CUP: Hocevar finishes last - again - after inspection issue reinstates Blaney’s Las Vegas run

SCREENSHOT: NASCAR on NBC

by Brock Beard

LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Carson Hocevar picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s South Point 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet crashed after 110 of 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Hocevar’s seventh Cup start, was his second of the season and first since Gateway, 18 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 29th for the #42, the 660th from a crash, and the 849th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 41st for the #42, the 1,358th for a crash, and the 1,920th for Chevrolet.

Ryan Blaney picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s South Point 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #12 Menards / Tarkett Ford finished 6th, but was disqualified in post-race inspection for a shock issue after completing all 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Blaney’s 303rd series start, was his second of the season and first since Nashville, 16 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 30th from disqualification, the 32nd for the #12, and the 737th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it as the 50th for the #12, the 52nd from a disqualification, and the 1,023rd for Ford.

While battling for his first Truck Series championship, Hocevar has continued to make the most of every opportunity to race, all the while making his plans for 2024 come into focus. After his strong Cup debut at Gateway was cut short by mechanical failure, he won two of the next four Truck Series races at Nashville and Richmond and made another two XFINITY starts for Spire Motorsports.

But the Cup side has been where Hocevar has been most impressive. In his first Southern 500, he qualified 15th and finished 17th driving the Legacy Motor Club’s #42 vacated by Noah Gragson. For the next three Cup races, he finished no worse than 20th, capped by a particularly strong night in Bristol where he finished 5th in Stage 2 and came home 11th. Even with the announcement that John Hunter Nemechek would drive the #42 car in 2024 after an upcoming switch to Toyota, Hocevar landed the #42 for the rest of this Cup season – excluding only Mike Rockenfeller’s completed road course schedule last week at the “Roval.” This, too, was followed by more good news - Hocevar’s own announcement that he’d drive Spire’s #77 on the Cup side in 2024, replacing Ty Dillon.

For Las Vegas, Hocevar joined the 36 Chartered entries for Sunday’s race, where he began the weekend with a strong 6th-place showing in practice – second among non-Playoff drivers behind session leader Ross Chastain. The driver then tweeted he had a bad draw in qualifying, which resulted in a 25th-place starting spot with a lap of 183.293mph (29.461 seconds).

Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Daniel Suarez, whose #99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet spun off Turn 2 during practice and nosed into the gap in the inside wall, sending him to a backup car and keeping him from taking a qualifying lap. It was a similar situation for 35th-place Chase Elliott, sent to a backup #9 Llumar Chevrolet after he lost a right-rear tire and slammed the Turn 3 wall. No other drivers were sent to the back for pre-race penalties, so Suarez crossed the line in 36th place, 2.63 seconds back of the lead.

By the end of Lap 1, Suarez had moved ahead of Elliott, who at the stripe was just five-thousandths of a second behind Brennan Poole alongside him in the #15 Macc Door Systems Ford. The next time by, Elliott inched past Suarez and Poole, all of them locked in a three-wide battle with Poole last, 0.012 second behind Suarez, who was nine-thousandths back of Elliott. Both Suarez and Elliott finally opened a 0.253 second gap over Poole the next time by, but on Lap 5, Poole was now reeling in new 35th-place runner B.J. McLeod in the #78 BretBaier.com Chevrolet. Poole the dropped McLeod to last on Lap 7, though McLeod himself remained within two-tenths of Poole. By Lap 15, McLeod dropped Poole to last, and the race was on again. At the stripe, McLeod was 0.025 ahead of Poole, but Poole fought back on Lap 16, edging McLeod by 0.013. Poole then inched ahead of McLeod by 0.163 the lap after, at which point McLeod said “I lost a lot of pace there.”

