Carson Hocevar Wins Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas in Wild Fashion

Photo Credit: Riley Ogle (Motorsports Today)

KANSAS CITY, K.S. – After an eventful ending to the ARCA Menards Series race the night prior, the Craftsman Truck Series continued its eventful action under the lights, Saturday, May 10 for the Heart of Health Care 200. The prime time slot lived up to the expectations as after an eventful race, Carson Hocevar secured the victory.

Setting the Grid:

ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia who had a career year to this point continued his great momentum as for the second time in three races he qualified on the pole. To his outside on the front row was Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim who was the heavy favorite going into the event. In September, the last time at Kansas, Heim started 33rd after troubles. Heim went on to win the race after leading 64 of the 134 laps.

Also in the field were two NASCAR Cup Series regulars, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar who raced the previous week at Texas as well as Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron who also raced for Spire in the race. Byron became a late addition as he filled for injured J.R. Motorsports Driver Connor Zilisch as he continues his recovery after a crash during the final lap of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega.  Both Hocevar and Byron would be active throughout the evening.

Stage One:

Immediately after the drop of the green flag, issues happened immediately. Jake Garcia got a tough push from teammate Ty Majeski after spinning his tires sending him under the yellow line. Majeski made contact with Hocevar while the bottom of four wide in turn one immediately cutting down his right front tire. 

The race remained green, but it would not remain that way for long as Rackley W.A.R.’s Dawson Sutton, also trying to pit for a flat tire, spun attempting to pit.

Majeski lost a lap in the process but got back on the track to get the lucky dog, but again lost a right front tire putting the team in a major disadvantage. He was held a lap for fueling the car twice after earning the lucky dog. 

 Additionally Sutton was penalized two laps as the officials deemed the spin of Sutton was intentional. Those two were not the only ones who came out with damage. Both Hocevar and Rockingham Winner Tyler Ankrum of McAnally-Hilgemann had damage to the fenders of their car. 

But the story of the day began to show itself as Heim took the lead on lap 1 of the race on the original start. When the race went back green on lap 8, he quickly opened up his lead to over a second in just two laps. 

Behind, Chandler Smith of Front Row Motorsports and Kaden Honeycut of Neice Motorsports who was one of only two trucks in practice to attempt a 30 lap run, began a hard battle for second that lasted through the majority of the stage. 

The second caution came out on lap 23 as the tough day for Thorsport continued as Luke Baldwin cut down a tire after having to pit for damage three times throughout the stage.

Surprisingly with there only being three limited sets of tires, everyone came down to pit setting up a two lap dash for the stage. The biggest winner was Spire’s Rajah Caruth as he gained three spots in the pits putting him in second for the restart. It was surprisingly a tame two laps as Heim picked up the Stage One victory, his 6th of 2025.  Behind him Caruth crossed the line second, but to everyone's surprise Hocevar finished stage one in fourth, as he rebounded despite the early damage.

Stage Two:

Things went back green on lap 36 and the action picked up immediately. Heim got a great start as on his outside things became immediately three wide, as Caruth was left out by his teammate of Hocevar costing them both track position briefly.

Hocevar though would not be denied, as just two laps later Hocevar passed Chandler Smith for 2nd, starting his push for the lead. As for Caruth he rebounded to fifth with 15 laps to go in Stage Two, but was not a factor for the win the rest of the race. 

As for Hocevar, he attempted to take the lead on the inside a few laps later, but that was the only shot he had during the green flag run, as Heim opened the lead up after over two seconds.

The race changed course again on lap 52, as Cody Dennison of Reamue Brothers Racing cut down a tire sending him for a spin. This sent the field back into pit road for tires. Corey Heim this time caught the bad break as the pit gun broke while putting on the left rear tire of his car, causing Heim to lose 15 positions in the pits. 

Out of pit road Carson Hocevar won the battle out of the pits. The green flag resumed on lap 56 and it was immediate chaos for the lead. Caruth had a tough moment out of turn four causing him to go backwards and lose more spots, while Hocevar who was the control car briefly lost the lead to Grant Enfinger of CR7 Motorsports. A lap later he passed Grant back with a new challenger also entering second place, that being Front Row’s Layne Riggs. He went on to take the stage with Riggs right on his tail setting up for a fun final 67 laps of Stage Three.

