Editor's note: The contents of this article have been modified from their original state to reflect Kyle Busch's tragic passing.
Carson Hocevar is taking full advantage of the fact that the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is his third as the full-time driver of the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, meaning he is not limited to just eight starts in the Craftsman Truck Series.
With Spire Motorsports also fielding a full-time Truck Series team with two trucks (and sometimes a third), Hocevar has been a regular competitor at the sport's third highest level this year.
Through the season's first nine races, he has only missed the inaugural street race in St. Petersburg, Florida, simply because it took place on the same weekend Cup was running its annual road course race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. James Hinchcliffe, a former IndyCar winner in St. Pete, took his place that weekend.
Hocevar had been lined up to run Friday night's Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to prepare for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. But instead of pulling double duty, Hocevar is instead set to focus strictly on the sport's longest race this weekend.
Connor Zilisch, however, is not.
Zilisch's lone Truck Series start so far this season came at Watkins Glen International two weeks ago, and he drove the third Spire Motorsports, the No. 71 Chevrolet. He finished that race in second, and now he's set to return to the team as Hocevar's replacement in the No. 77 truck.
Zilisch, who never ran a full Truck Series season before his breakout rookie season in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series a year ago, is set to run all three races at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina oval this weekend, as he is set to be back with JR Motorsports for Saturday's O'Reilly Series race. He competes full-time for Trackhouse Racing in the Cup Series.
Speaking of Trackhouse, the third Spire truck is set to be driven by Shane van Gisbergen this weekend, marking his first oval start in the series since his series debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2023.
Corey Day is set to be behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet for the first time this season. This announcement was made after Kyle Busch's hospitalization was made public, hours before his passing. He had originally been in line to drive that truck this weekend.
As for Hocevar, he is expected to return to the No. 77 Chevrolet for both next weekend's Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway and the following weekend's race at Michigan International Speedway.
He is still set to drive the No. 77 on the Cup side on a weekly basis.
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