Date: April 1, 2023
Event: SpeedyCash.com 250 (Race 5 of 23)
Series: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile, quad-oval)
Format: Three Stages; 77/45/50
Start/Finish: 2nd/9th (Running, completed 172 of 172 laps)
Winner: Carson Hocevar of Niece Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Jack Wood equaled a career best qualifying effort and then was able to battle back from an eventful day to bring home a career-best ninth-place finish Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
After starting from the second position, the Sevwins Chevrolet got shuffled back in the early stages. With just over 30 laps remaining, the day got tougher on the No. 51 team when would went sliding through the grass bringing out the seventh caution of the event. After several trips down pit lane in the closing laps to work on the minor damage, Wood kept battling and lined up on the top of the seventh row for the final restart.
When the event came to completion after a three-truck accident shortly after the field took the white, the scoreboard would say that Wood finished eighth, but when the final results were released, NASCAR ruled he was ninth. The ninth-place result was a career-best finish for the California native and for the first time in his career, he registered back-to-back top-10 finishes.
Wood will be back behind the wheel of the No. 51 Chevrolet May 26 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. William Byron will pilot the truck next Saturday at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race.
Jack Wood, driver of the No. 51 Sevwins Chevrolet for KBM:
Talk about battling your way to a career-best finish.
“Pretty much from the first restart, I didn’t do a good job blocking the run of the 11 and lost a lot of track position. From that point on just kind of kept getting shuffled back. We got some damage coming across the bumps there in Turns 3 and 4 and went through the grass and lost it. But the guys on this 51 team fought right with me all day long. I think we got lucky with missing a lot of cautions right there at the end. Kind of a long day, all and all, but just proud of these guys for fighting. I think the finish we had probably isn’t what we thought we should’ve had but we kept fighting and kept going. The truck isn’t as tore up as some of the competition, which is good heading into the next one.”
SpeedyCash.com 250 Race Recap:
- Carson Hocevar won Saturday’s SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the first victory of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. Chase Purdy finished second, while Stewart Friesen, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounded out the top five.
- There were 12 cautions for 36 laps and seven lead changes among four drivers.
Craftsman Truck Series Owner Point Standings:
After five races, the No. 51 team ranks fifth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series owner point standings, 46 tallies behind the No. 98 team.
