Brickyard Top 10 Lifts Hocevar To Lead Chevy In Cup Points

Carson Hocevar (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

By Justin Glenn, SWN Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (July 27, 2026) – There are many narratives and labels surrounding the growing NASCAR superstar that Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar is becoming. While some are negative, critics cannot deny his growing on-track production.

Sunday afternoon, after starting from pole in the 30th Brickyard 400, Hocevar finished ninth — in the process becoming the highest Chevrolet in the points standings at fifth overall.

“I was happy with our car, [it was] a little bit of a double edged sword with the No. 5 [Kyle Larson] wrecking that hurt us,” said Hocevar. “I think we would’ve been on the right end of it, and better than the guys ahead of us on fuel at the end of the race. But that’s what we needed for points, we just didn’t need that at the end for the race itself.”

Hocevar took advantage of track position and clean air early. He led a quick opening 31 laps, built a two-second lead over Spire teammate Daniel Suarez, and set sail around the 2.5-mile oval.

Coming into the race, all crew chiefs had a deck of cards to play with strategies. No. 77 crew chief Luke Lambert believed in running long, to create back end pace to wrap up stages with.

As such, on lap 33, Hocevar pitted from the lead and cycled out fourth behind Corey Heim – who ran longer on old tires – as well as Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs.

Larson crashed from a blown tire on lap 45, spoiling the strategy that would’ve cycled Hocevar into the top three. It added Heim as a new player into the race and also allowed the field to reset with the leaders.

Hocevar finished stage one in fourth, then stayed around fifth until the second scheduled green flag pit stop.

Hocevar made his stage two stop, but he faced another battle on lap 86. His on-going rivalry with Corey Heim flared up, as Heim who was leading fought him hard to keep Hocevar a lap down. This allowed Gibbs and Denny Hamlin, the strategy frontrunners, to build a sizable gap which loosened the 23-year-old’s grip on the lead.

Heim finally pitted, and Hocevar then pulled low as Heim came to the pit commitment line and gave him a well-publicized middle finger. However, a caution for Daniel Dye kept the No. 67 up front, which later led to his second win of 2026.

Hocevar took four tires and lost track position following the caution stop, taking him out of contention. From there it was a fight for track position, turning a possible win into just a top-10 day.

“The first caution just kind of put us into a bad spot on fuel. The reason why we took tires was just because we were going to have to wait on fuel, so we might as well just put four on,” said Hocevar. “I was able to pass three cars, which might have been the most in the field, it seemed like. When we got in clean air, we were kind of in our own zip code.

“Our lap times there at the end, we were way faster than most of the field. Overall, it was a good points day for this team,” he added. “We were the top Chevy of the field, results-wise, and now we’re the top Chevy in the points standings, so that’s pretty good for us.”

It was his ninth top 10 of the season, further stacking his career-best season in metrics. He scored his best Indianapolis finish and second top 10 at the historic oval. On top of all that, he collected 10 stage points.

While fans and critics could point toward not winning the race or losing the latest chapter of the Heim rivalry that has transitioned from the Craftsman Truck Series to Cup, Hocevar won in the points standings.

He entered the weekend seventh, and for the most part since his April 26 Talladega win, he’s hung around the seventh to 10th range in points. After Sunday, he sits fifth in the standings with four regular season races to go.

Yes, anything can happen in the Chase, but the shared expectation is to be top six or better in points to have a realistic shot at the championship. Hocevar is fifth — the highest he's ever been in Cup points. He is 128 markers back of the top three.

He may be bold, aggressive and, depending on whose opinion it is, a bit reckless at times. But no one can ignore his massive improvement, from 23rd in the 2025 standings to a real shot at a championship in less than a year’s time.

Up next is the final off week of 2026. That could pay dividends for a 23-year-old ascending the ranks of stardom at a lightning-quick pace. To close the summer, a trio of short tracks in Iowa Speedway, Richmond (Va.) Raceway, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway loom before the Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway regular season finale in the draft.

At Iowa Hocevar was eighth in 2025. At Richmond he boasts an eighth-place result from 2024. New Hampshire saw a career-best 11th in 2025. And at Daytona in February, he was leading the Daytona 500 on the final lap.

If he keeps his eye on the prize, a serious push before the points reset is possible.

“I didn’t speed on pit road, didn’t make any mistakes,” said Hocevar, speaking of Indianapolis. “I passed cars so that's pretty good for me.”

Coverage of the Iowa Corn 350 is slated for Sunday, Aug. 9 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.