Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Texas

NASCAR Cup Texas starting lineup: Spire sweeps front row with Hocevar and Suarez

Carson Hocevar's dream week continues, earning pole position for the Texas NASCAR Cup race as Spire Motorsports locks out the front row for the very first time

Nick DeGroot

Edited: May 3, 2026, 3:49 AM

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Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

Last weekend, Carson Hocevar earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega. A few days later, he led a Spire 1-2 to win Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas. And now, he just earned pole position for the Texas Cup race in another Spire 1-2, beating teammate Daniel Suarez by just 0.003s.

This is the first time Spire Motorsports locked out the front row for a Cup Series race in the team's history. Hocevar also earned pole position for this race one year ago, going back-to-back in Texas qualifying.

After climbing from the car, Hocevar and Suarez embraced as they celebrated another incredible achievement for Spire.

"I really want to get the pole again, being the last car," said Hocevar. "I didn't expect to steal it from my teammate, but it's just the coolest thing ... A testament to all the Spire guys. This is a team effort -- two cars on the front row right after a win. Hopefully, we can do it at a non-superspeedway now."

Watch: Carson on top! Hocevar storms to Texas pole

Suarez reacted to the pole loss with a lot more excitement than a P2 starter normally would, praising the team: "Listen, I really want to give a lot of credit to everybody at Spire Motorsports. To lock out the front row like this is unbelievable. Everyone at Spire -- every man and woman who works very, very hard for this program. And what about this power, as well? HMS power is amazing. If I was going to get beat by someone, I'm glad it was my teammate."

Chris Buescher will start third, Denny Hamlin fourth, and Chase Briscoe fifth. Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Ty Gibbs filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Connor Zilisch qualified 12th in his best qualifying effort since joining the Cup Series, leading all three Trackhouse cars.

Joey Logano, who won this race last year, qualified back in 23rd, while his Penske teammate Ryan Blaney was even deeper in the field -- 31st.

Qualifying recap

Despite a bobble coming to the green flag, Briscoe set the fastest time in the first half of qualifying with a 28.304s lap.

In the second half of qualifying, Suarez was the first to best Briscoe, despite an issue in practice where he lost a tire and had to nurse the car back to the pits. The new benchmark was a 28.225s lap.

Hamlin then matched his JGR teammate, but was unable to bridge the gap to the Spire driver.

Buescher ended up jumping the Gibbs drivers, falling just half-a-tenth shy of Suarez. But it was last week's winner -- Hocevar -- who was the final driver on track to get the job done. He barely beat Suarez, running only 0.003s quicker over the course of a flying lap to secure pole position.

Bubba Wallace, who crashed in practice, and Austin Dillon, who lost an engine early in the same session, did not take part in qualifying. They will both start from the rear of the field.

NASCAR Cup Texas Starting Lineup

cla # driver manufacturer laps time gap mph 1 77 Carson Hocevar Chevrolet 1 28.222 191.340 2 7 Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 28.225 0.003 191.320 3 17 Chris Buescher Ford 1 28.275 0.053 190.981 4 19 Chase Briscoe Toyota 1 28.304 0.082 190.786 5 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 28.304 0.082 190.786 6 8 Kyle Busch Chevrolet 1 28.330 0.108 190.611 7 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 1 28.353 0.131 190.456 8 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota 1 28.359 0.137 190.416 9 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 1 28.364 0.142 190.382 10 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 1 28.396 0.174 190.168 11 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 28.411 0.189 190.067 12 88 Connor Zilisch Chevrolet 1 28.430 0.208 189.940 13 2 Austin Cindric Ford 1 28.442 0.220 189.860 14 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 1 28.454 0.232 189.780 15 24 William Byron Chevrolet 1 28.467 0.245 189.693 16 1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 28.507 0.285 189.427 17 67 Corey Heim Toyota 1 28.520 0.298 189.341 18 35 Riley Herbst Toyota 1 28.537 0.315 189.228 19 71 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 1 28.548 0.326 189.155 20 60 Ryan Preece Ford 1 28.552 0.330 189.129 21 43 Erik Jones Toyota 1 28.579 0.357 188.950 22 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Chevrolet 1 28.606 0.384 188.772 23 22 Joey Logano Ford 1 28.618 0.396 188.692 24 21 Josh Berry Ford 1 28.619 0.397 188.686 25 6 Brad Keselowski Ford 1 28.656 0.434 188.442 26 16 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet 1 28.662 0.440 188.403 27 41 Cole Custer Chevrolet 1 28.676 0.454 188.311 28 4 Noah Gragson Ford 1 28.694 0.472 188.193 29 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 1 28.726 0.504 187.983 30 97 Shane van Gisbergen Chevrolet 1 28.738 0.516 187.905 31 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 1 28.754 0.532 187.800 32 34 Todd Gilliland Ford 1 28.772 0.550 187.682 33 42 John Hunter Nemechek Toyota 1 28.774 0.552 187.669 34 38 Zane Smith Ford 1 28.833 0.611 187.285 35 10 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 1 29.134 0.912 185.350 36 66 Chad Finchum Ford 1 30.613 2.391 176.396 37 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 0 38 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 0

Photos from Texas - Saturday

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Cliff Daniels, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Austin Cindric, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Daniel Suárez, Spire Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., HYAK Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Joey Logano, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Austin Cindric, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Cody Ware, Rick Ware Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Joey Logano, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Erik Jones, Legacy Motor Club

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Michael McDowell, Spire Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing

Texas - Saturday, in photos

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports

Texas - Saturday, in photos

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