Hocevar on making his first short track start of the 2022 season: “I feel pretty confident going into Martinsville this week. We were on the front row last fall before a penalty set us back, but we rallied to drive back up into the top-10. Our No. 42 team had good speed last year and I know we’re bringing an even better truck to the track this year – we made big gains during the offseason. Hopefully we can go from good to great, capitalize with some stage points, and finally put a win banner up in the shop at Niece Motorsports.”
Hocevar at Martinsville Speedway: Hocevar makes his third career start at Martinsville Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Thursday night. He owns an average finish of 12.5 at the Virginia short track with a 13th-place finish in 2020 and a 12th-place result during his rookie season in 2021.
In 2020, Hocevar started 33rd and made his way through the field to lead five laps en route to a top-15 showing. In last season’s event, he started eighth and led four laps before finishing 12th.
On the Truck: Hocevar and the No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado will run the Premier Security Solutions paint scheme for Thursday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200.
Last time out (XPEL 225 – Start: 6th / Finish: 8th): Hocevar held on to his top-10 starting position for a majority of the opening stage before pitting from sixth-place on lap nine for a scheduled four tire stop before the end of stage one. After rejoining the field in 19th, Hocevar came across the line 16th in the opening stage and opted to not pit at the stage break, allowing him to restart stage two in sixth-place.
Hocevar picked his way through traffic in the first two laps of stage two to make his way up to fourth-place before pitting under caution on lap 21 for four tires and fuel. He made up 11 positions from the time of the restart to the end of stage two to pick up three stage points with an eighth-place result.
With ten laps to go, Hocevar restarted third and quickly made his way into second-place with a pass on the inside in turn one. On the following restart on the outside of the front row, Hocevar was shoved up the race track and fell back to eighth-place before ultimately restarting 10th for the first overtime. Despite the race ending under caution in the second overtime, Hocevar was able to secure his second top-10 finish of the season with an eighth-place result.
Niece Motorsports Pr
