Motorsports
Denny Hamlin surges to win at MIS; late trouble costs Michigan’s Carson Hocevar
Brooklyn, Mich. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carson Hocevar had a little chat Wednesday night. Stenhouse told Hocevar he might get a punch thrown his way and his NASCAR Cup friends might not allow him a chance at winning if he didn’t calm down his aggressive driving.
Well, the 22-year-old Hocevar, from Portage, Michigan, stayed with his style and it had him leading the FireKeepers Casino 400 Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
Hocevar led in his No. 77 Zeigler Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports with 20 laps remaining, trying to save fuel to get the chance to reach Victory Lane for the first time in his career.
But Hocevar suffered from tire problems with his left rear going down with 19 laps left, opening the door for William Byron and Denny Hamlin to fight it out for the win.
Byron, who led more than 100 laps at the two-mile superspeedway, was forced to save his fuel and Hamlin, in his No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, reached Byron, then went side-by-side and passed Byron with four laps left to earn the win, his third of the season and first at MIS since 2011.
It was a great early present for Hamlin, who had been in baby watch mode, awaiting the arrival of his third child with fiancé Jordan Fish. He won his 57th Cup race on start No. 701.
“It feels great to come to Michigan, where we’ve been close (in past years), especially coming back from 12th on the final restart,” said the 44-year-old Hamlin, who led for five laps, the ones that mattered most, beating runnerup Chris Buescher by 1.099. “I wanted, obviously, to take the lead and (Byron) did a great job of defending. I gave him all kinds of different looks.
“Truthfully, I just tried to pick them off one by one, especially since I had some damage to the right side from the last pit stop.”
Byron entered the day as the points leader with three wins in his No. 24 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing, including the Daytona 500.
“I was looking to find the balance between saving fuel and holding the lead and then ran out with a lap and a half remaining,” Byron said. “There’s things that you can’t do anything about.”
The reason for all the drama concerning Hocevar? He made contact with Stenhouse in last Sunday’s race at Nashville, ending Stenhouse’s day while Hocevar earned his second runnerup finish of the season.
Hocevar had earlier issues this season, including one at Atlanta with Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney where he also finished second. Blaney settled for fourth after spinning down the race track.
And then there’s JGR driver Chase Briscoe, who hasn’t had a problem winning poles, it’s just holding on to the top spot during race day.
Briscoe earned the pole for the FireKeepers 400, pushing his streak to three straight poles.
Briscoe led the first 13 laps but that was the highlight of his day, as he was a part of a four-car wreck early in Stage 2, which sent him near the back of the field.
Byron passed Briscoe on Lap 14 and continued to hold the lead until Buescher took the lead, going on to win Stage 1, his first stage win of the season.
Hocevar made the biggest gain coming out of the pits following Stage 1 when he moved up seven positions to start Stage 2 in third place.
Alex Bowman has been fortunate to run for one of the top teams in Rick Hendrick Motorsports, but time could be running out for him after winning just one race last year and still in search of his first win of this season.
It didn’t happen for Bowman Sunday, either, and now he more than likely needs a win to make a playoff spot since he’s sliding downward in points with an average finish of 27 in the last nine races.
Bowman was an innocent bystander early in Stage 2 when Cole Custer and Austin Cindric touched, sending Bowman head on into the wall with Briscoe also suffering minor damage to his car in the melee.
Rochester Hills native Brad Keselowski finished 10th and Erik Jones, from Byron, Michigan, finished 11th.
