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 |
* – Ineligible for points