Carson Hocevar rides the wave to NASCAR Cup pole at Texas

Fort Worth, Texas — In a manner of speaking, Carson Hocevar called his shot at Texas Motor Speedway — and wound up on the pole for Sunday's Wurth 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1).

Before Saturday's time trials at the 1.5-mile track, Hocevar (Portage, Michigan) said he hoped to capitalize on his last-in-the-order qualifying position — a benefit of his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday.

Carson Hocevar

"Hopefully we can roll out last and take advantage of it," Hocevar said. "Start up front, which is super important here. Pit stops are going to be important. Get a good pit selection and really keep the momentum rolling."

It took a monumental lap for Hocevar to achieve that objective. Streaking around the speedway in 25.222 seconds (191.240 mph), he edged Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez (191.320 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.003 seconds.

The Busch Light Pole Award was the second of Hocevar's career, with the first coming at Texas a year ago.

"Maybe going to (sponsor) Chili's last night it weighed the car down just a little bit more, and I had a little more left-side weight," joked Hocevar, who also won Friday night's NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at TMS. "I don't know where those three thousandths (of a second) are, but I'm glad I had 'em in the bank.

"My lap felt pretty good. It wasn't quite key it up on the radio and (say) … 'If they beat that, they can have it,' and they don't get beat. It wasn't quite doing that, but I was coming off Turn 4, and I was like, 'If this isn't fast, I'm going to be disappointed.' It felt good."

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's Chris Buescher qualified third at 190.981 mph in the only Ford that cracked the top 10. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe tied for fourth at 190.786 mph, with Hamlin getting the nod for the higher starting spot on an owner points tiebreaker.

Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, series leader Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10 on the grid. Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson will start 11th.

Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace did not make qualifying attempts and will start from the rear of the field on Sunday. Dillon's team changed the engine in the No. 3 Chevrolet. Wallace crashed in practice will start the race in a backup car.

"It was on edge, just like Texas is," Wallace said of the accident. "Just trying to find the right balance for us and our team. So it was going to be a good debrief to figure out if we can get some more speed, but just have to rely on our teammates and go get it tomorrow.