INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Carson Hocevar used a late qualifying run to knock Ty Reddick out of the No. 1 spot, then survived a late charge from Daniel Suarez to capture his first Brickyard 400 pole Saturday.
Hocevar, who drives for Spire Motorsports, produced a fast lap of 186.598 mph. Suarez, his teammate, soon followed with a lap of 186.382 to give Chevrolet the top two starting spots on the 39-car starting grid. Reddick will start third in Sunday's race
on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's historic 2.5-mile oval.
For Hocevar, it was another magical moment.
“I haven’t won anything at Indy, even was looking at like a marathon or something just so I can get an award here — it doesn’t matter what,” Hocevar said. “It’s just really cool to get something here. I look out to the back stretch, behind this media center and there’s a parking lot with a bunch of rubber and that’s where I grew up racing."
The 23-year-old Hocevar has now won three career poles — the other two at Texas with one coming earlier this year. The Michigan native has one career victory, in April at Talladega, in his third full season on the NASCAR circuit.
He finished 12th and 10th the last two years, his only previous Brickyard starts.
Reddick had Michael Jordan's 23XI team on top of the speed charts for most of the afternoon with a lap of 186.077 one day after he told reporters his car performed so poorly in practice it felt like he “had never raced here before.”
“It's going to be a lot of it,” said Reddick, who won the 2022 Brickyard on Indy's road course and is trying to become the first driver to win on both courses. “We have seen, though, last year, right, Denny (Hamlin) had his issue in qualifying and still had a strong day, so it's possible. But you set yourself up for more track position, more stage points with clean execution on the weekend.”
Hocevar, Suarez and Reddick were the only drivers to top 186 mph on an unusually cool, overcast afternoon that produced significantly higher speeds than in Friday's lone practice session.
Sunday's race could take place in much different conditions with temperatures expected to rise.
Defending champion Bubba Wallace, who also races for Jordan's team, will start 29th after going 183.861. Hamlin, who has won three of NASCAR's four crown jewel races, starts fifth as he tries to capture his first Brickyard title with Joe Gibbs Racing.
And Ryan Blaney got an early edge on Todd Gilliland as the two finalists chase the $1 million In-Season Challenge prize. Blaney is starting 13th while Gilliland qualified 36th.
But Hocevar hopes to cash in, too, as he leads the field across the Yard of Bricks to start the race.
“Hopefully that can get us a good advantage,” Hocevar said. “The prestige of this place raises everybody's intensity, so you know everybody's trying a little bit more because they know how much it means to everybody. So, yeah, it's super important.”
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