Quite the compliment.
Carson Hocevar is in his third full year of the NASCAR Cup Series as the driver of the #77 car for Spire Motorsports, and it’s safe to say he hasn’t made many friends in the garage area since he arrived.
During his first season in the Cup Series, Hocevar was fined $50,000 and docked 25 points for spinning Harrison Burton under caution at Nashville. And last year, with a full season under his belt, Hocevar seemed to finally get comfortable (and competitive) behind the wheel and began making moves that drew quite a bit of criticism for being too aggressive, including dive bombing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Nashville and spinning Ryan Blaney at Atlanta. (He also managed to infuriate Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain in the same race).
That aggression on the track was on full display this past weekend at Atlanta (or EchoPark Speedway, whatever it’s called now) when Hocevar was in contention for the win late in the race and decided to go full Leroy Jenkins (do people still get that reference?) and try to force himself into a hole that wasn’t really there on a late race restart, which ended up putting leader Christopher Bell in the wall.
Plenty of drivers criticized Hocevar for the move, as did Christopher Bell’s spotter:
“What an idiot. There wasn’t even a hole. He just drove into the left rear of you. …
Can’t defend against that dumb—.”
And Denny Hamlin also had harsh words for Hocevar on his Actions Detrimental podcast:
“As a competitor, it’s going to come back around. He’ll be in a position where he thinks he’s about to win and then someone will decide that he’s not going to, and that’s going to suck. You’re just never going to get anyone to give you a break. He certainly is exciting to watch if you’re a race fan. Those arehttps://twitter.com/STaranto92/status/2025766095412494596 not the moves that you have to make to win the race nowadays. I think he’s missing a little bit of the craftsmanship of winning these races beyond just having a fast car. …
I keep hearing, ‘Well, he’s going for it.’ If I’m three car lengths behind Carson Hocevar and I go through the grass into turn one and then wipe them out, is that just me going for it? Or is that me being an idiot? An idiot. I think we have to stop using the, ‘Well, he’s just going for it.'”
Denny also used a humorous analogy on Twitter to get his feelings across…
Yeah, clearly not a Hocevar fan. But one NASCAR legend has a much different opinion.
Seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty discussed Hocevar this week on his Petty Family Podcast, and even compared him to another NASCAR legend:
“That boy in that 77, he has himself a time. Right now a lot of the things he’s getting by with or doing, it’s not really that wrong. If I go back and watch him run and stuff, he reminds me of Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt learned to get by with that stuff, and that boy in the 77, he’s just going to have to learn to get by with the things he’s doing.”
When Petty’s co-host pointed out that Hocevar isn’t really making friends on the track, which could end up costing him a win, Petty was quick to respond:
“Earnhardt never made no friends either.”
Fair point…
Of course it’s not the first time Hocevar has been compared to Earnhardt: Just this week, Hocevar unveiled his 2026 Chili’s Presidente Margarita paint scheme that had fans nicknaming the car “The Intimidente.”
Now, it’s obviously way premature to crown Hocevar the next Dale Earnhardt. But you’ve got to admit, love him or hate him, he’s fun to watch and he doesn’t really care what others think of him.
