by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Carson Hocevar picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Monday’s 66th Annual Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #77 Gainbridge Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car accident after he completed 5 of 200 laps.

The finish, which came in Hocevar’s 10th career start, was his first of the season and first since October 15, 2023 at Las Vegas, four races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 43rd for the #77, the 662nd from a crash, and the 851st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 57th for the #77, the 1,363rd for a crash, and the 1,923rd for Chevrolet.

Hocevar’s 2023 season ended in controversy when last fall’s finale at Phoenix saw him spin fellow Championship Four driver Corey Heim, ultimately leading to Heim wrecking Hocevar in retaliation. This coincided with his eighth and final start of the year for Legacy Motor Club, with whom he claimed a 19th-place lead-lap finish, fifth finish in the Top 20 driving that car.

The 2024 season would see Hocevar reunite with Spire Motorsports, who gave Hocevar his first Cup start after teammate Corey LaJoie became the surprise relief driver for a suspended Chase Elliott at Gateway. Hocevar would replace Ty Dillon in the #77 in a bid for Rookie of the Year. Among those joined by fellow Truck Series veteran Zane Smith in Spire’s new #71.

It was Hocevar who kicked off the Cup Series portion of Speed Weeks in Daytona as the first of the 42 cars to qualify on Wednesday night. He ranked just 38th with a speed of 177.904mph (50.589 seconds), placing him 20th on the 21-car grid for Race 1 of Thursday’s Duels. After holding last place on Laps 6 and 7, he made his moves at the right time, coming across the line a strong 4th. Assured the 9th starting spot in the Daytona 500, Hocevar still searched for speed in the lone practice session, taking 33rd.

Securing the 40th and final starting spot was David Ragan in the debut of “Stage 60,” the third entry from RFK Racing. The #60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford was then joined by six other drivers for pre-race penalties. Two grinding wrecks in the Duels sent five of them to backup cars: 18th-place William Byron in the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, 32nd-place Ryan Blaney in the #12 Menards / PEAK Ford, 34th-place Kyle Busch in the #8 Zone Chevrolet, 37th-place Daniel Hemric in the #31 Cirkul Chevrolet, and the #10 Black Rifle Coffee / Ranger Boats Ford of Noah Gragson. Also docked was 26th-place Kaz Grala, who needed to change engines after the shifter handle came off during his Wednesday qualifying lap in the #36 Ruedebusch Ford.

By the time the field addressed the starter’s stand, the 40th spot had fallen to the penalized Gragson in the #10, 3.524 seconds back of the leader and nearly two-tenths back of 39th-place Hemric, 3.318 behind the lead. Based on these same intervals, last-place starter David Ragan had moved up a full ten spots to 30th, leading both the penalized drivers and four others who retained their original starting spots instead of joining Ragan further up the lineup: 31st-place Todd Gilliland in the #38 gener8tor Ford, 34th-place Austin Dillon in the #3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, 35th-place Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the #47 Boost by Kroger / Cottonelle Chevrolet, and 37th-place Hemric in the #31.

At the end of Lap 1, Hemric took the spot from Gragson and was now 2.315 seconds back of the lead, 0.106 behind the now 39th-place Busch. “Being the last car, we've got no help,” said Hemric’s spotter, “So if we miss it, we're done.” With the field still in two-by-two formation, Hemric remained alongside Busch until Lap 4, when Busch moved ahead of Anthony Alfredo’s #62 Death Wish Coffee Chevrolet. That time by, the gap was just 0.029 from Alfredo to Hemric, the #31 still running in last. Hemric dropped Alfredo to last on Lap 5, and Alfredo was soon joined by Stenhouse, whose #47 was just 0.094 ahead in another close contest.

By now, a third lane had formed in the high lane, which led to the first wreck of the day. Coming off Turn 4, the head of that lane was led by Brad Keselowski’s #6 Castrol Edge Ford until John Hunter Nemechek pulled up in front of him in the #42 Dollar Tree Toyota. Entering the tri-oval, Keselowski appeared to get in the back of Nemechek, whose car cut hard left into the cars to his left – the #21 of 9th-place Harrison Burton in the #21 Motorcraft / DEX Imaging Ford, and to his left, Hocevar’s #77 on the inside line. The impact spun Burton directly into Hocevar’s path, sending both into the rain-soaked grass. Each then spun back into traffic with Burton collecting both Kaz Grala’s #36 and Austin Dillon’s #3, then Hocevar colliding with Jimmie Johnson’s #84 Carvana Toyota. Burton sustained the heaviest damage to the nose of his Ford and remained stranded in the grass with Hocevar.

On Lap 6, Johnson took over last from Alfredo with Hocevar in 39th, but when Johnson made it to pit road, Hocevar took last on Lap 7. “I’m stuck – fuck’s sake,” said Hocevar. The tow truck arrived, the crew telling him to climb out of the car so it could be towed to the garage. Hocevar’s crew expected they’d be able to continue if his car was towed back to its pit stall, but it was instead towed behind the wall, done for the day. First Grala, then Burton soon joined him, taking 38th and 39th. Dillon and Johnson had extended stays on pit road with Dillon rejoining the race first, but with a noticeable vibration. Each cleared the “Crash Clock,” and on Lap 16, Dillon pulled behind the wall for 50 laps of repairs. Johnson continued, and despite off-kilter steering managed to keep up with the pack two laps down. While Johnson finished 28th, Dillon remained 37th at the finish.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was outside-polesitter Michael McDowell, whose #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford had an electrical issue that dropped him off the pace. After losing at least 12 laps on track, he made a brief trip to the garage and finished under power, 24 laps down.

Remaining Spire and Legacy entries among strong finishers

Low attrition and intense competition characterized the first 191 laps of Monday’s race, which – other than the two stage cautions – did not see another yellow flag until the final moments. On the other side of an 18-car pileup in Turn 3, a few underdogs still earned strong finishes. First was Hocevar’s teammate Corey LaJoie, who led Lap 151 and finished 4th in Spire Motorsports’ #7 Chili’s Catch-a-Rita Chevrolet. LaJoie has now twice tied his career-best 4th-place finish from Atlanta one year ago, bringing him to four career Top Fives. The other Spire car of Zane Smith claimed a 13th-place finish, tied for Smith’s second-best finish in this race last year, both accomplished in just 10 series starts.

Despite early trouble for team co-owner Jimmie Johnson, the other two Legacy Motor Club entries finished nose to tail with John Hunter Nemechek’s #42 in 7th ahead of 8th-place Erik Jones in the #43 Advent Health Toyota. For Nemechek, it’s his new career-best finish, besting the 8th he earned in both Talladega races when he was a rookie for Front Row Motorsports.

Taking home 9th was Noah Gragson, whose backup #10 entry led five laps and earned his first top-ten finish since he claimed 5th at Daytona in the crash-marred August 2022 race for Beard Motorsports.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the second-straight last-place finish for Spire Motorsports’ #77 Chevrolet in the Daytona 500. Last year, Ty Dillon swept the last-place finishes at both Race 1 of Thursday’s qualifiers and the 500 itself, leaving Sunday’s race after 26 laps.

*This is the third different car number with which Hocevar has finished last in Cup, following Spire’s #7 at Gateway and Legacy Motor Club’s #42 in Las Vegas.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

40) #77-Carson Hocevar / 5 laps / crash

39) #21-Harrison Burton / 5 laps / crash

38) #36-Kaz Grala / 5 laps / crash

37) #3-Austin Dillon / 146 laps / running

36) #34-Michael McDowell / 176 laps / running / led 6 laps

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Spire Motorsports (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP