Carson Hocevar Fastest in North Wilkesboro Truck Series Practice

Texas Motor Speedway winner Carson Hocevar clocked the fastest time in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice at North Wilkesboro Speedway with a speed of 109.282 mph.

On his first run, Hocevar had a falloff of about 1.5 seconds after 30 laps on the track. He also had the best average 15 laps in the lone practice session.

Hocevar, who was also one of the few Truck Series drivers to participate in a Goodyear tire test at North Wilkesboro, completed the session with 52 laps on the track.

“I ran a lot of laps here between the tire test and now running a late model twice,” Hocevar said in his FOX Sports 1 interview. “Our WWEX Racing Niece Motorsports Chevrolet was really really fast.”

Ty Majeski wasn’t far behind Hocevar’s fastest lap. Majeski completed the session with a 109.255-mph lap. Both drivers competed in late model events during the weekend to master their understanding of the track.

Chase Purdy clocked his fastest lap at the end of practice after putting an additional set of tires on towards the end of the time trial. He timed in at 109.001 mph. Zane Smith was right behind Purdy for fourth and Kaden Honeycutt completed the top five.

Cup Series regular Kyle Larson put his Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet in sixth and Xfinity regular Parker Kligerman ended was seventh. Ben Rhodes, William Byron and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10.

Corey Heim was the fastest Toyota in today’s practice session and finished in 12th position.

Akinori Ogata spectacularly caught ablaze during the session in a huge and scary fire while turning his laps. He left his No. 46 truck on his own power after the truck blew up and caught flame. The truck blew up in turn 3 and quickly flared up. The Japanese driver’s truck hit the wall in turn 3 while on fire until he parked it and exited safely. He ended the session in 35th place. He was checked and released from the infield care center.

Before the huge fire, Norm Benning caused a brief pause during the 50-minute practice when the 71-year-old got loose driving into turn 1 in the middle of his run and backed into the wall with significant damage to the body of his No. 6. He finished practice in 40th and last place.

With 40 trucks taking the track, four trucks will not qualify for the Tyson 200 on Saturday, May 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Coverage for the Truck Series’ return to North Wilkesboro will be on FS1.