Carson Hocevar Cashes In Third Money In The Bank 150 Victory

Before Carson Hocevar seeks his first NASCAR Cup Series win this weekend at Michigan International Speedway, he made history at his home track of Berlin Raceway on Tuesday night.

Hocevar earned his third career victory in the Money in the Bank 150 presented by Baker Auto Group, claiming the $15,000 winner's payday in the UARA National Super Late Model event at Berlin.

After starting seventh following an eight-car invert, Hocevar quickly worked his way forward. The Portage, Michigan native took the lead from Brian Campbell on lap 43, a lead he did not relinquish over the remaining 107 circuits around the tricky Berlin oval.

Coincidentally, Hocevar broke a tie with Campbell and Bubba Pollard with Tuesday's win. The three drivers had each won a pair of Money in the Bank 150s in its first eight years. Now, Hocevar is the first three-time winner of the event in its ninth running.

While he's now in the NASCAR Cup Series full-time with Spire Motorsports, Hocevar cut his teeth at Berlin. That makes Tuesday's win, on the heels of a Battle at Berlin victory last August, all the more special.

"It means a lot," said Hocevar. "It means a lot just coming here. I remember being on the other side. That Tyler Lupton kid's probably going to be really good. I remember being on that side. Erik, you know, being at the NASCAR ranks and winning these races.

"It's super cool to be the first three-time winner. Hopefully, everybody enjoyed the show."

Much of the race was a cat-and-mouse game between Hocevar and Campbell, with both drivers pacing the field but measuring their pace against one another. At one point, Hocevar was even waving his hand out the window of his car, encouraging Campbell to pick up the pace and find out how they both stacked up.

"It was fun to race with Brian [Campbell]," explained Hocevar. "I remember racing with him, you know, so many times for a local event. I didn't know if he was burning his stuff up, so I was trying to wave at him, like, come on, let's see what you've got.

"It's super fun to be that confident in the car. I know if roles were reversed, if I saw somebody waving, I would want them to go. I felt like I was pushing myself too hard. I wanted to make sure he wasn't burning his stuff up."

Now, Hocevar turns his focus to the NASCAR weekend in his home state, where he'll compete with both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Cup Series.

"We've got the Truck race to try to start the double, and hopefully we can do the triple. Real thanks to all the race fans I see against the fence. Thank you so much for coming out during the weather with us. Berlin does such a great job."

With 32 laps to go, Andrew Scheid passed Campbell and ultimately finished second. Coming off a win in the last Super Late Model weekly event at Berlin, Scheid proved up to the task in a field with two NASCAR Cup Series competitors and national Super Late Model standouts.

While he didn't come away with the win, Scheid quickly put the runner-up finish in perspective and stated Tuesday's result would build towards more success down the road.

"At a big show like this, you're not going to come out and win these right away," said Scheid. "It's gonna take time. You're gonna have to finish second, you're gonna have to finish third, you're gonna have to finish sixth.

"To have this improvement from last year's Money in the Bank with a 16th place finish. We got it in a good window last week. Nick and Brad made perfect adjustments all day long, gave us a great car for qualifying, gave us a great car in the race, and we were able to put up a P2. For now, we'll be happy with this, but we're going to be right there soon. We're going to keep fighting, we will not stop until we're in victory lane for one of these big shows."

Campbell crossed the finish line third, fading after an adjustment on the final pit stop of the event.

"The car drove really good in practice. After the first red, right before we got tires, I figured it would be us and the 71 sailing off. The car was good. We obviously made a little bit of an adjustment, so we slipped back to third. All in all, a good finish. I'm really proud of these guys and we represented Berlin Raceway really well.

Erik Jones, another former winner of the event now on the NASCAR circuit, finished fourth. The Byron, Michigan native qualified on the pole and started eighth following the invert. However, passing proved much more difficult for Jones as he wrestled with the balance on his car.

"You know, it's a new car for us and we just kind of struggled with the balance," said Jones. "It had speed, there with the pole, but just really free in the first segment. We put tires on and it got pretty tight at the end. We just kind of missed that adjustment, over-adjusted a little bit.

"Build a notebook, try to get better for the [Battle of Berlin] 250. I feel like we learned about this car, and need to button it up and get a little bit better."

Tyler Rycenga finished fifth, with Terry Senneker crossing the line sixth. Chase Burda, who led the race's first 36 laps after starting second, finished seventh, with Joe Bush, Dylan Stovall and Michael Atwell rounding out the top 10.

The next event on the UARA National schedule is the Motor Mountain Masters 150 at Jennerstown Speedway. That race is scheduled for Thursday, June 19.

-Photo credit: Matt Prieur

Money in the Bank 150 presented by Baker Auto Group Unofficial Results