Michigan delivers another heartbreaking finish for Carson Hocevar
BROOKLYN, Mich. —While other drivers climbed from their cars after Sunday's 400-mile race at Michigan International Speedway, Carson Hocevar sat in his vehicle on pit road.
When he finally emerged from his No. 77 Chevrolet, Hocevar walked around the car and briefly looked off to the distance toward Denny Hamlin's victory celebration. It was another gut punch for the 22-year-old Michigan native.
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The caution Hocevar needed to stretch fuel to the end of the race never came and a flat tire forced him to pit from the lead 19 laps from the finish.
The result was a 29th-place finish that most will forget but not Hocevar.
'It's just like (reliving) the Truck days,' Hocevar said on pit road. 'But you're doing it in front of a big stage. The difference is I felt like I was throwing them away. Now, they're getting taken away … things out of our control.'
NASCAR: NASCAR Cup Series Race at Michigan
Denny Hamlin wins fuel-mileage battle at Michigan International Speedway
The Joe Gibbs Racing star took the lead from William Byron on Lap 197 of 200.
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While Hocevar seems poised to score his first Cup career win, heartbreak has hounded him this season. Sunday just added to a growing list. Consider:
His engine blew while he ran second in the final stage of last month's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
At Texas last month, he pitted from sixth in the final stage. The caution came two laps later, putting him a lap down and forcing him to take a wave around to get back on the lead lap. If he had pitted a lap later, he likely would have been in a prime spot to win. Instead, he finished 24th.
At Bristol in April, he was running third when his team had a 22-second pit stop, ending any chance at victory. Hocevar finished 11th.
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That doesn't include last week's runner-up finish at Nashville that was clouded by his controversial contact that wrecked Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and led to the drivers and their crew chiefs having conversations during the week.
Alex Bowman Michigan crash.jpg
Alex Bowman on Michigan crash: 'That hurt a lot'
Alex Bowman walked away from a vicious crash in Sunday's crash at Michigan.
Sunday's pain was evident in Hocevar's downbeat voice on the radio after the race when he told the team in a soft voice: 'Good job everybody.'
Crew chief Luke Lambert quickly added: 'Great work guys. I know that's heartbreaking. Great work. We're putting ourselves in position. We'll keep working. We'll get us there. We'll get us one soon.'
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Lifting up the team becomes one of Lambert's key roles right now.
'It's hard on all of us,' Lambert said of the recent disappointments. 'We got to just step back a little bit and look at here we are … running constantly in the top three. That in it of itself is an accomplishment. If we keep doing that, our day is coming.'
Hamlin agrees.
NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400
Denny Hamlin is back to being the villain, provoking Michigan crowd after win
Denny Hamlin told fans he beat their favorite driver and did part of an Ohio State cheer in front a crowd that featured many University of Michigan fans.
'You can't run as fast as he's running, being up front as much as he's up front, without eventually winning,' Hamlin said. 'I know that panic sometimes can set in. It's like, 'God, we lost this opportunity.'
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'But he's with a team that is on the rise. He is on the rise. It's just a matter of time. None of us would be shocked if it's next week or a month from now or whenever it is.
'I certainly give him his fair share of (grief) on Mondays on my podcast, but that doesn't mean that I don't respect his talent.
'Absolutely just a superstar when it comes to actual raw talent. When he figures out how to harness that, pick and choose the moments where he is aggressive, he's going to put it all together and just be the next whoever. There's five to six elite drivers in this field. He can be one of those five or six very easily when he puts it all together.'
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