Over the next few laps, McLeod lost touch with Poole and the rest of the pack. On the 20th circuit, he asked the crew if he had a tire apart. The next time by, his gap from Poole increased from 0.956 to 1.477, then by Lap 23 turned to 2.887 seconds and 3.451 the lap after. On Lap 26, McLeod was the first to be lapped as race leader Kyle Larson sped past to his inside entering Turn 1. Green-flag stops caused then caused the spot to change, starting on Lap 34 with Austin Dillon in the #3 BetMGM Chevrolet, then on Lap 35 it was Ryan Preece in the #41 HaasTooling.com Ford, then back to McLeod after his first stop on Lap 36. On Lap 39, Ross Chastain slipped to 35th in the #1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet after serving a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road. The first caution then fell on Lap 66 for a flat right-rear tire on 15th-place runner Erik Jones’ #43 Allegiant Chevrolet, which dropped him to 35th, one lap down. On the Lap 71 restart, Jones restarted in last place behind McLeod, then dropped the #78 back to 36th by Lap 73. Jones got his lap back as the “Lucky Dog” when Stage 1 ended on Lap 81, leaving McLeod the only car off the lead lap – now just one lap behind after a wave-around.

On the Lap 87 restart, last week’s winner A.J. Allmendinger incurred a restart violation for laying back too far in his #16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet. He served the pass-through and returned to the track 35th, stuck among the leaders as the first car one lap down. Allmendinger would earn his lap back on Lap 112, when the next caution fell. This time, it was for Hocevar, who by then was running in the 21st spot. Just like his teammate Jones, Hocevar cut down a tire, but unlike the #43 skated up the track and into the outside wall. The car then cut right and hit it a second time with the right-front before spinning down the banking. Hocevar tried to drive back to pit road, but he couldn’t steer it, and NASCAR told him to stop as he was leaking fluid. He climbed out, done for the day. Hocevar took last from McLeod on Lap 113, was towed to the team’s hauler on Lap 117, and was declared the first car out on Lap 127.

Hocevar's car being readied for its tow to the garage.

SCREENSHOT: NASCAR Drive

Finishing 35th was Alex Bowman, who on Lap 143 bounced off the Turn 4 wall, then slid to a stop against the tire barriers at Turn 1. Bowman climbed from his car done for the day, the race’s only other DNF. Finishing 34th was Ty Gibbs, whose #54 Monster Energy Toyota hit the wall down the backstretch, the lost a right-front wheel in Turn 3. The wheel’s separation from the tire indicated a loose lug nut, resulting in an additional two-lap penalty. A subsequent cut right-front tire put him eight laps down at the finish. Chase Briscoe took 33rd after his #14 Code 3 Associates Ford blew a tire and hit the Turn 2 wall. Chase Elliott’s backup car rounded out the group, one lap down.

Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney had remained among the other seven Playoff contenders for most of the day, at many times making big moves to the apron on the restarts. He finished the race in 6th – third in class behind leaders Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell – and left the track in the seventh points position, 17 markers behind the bubble. But two-and-a-half hours after the checkered flag, Blaney was disqualified for running a left-front shock that didn’t meet the overall specified length of 22.55 inches. This moved Blaney to last place, saving Hocevar from his second last-place finish. It also bumped Chase Elliott from the Bottom Five and Todd Gilliland from the Bottom Ten. With two races remaining in the “Round of 8,” Blaney now anchors the point standings - 56 points back of the bubble - and finds himself in a "must-win" scenario going forward.

But then on Monday came news that Blaney’s disqualification had been rescinded. According to NASCAR, there was an issue with the damper template used for inspection, which resulted in a false reading of the shock measurement. With that, Blaney’s finish and points were restored, placing him seventh in the standings, and handing Hocevar the last-place finish. This came just hours after news that John Hunter Nemechek would run the #42 this Sunday in Homestead before Hocevar closed out the season at Martinsville and Phoenix.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #42 in a Cup race at Las Vegas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

36) #42-Carson Hocevar / 110 laps / crash

35) #48-Alex Bowman / 144 laps / crash

34) #54-Ty Gibbs / 259 laps / running

33) #14-Chase Briscoe / 263 laps / running

32) #9-Chase Elliott / 266 laps / running

2023 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Joe Gibbs Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (4)

2nd) Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing (3)

3rd) Stewart-Haas Racing (2)

4th) Front Row Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse Racing (1)

2023 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (18)

2nd) Ford (10)

3rd) Toyota (4)

2023 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP