Carson Hocevar Wins Pole for Sunday's Brickyard 400

The Spire Motorsports driver laid down a 186.598 mph lap in the No. 77 car to top the leaderboard, earning the third pole of his career.

AUTO: JUL 25 NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 — Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

Carson Hocevar Wins Pole for Sunday’s Brickyard 400

Carson Hocevar will lead the field to green Sunday for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after capturing the Busch Light Pole Award on a gloomy Saturday at the 2.5-mile track. The Spire Motorsports driver laid down a 186.598 mph lap in the No. 77 car to top the leaderboard, earning the third pole of his career.

Hocevar’s teammate Daniel Suárez made it a Spire Motorsports sweep of the front row, qualifying second at 186.382 mph. Tyler Reddick (186.077 mph), Ty Gibbs (185.966 mph) and points leader Denny Hamlin (185.835 mph) rounded out the top five.

Michael McDowell, Corey Heim, Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Larson filled out the rest of the top 10 for Sunday’s starting grid.

A few storylines worth watching heading into the race: defending Brickyard 400 champion Bubba Wallace will start well back in 29th after qualifying at 183.861 mph, a tough spot from which to defend his title. Meanwhile, the NASCAR In-Season Challenge adds another layer of intrigue, with finalists Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland set to roll off 13th and 36th, respectively, in a head-to-head battle for a $1 million bonus.

Sunday’s race is set for 2 p.m. ET and will air nationally on TNT Sports, truTV and HBO Max, with radio coverage available through the IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. For Indianapolis-area fans, 93.5 & 107.5 The Fan remains the local radio home for all the action.

It’s been a strong qualifying weekend for Spire Motorsports as a whole, and Saturday’s front-row lockout gives Hocevar and Suárez a real head start heading into Sunday’s 160-lap race around the historic oval. With Hamlin looking to extend his points lead and Wallace facing a longer climb than he’d like, Sunday’s Brickyard 400 is shaping up to be one of the more compelling races of the summer.