The Final Stage:

On the restart Hocevar got a great push from Enfinger pushing him clear of the lead. Further back Heim got aggressive immediately as he found himself middle of four wide entering turn number one. Heim made the momentum as he jumped to 8th after being mired in the mid pack, setting up his charge to the front.  

With 60 laps remaining discussion of pit strategy began to develop as most of the teams only had one fresh set of tires remaining in the pits leading to the possibility of a lot of teams flipping the stage.

Heim got to fourth on lap 75 seemingly being the most aggressive on his tires, but his gap to the lead plateaued, as spent majority of the first half of the run 2.5 seconds in fourth off of the lead. It seemed the the rest of the field had the same issue though, but with 45 laps to go, Enfinger came to life after Hocevar could not pass the lap truck of Spencer Boyd with ease, putting Grant to the bumper of the seven truck. 

This moment began the battle as behind Layne Riggs also closed the gap taking second from Enfinger with 43 laps to go. Behind this began the pit cycle with Chandler Smith starting things off as aimed to rebound for track position. A lap later both Heim and Riggs followed down, but this became a really bad break.

As Hocevar came down to pit, Reaume’s Frankie Muniz went for a spin on the front stretch making a race changing caution.  William Byron had stayed out making him the leader briefly, but this forced everyone who had pit outside of Hocevar to take the wave around as only 13 trucks were on the lead lap, with Riggs being the lucky dog. The race resumed green with 32 laps to go.

The Final Countdown:

As the race went back green it was the NASCAR Cup Series faithful who combined to make up the front row with Hocevar on the inside and Byron on the outside. Byron had the lap better tires, but Carson Hocevar would not be denied. Hocevar with the help of Stewart Friesen of Halmar Friesen Racing was pushed clear into one for the second straight restart. 

Further back in the pack, bad luck again struck for Corey Heim as he jumped outside of Grant Enfinger too early, giving himself a restart violation. This would be another blow to the 11’s day as a whole. He resumed the race in 23rd, the last truck on the lead lap. 

Hocevar expanded his lead to a second and a half but it reset as another caution came out, as Bayley Currey of Neice went for a spin. Connor Mosack of Pinnacle racing group though suffered the most damage, as slowing down for the incident Chandler Smith drove into the back of him also turning him to the inside. Both trucks continued on at the tail end of the lead lap. 

This led to a 20 lap dash to the end as Byron had another chance. He started to the outside of Hocevar and had a much better restart filing in behind for second. Byron stayed within three tenths, but that didn't last long as Hocevar opened it up to a second with 10 laps to go. 

This race could not end without a memorable ending though as Layne Riggs seemed to come from out of nowhere ripping the wall coming back from 14th to take second away with seven laps to go. Miraculously Riggs closed down the gap as with three to go he cut the gap to under a half a second.

Hocevar played hard defense by air blocking, but Riggs finally had a shot to make a move in turn 1 of the white flag. Riggs though became loose sending both Hocevar and himself sideways as they both began to spin. In what was a sensational moment both drivers would save their cars from full on crashing. Hocevar walked away ahead of Riggs and he didn’t have another shot into three. 

Hocevar was seen giving Riggs a gesture to Riggs out of four, as he raced to the checkered victoriously. For Hocevar it's his first win back in the Craftsman Truck Series since Homestead back on October 21, 2023. 

After the race Riggs said he did not understand the gesture as he said, “He flipped me off all the way down the frontstretch coming to the checkered flag, but how can you be too mad when you win the race?” 

Hocevar answered after the race saying that “It was friendly!”, and there was no ill will about it as he has a lot of respect for Riggs. Regardless, Hocevar will have a chance to repeat and finish off the sweep in the cup race tomorrow.

UP NEXT:

The NASCAR Cup Series main events the weekend, as they take their first of two trips to Kansas Speedway at 3:00 pm  E.T.  Only found in a storybook script coming off the sports closest finish of all time a year ago, Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green with Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher who finished runner up to his outside. The race can be found on FS1. We also will have up to date coverage on all of our social media platforms.