Carson Hocevar earned his second top 10 yesterday at the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where he made his NASCAR Cup Series debut a year ago. The Zeigler.com-sponsored driver and Portage native finished 8th at the Enjoy Illinois 300.
After starting 20th, the 21-year-old would overcome a pit road set back in his Zeigler Auto Group Chevy to work his way back up the field to as high as fourth place. As the team made strategy calls that worked in their favor all afternoon, the rookie driver would secure his second NCS top-10 finish of the season.
This eighth-place finish marks Hocevar’s second top-10 and his best in the Cup Series, elevating him from 24th to 21st in the points standings.
“This No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevy team did a really good job with everything all race long. We played strategy a little bit to make sure we were on the right end of the night. We caught an important caution right, but then after that, our car was really good. We ran as high of fourth and we were catching third. Our lights were off, so we were a little slow down pit road. That was probably the difference of getting a top-five finish or not. All-in-all, it was just a really good job by this No. 77 team.”
