HAMPTON, Ga. — In what sounds like something more akin to the Twilight Zone than reality, Kyle Busch found himself thanking Carson Hocevar for his outstanding sportsmanship as a Spire Motorsports teammate Saturday afternoon.
Rivals who fight for separate teams on Sundays in the Cup Series, Busch and Hocevar doubled as NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teammates Saturday at EchoPark Speedway, working well enough together to score a 1-2 finish that landed Busch in Victory Lane.
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MORE: Truck Series results | Cup starting lineup
Nothing could have been more fitting or more ironic than it happening at EchoPark, where one year ago, Hocevar angered Busch so intensely during the Cup race that Busch radioed: “Go tell that 77 (Hocevar) he’s done that same [expletive] move 10 times. I don’t care if I wreck the whole [expletive] field. I’m over him. … I’m gonna wreck his ass.”
After Saturday’s truck race, that tone made a 180-degree turn.
“Carson Hocevar was a great teammate today,” Busch said. “Early on in the race, I was like, ‘Wait a second. OK, same old Carson.’ But as we got toward the end, we started working together and we started being able to maneuver our way through. At the end of the second stage there, I was behind him, pushing him. We were able to ratchet forward. And then there at the end, he was my wingman.”
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Hocevar, who drives for Spire Motorsports in Cup as well, was just as surprised as anyone by his effectiveness together with Busch Saturday afternoon, with last year’s events firmly in his mind. What it led to was a dual-celebration, with Hocevar and Busch exchanging high fives while Busch performed his celebratory burnout.
“He deserved it,” Busch said. “He was the reason we won the race today.”
Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar high-five each other after a Truck race at EchoPark.
Hocevar seemed stuck in a state of disbelief even after getting out of his No. 77 Chevrolet.
“Especially a year from here — I think that’s when he was hating my guts especially in the Cup race — I don’t think I’d ever be excited to watch a Kyle Busch truck win […],” Hocevar said. “I had no shot to win the race, so if I wasn’t gonna have a shot, I was gonna make sure the company had a shot. And yeah, that was great. Yeah, I went over to just high-five him because I thought it’d be a good picture. Be good for the marketing team and good for the social. That was a business decision right there to do that.
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“So I had fun. I wish there were a lot of truck guys that wanted to race more. They just want to sit on the top. I think I had my own fun and we had a blast, and me and Kyle worked great together.”
Is this the start of a sea change that will lead to more synergy between the veteran Busch and the up-and-coming Hocevar in the Cup Series? Probably not. But Busch did notice Hocevar’s progression throughout the race, and maybe even saw some of himself in Hocevar’s driving.
“I’m not a Spire Motorsports guy on Sunday, so I’m sure that’ll play some some differences,” Busch said. “But it was nice to see that he’s got it in him, right? Where in the beginning of the race, it was kind of normal Carson all over the place — not all over the place like out of control; just dicing it up, like cutting moves and making plays like I probably once was.
“But then in the second stage, I was able to kind of be his wingman for a minute. That worked real well. And I kind of wanted to say something like, ‘See? When you got a guy that will stick behind you, you can make some headway.’ But I kept my mouth shut. I just said it now. And then at the end of the race, that’s sort of how we played it, where I guess I had the track position, and so he had to play wingman for the day. Roles reversed, I’m doing the same thing. I’m trying to make sure that one of our trucks wins.”
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Sunday will be a different story when Busch suits up for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and Hocevar for the No. 77 Spire Chevy in the Cup Series race (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But maybe — just maybe — Saturday was the first step into the Twilight Zone before Sunday turns into a madhouse.
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