Ross Chastain capitalises on Hocevar, Preece contact for NCEL 200 win

As Ross Chastain continued his strong 2022 by adding a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win to complement his two Cup Series triumphs, his Niece Motorsports team-mate Carson Hocevar was in the crosshairs of Ryan Preece. Hocevar and Preece were fighting for the win late when the latter was squeezed by his adversary into the wall, leading to choice words from Preece.

Hocevar, who has come so close to scoring his maiden Truck Series win on numerous occasions but fell short each time, was eager to make Friday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway the night where it all came together. He led a race-high fifty-seven laps, five more than Stage #1 winner Zane Smith, before facing a challenge from Preece. A wreck involving Jesse Little and Tyler Ankrum with four laps remaining resulted in overtime, which began with Hocevar and Preece comprising the front row.

As they ran through the first two turns, Hocevar went up the turn three banking and sandwiched Preece between his truck and the outside wall. After crossing the backstretch, further contact between the two caused Hocevar to spin and Preece to fall off pace. Chastain, who was running third, slipped by and took the lead before the caution came out; he would lead the final two overtime laps to secure his fourth career Truck win.

Preece, who finished eleventh, was far from pleased with the incident.

“All you kids watching right now wanting to get to this level: don’t do that,” Preece told FOX Sports. “Race with respect, don’t wreck the guy on the outside if you’re trying to win your first race. It doesn’t get you anywhere.

“All I’m going to say is thank you RaceChoice.com for putting me in this truck because I race for a living, and if I don’t run good, I don’t make a lot of money. I’m pissed right now. We got two more races to try and have some good runs, but that’s just stupid. It’s just really stupid. Don’t be like that.”

After placing sixteenth, Hocevar took responsibility for the contact and later tweeted, “[R]acers race. I was gonna try and track out as much as possible to stall you out down the back, you got to my rr earlier then expected got me really loose and I crashed us. Racers try to capitalize and sometimes get greedy and step too far. that was me tonight. call it how it is.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	41	Ross Chastain*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	143	Running
2	11	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	143	Running
3	15	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	143	Running
4	9	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	143	Running
5	2	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	143	Running
6	6	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	143	Running
7	3	51	Kyle Busch*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	143	Running
8	7	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	143	Running
9	13	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	143	Running
10	12	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	143	Running
11	8	17	Ryan Preece	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	143	Running
12	16	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	143	Running
13	1	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	143	Running
14	20	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	143	Running
15	17	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	143	Running
16	4	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	143	Running
17	10	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	142	Running
18	18	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	142	Running
19	22	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	142	Running
20	25	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	142	Running
21	30	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	141	Running
22	33	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	141	Running
23	19	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	141	Running
24	27	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsprots	Chevrolet	141	Running
25	26	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	141	Running
26	31	37	Max Gutierrez	AM Racing	Chevrolet	140	Running
27	35	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	140	Running
28	24	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	139	Running
29	21	30	Tate Fogleman	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	139	Running
30	29	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	139	Running
31	32	33	Josh Reaume	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	138	Running
32	14	02	Jesse Little	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	128	Accident
33	34	43	Keith McGee	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	67	Suspension
34	23	20	Matt Mills*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	57	Accident
35	28	46	Brennan Poole	G2G Racing	Toyota	38	Driveshaft

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points