Carson Hocevar held off Layne Riggs in a ferocious, last-ditch effort to win Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Coming to the white flag, Riggs got a run down the frontstretch and broke even with Hocevar entering Turn 1. The two made contact and slid into the outside wall, slowing both of their momentum and allowing William Byron to close in down the backstretch. However, Hocevar had a great enough advantage entering the final set of corners to beat the Front Row Motorsports sophomore back to the start/finish line for his third career victory.
Byron held onto third, Corey Heim took fourth and Gio Ruggiero finished fifth.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
The turning point Saturday came with 37 laps to go, when Frankie Muniz spun down the frontstretch during the final pit cycle. Hocevar, the race leader, was on pit road during the untimely yellow, but he got the fortunate end as he maintained lead-lap status and cycled back to the top spot. But others, such as Riggs, Grant Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt, got the short end of the stick and fell a lap because they had already completed their final service.
They did, however, take the wave around to regain lead-lap status.
During the restart, Corey Heim, who also lost track position during the pit cycle, got hit with a restart violation, adding to the list of miscues on the evening for the two-time Kansas winner. Toward the end of Stage 2, Heim dropped out of the lead and down 15 spots in the running order after a broken pit gun served as a major hiccup on pit road. Another caution allowed him to regroup and persevere back into the top five at the end of the 200-miler.
The Truck Series returns to action next weekend for the Window World 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway (Sat., 1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This story will be updated.
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