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Carson Hocevar
Gateway Fantasy Outlook – Carson Hocevar can show up from time to time, and Gateway might be one of those weekends. Hocevar ran well last year en route to an 8th and at shorter-flat tracks he’s shown potential this year, ranking 13th in terms of Track Type Total Speed Rankings and having results of 8th (Iowa) and 15th (Richmond) in the two most recent races. Heading into the weekend, I would view Hocevar as a teens driver who might just flirt with a top ten.
Gateway Track History – Last year at Gateway, Carson Hocevar had a great performance and finished 8th. In the race, Hocevar started 20th, had a 16.6 average running position, finished 8th in Stage #2 and then finished 8th when the checkered flag waved. In terms of speed stats, Hocevar had the 16th best Total Speed Ranking but take note his speed over the segments were 21st, 27th, 5th and then 10th. In 2023 in his Cup debut in the #7, Hocevar ran well and was a legit mid-teens driver but on lap 91 while running in 16th he had a brake failure and crashed which marked the end of his race, leading to his 36th.

Chris Buescher
Gateway Fantasy Outlook – At Gateway, look for Chris Buescher to be solid. At this mid-west 1.25-mile flat track, Buescher has a 13th place average finish over his two starts. This year at shorter-flat tracks, Buescher started the season strong with a 5th at Phoenix but over the two recent races, he’s come home with ugly results of 22nd (Iowa) and 30th (Richmond). Phoenix has the most correlation, so that’s encouraging. Heading into the weekend, I would view Buescher as a teen’s driver.
Gateway Track History – Over his two combined starts at Gateway, Chris Buescher is 2 for 2 at finishing in the low double-digits and his average finish is 13th. Last year, Buescher started 26th, had a 22.2 average running position, ranked 20th in terms of Total Speed Rankings and then finished 14th. Over the last segment, the #17 could run hard to the finish on fuel and he ranked 2nd for speed over the last quarter of the race. In 2023, Buescher started 27th and then raced his way to a 12th place finish. Additionally, his average running position was 20th and his Total Speed Ranking ranked 24th. To close out the race, Buescher was at his best and hovered around the low double-digits to mid-teens. In 2022, Buescher missed the race due to “covid protocols.”

Josh Berry
Gateway Fantasy Outlook – Josh Berry is a strong shorter-flat track performer who should be on your radar at Gateway. Berry was a top ten contender last summer but walked away with an asterisk mark 36th, so he’ll likely be somewhat below the radar. This year at shorter-flat tracks, Berry has the 4th best average finish (8.3), the 5th best average running position, the 5th best Track Type Total Speed Ranking and the 6th best Driver Rating.
Gateway Track History – Last summer at Gateway, Josh Berry finished 36th, but you can quickly disregard that result since his race wasn’t incident free. “Performance Wise”, Berry was likely a top ten contender. In the race, Berry started 29th, ran a lot of Stage #2 running around the top 5, was in 5th on lap 90, was then caught speeding during green flag pit stops on lap 95 and then not much longer after that on lap 111, Berry had a flat tire and slammed into the wall which marked the end of his race. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Berry ranked 9th with his speed over the segments he completed being 16th and then 4th.

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