The Intimidente is getting a new look.
It seems like Carson Hocevar and his Spire Motorsports team are fully embracing the comparisons to the legendary Dale Earnhardt – and this weekend at Darlington they’re going full throwback to the Intimidator.
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 a couple weeks ago 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 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—.”
But after the incident, NASCAR legend and seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty discussed Hocevar on his Petty Family Podcast, and even compared him to the late, great Dale Earnhardt:
“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.”
Of course it wasn’t the first time Hocevar had been compared to Earnhardt for his aggressive driving style. And earlier this season, Hocevar even drove a Chili’s Presidente Margarita paint scheme that had fans nicknaming the car “The Intimidente” for its resemblance to Earnhardt’s black #3 car.
Well Spire Motorsports heard the comparisons, so for Darlington this weekend they’re going full throwback in embracing the Earnhardt comparisons.
In years past Darlington has traditionally been a “throwback” weekend for NASCAR, but this year they abandoned the “official” throwback theme and left it up to teams to decide whether they wanted to come up with a special paint scheme for the weekend.
Spire decided to continue the throwback tradition with a special Chili’s car honoring Earnhardt’s 1981 blue and yellow Wrangler paint scheme:
Even the firesuit will be a throwback to the iconic vest that Earnhardt wore in Wrangler ads back in the ’80s:
Speaking on the Earnhardt tribute, Chili’s director of media Tim Forman said it was inspired by the comparisons of Hocevar to the Intimidator:
“Last year, we noticed the chatter comparing Carson’s driving style to a young Dale Earnhardt, and it’s only grown louder as big names in the sport make the comparison. Given the discussion, we wanted to honor Dale’s legacy, using his 1981 paint scheme as the inspiration for what we’re calling the Marg Machine. Spire and Carson were all in, and we hope fans enjoy seeing the iconic blue and yellow on track again.”
Honestly, the Chili’s partnership with Spire and Hocevar has been one of the best pairings in NASCAR recently. They’ve come up with some awesome promotions and designs, and the driver has fully embraced the brand and what they bring to the table (no pun intended).
And Hocevar had high praise for Chili’s for their throwback campaign:
“Chili’s always knocks it out of the park with their suit and car designs, and the Marg Machine is no different. Everyone at Chili’s and Spire put in a lot of work to get the car as close to the original as possible, and they did a great job.
We’ve had bold suits in the past, but this might be one of my favorites. It’s truly a privilege to honor Dale’s legacy on Alumni Weekend down in Darlington, and hopefully we can give him and all the folks from Chili’s a great run on Sunday.”
I think it’s safe to say that we’ll probably see Hocevar quite a bit during the race on Sunday. NASCAR is bringing their new increased horsepower package to Darlington for the first time, and at a track that already chews up tires like a cheese grater, there’s no doubt that Hocevar’s aggressive driving style will be a storyline to watch this weekend.
Ride the ‘Dente…the Intimidente.
