Hocevar knew better than to throw a block in Atlanta overtime fight

Carson Hocevar had the lead at the white flag Monday morning at EchoPark Speedway, but he also had too big of a lead.

And that made the difference between winning and losing.

Hocevar could not block the run that developed behind him from Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace, who were tucked together. Blaney made the run to the outside through Turns 1 and 2, and Wallace made an abrupt left move down the backstretch to make it three-wide. It remained a battle until off Turn 4, and Hocevar crossed the finish line fourth before being moved to third place when Wallace was penalized for going below the out-of-bounds line.

“It was fun,” Hocevar said. “I’m happy for Ryan. I just didn’t quite have enough help there at the end, unfortunately. Once I got a big lead, I needed them to stay three-wide and I think I would have just run away. But they got cleared and it was just too big of a run to throw a block.

“We got three-wide there and I just needed a little help. Our No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet team had a lot of fun. We were able to execute at a high level all night.”

Hocevar led 25 laps in his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and was the leader under the final caution flag going into the overtime finish.

“Super happy with our day,” Hocevar said.

The performance moved Hocevar to eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings and closer to his first postseason berth.