By AMANDA VINCENT
Carson Hocevar capped off the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season with his third win of the year Saturday night in the Worldwide Express 250 at the Richmond (Va.) Raceway. He did so after taking the green flag last because of a pit stop for tires during the pre-race pace laps.
“I suck at this place, and we at Niece Motorsports suck at this place; we’re terrible,” Hocevar said. “My splitter’s gone, because I got a flat tire before we even went (green). We passed every single truck here.
“(Ty Majeski) kind of threw it away, but still, he was fast. I had the second-best truck, but I had the first-best pit crew and the first-best crew chief on the box.”
Ty Majeski finished second after leading a race-high 168 laps of the 250-lap race. Zane Smith, Jake Garcia and Matt Mills rounded out the top-five.
Hocevar gave up the lead to pit during a green-flag cycle of stops on lap 209. Meanwhile, Majeski attempted to overcome a pit-road speeding penalty with just over 100 laps remaining by staying out during the final cycle of stops.
Hocevar, on newer tires, took the lead from Majeski on lap 246.
Corey Heim claimed the regular-season championship in his first full-time season in the Truck Series. He finished sixth in Saturday night’s race, but the points leader locked up the regular season title when he was third at the end of the first stage.
“With TRICON Garage and Toyota Racing, we’ve come such a long way from the beginning of the year,” Heim said. “I really felt like we had a lot of progress to make in the first four or five weeks, and we’ve really bern improving ever since. Tonight, it was a rough night at Richmond.”
Three playoff positions were unconfirmed heading into the Richmond race. Matt DiBenedetto, Nick Sanchez and Matt Crafton started the race provisionally in advancing positions. All three cemented their playoff spots — Crafton and Sanchez with seventh and eighth-place race finishes and DiBenedetto after a 17th-place finish.
Drivers with playoff berths already locked in before the Richmond race included Heim, Smith, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes, Hocevar and Majeski.
Saturday night’s race got underway nearly an hour later than its scheduled start because of a lightning delay.
Pole sitter Majeski won the opening 70-lap stage after leading the entire stage. ThorSport Racing teammate Rhodes ran second for most of the first stage and the teammates were one-two at stage-end.
Majeski’s dominance continued through stage two, and he took another 70-lap stage win on lap 140 with teammate Rhodes, again, in second. But unlike stage one, Majeski didn’t lead the entire second stage.
Heim took the lead on a lap-116 restart that followed a lap-110 caution for a Dean Thompson spin. Rhodes, then, took the lead on lap 125, a lap following the restart from a lap-117 caution for a Justin Carroll spin.
Majeski retook the lead from his teammate on lap 129.
After the stage sweep and 132 laps-led, Majeski was nabbed speeding on pit road. Instead, Rhodes restarted with the lead after being second to Majeski out of the pits.
Hocevar took the lead on the lap-150 restart.
Rhodes suffered his own pit-road penalty in the final 50 laps — a commitment-line violation during a cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 219.
Enfinger and William Sawalich finished ninth and 10th in Saturday night’s race.
