Unlikely allies Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar combined on Saturday afternoon to extend an incredible streak for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

The pair teamed up for Spire Motorsports in the Truck Series at Atlanta, eventually finishing first and second respectively. The win is Busch's third in a row in trucks at the Atlanta spring race, and means that he's won at least one race in a national NASCAR series in each of the last 23 years.

Hocevar looked well in contention for the win, but with his water temperatures spiking he chose to play wingman to Busch in the closing stages, disregarding the animosity between the pair in the past.

The ploy worked perfectly in the weather-shortened race, with the No. 77 driver wheeling around to high-five Busch through the window during the veteran's celebratory burnout on the front stretch.

Busch: Hocevar was a great wingman

Hocevar later joked that the high five was a 'business decision' for the marketing and social teams in the Spire organization to have a great hype shot to use, admitting that he didn't ever expect to be pulling for a Kyle Busch victory.

Busch himself said after the race: “[Had] huge help from behind, Carson Hocevar was a great teammate today. Early on in the race, I was like, wait a second, okay, same old Carson, but as we got toward the end, we started working together, and we started being able to maneuver our way through. At the end of the second stage, we were able to ratchet forward, and then at the end, he was a great wingman.”

The junior partner in the race-winning pairing credited Spire owner Jeff Dickerson for being the motivation to work with Busch, saying afterward: “I don’t think I would, for anybody else than Jeff Dickerson – especially a year from here, I think that’s when he was hating my guts especially in the Cup race – I don’t think I’d ever be excited watching a Kyle Busch truck win.

“But they kept warning me 245 water temp is when it starts shutting off, and I looked down and it’s about 250. So I kept sputtering and the bottom kept surging and yeah, I had no shot to win the race. So if I wasn’t going to have a shot I was going to make sure the company had a shot. That was great.

"I wish there were a lot of truck guys that wanted to race more. They just wanted to sit on the top. I think I had my own fun and we had a blast. Me and Kyle worked great together. Yeah, I don’t think I ever, even as a kid, would have loved to watch Kyle win a truck race. But when Jeff Dickerson’s on the side and TWG and all these guys, it’s pretty good to watch him.”

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