Keep on riding the ‘dente.
Carson Hocevar gave us what may have been the greatest celebration in the history of NASCAR today after winning his first ever Cup Series race at the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The driver of the #77 car for Spire Motorsports has been knocking on the door of his first win for a while now. He finished a then-career best 2nd at Nashville last year, and has consistently been at the front of the field over the past couple seasons. But like any young driver, Hocevar has made some mistakes (and more than a few enemies) that have cost him opportunities to finally get his first win.
But today, he finally pulled it off.
Hocevar ran up front most of the race, leading 19 laps and finding himself locked in a back-and-forth battle with Chris Buescher in the final laps. And as the field came around to take the checkered flag, a wreck just behind him sent several cars spinning in the trioval and sent cars scattering.
Ricky Stenhouse had been pushing Buescher, but got into the back of him and got him loose, which forced Stenhouse to cut to the inside and leave Stenhouse out to dry. By the time Buescher got back in line to get a push, there wasn’t enough time and Hocevar took the checkered flag by .114 seconds.
It was quite the popular win: Hocevar has built up a pretty sizeable fanbase thanks to his outgoing personality and iRacing livestreams, and he’s even been spotted watching Truck Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races from the stands among fans.
And after getting getting his first career Cup Series win, Hocevar just wanted to celebrate with the fans during the burnout.
In one of the greatest celebrations we’ve ever seen, the 6’4″ driver climbed out the window and took a seat on the driver’s side window – and then he hit the gas and took off around the track, driving all the way down the frontstretch while hanging out of his car and saluting the fans.
At one point Hocevar got a little too close to the wall before getting the car turned, but he managed to get it back under control and drove to the start-finish line, where he had one more trick up his sleeve: He nosed the car into the wall (which looked like it might have given him whiplash) and burned the tires down in an epic celebration.
Epic.
In his postrace press conference, Hocevar explained the inspiration for his electric victory celebration:
“Well, it wasn’t clean by any means. It took me a while. I don’t know if the TV saw it, but I felt like I was really close to the inside wall, and I did not have that steering wheel on, so I was panicking for a second.
But I’ve dreamt about that in the off-season. I just wanted to have something that was meaningful for me. And I feel like I’ve, I mean, obviously being a [Dale Earnhardt] Junior fan, I remember that iconic clip from, I think it was 2014 when he won the 500. I was there, but I remember he was inside the car, you know, went helmet off and enjoying the fans going backwards.
But the fans, they don’t really get to know if we hear them or see them and everything. So I had thought of just like, man, I have really long legs. I wonder if I can hit the throttle and sit on the door and ride and just kind of see everybody. I just wanted them to get as loud as possible, and I felt like they would if they could see me seeing them. And yeah, I mean, ultimately, I just wanted to make sure I soaked it in.”
Of course as cool as the celebration was, fans were quick to wonder whether NASCAR would end up banning it this week because…well, let’s be honest, it’s kind of dangerous.
And Hocevar seemed to be worried about that himself as he admitted that he didn’t have the steering wheel attached when he took off – because he wasn’t able to reach the clutch with it on.
The driver apologized to new NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell, who laughed and assured him that it was fine:
“I’m good with it.”
And O’Donnell confirmed that NASCAR has no intention of banning the celebration in the future:
Hell yeah.
It’s a smart move from NASCAR: That celebration from Hocevar is going to bring more attention – and attract more new fans – than anything else that happened this weekend. Carson is well on his way to becoming a superstar, someone who can transcend just NASCAR and attract new fans from outside the sport, which is something NASCAR desperately needs and wants right now. Banning his celebration (while they’ll no doubt be using it in promotion from years to come) would have been a terrible move for the future of the sport and its personalities.
Of course I also hope we don’t see the celebration EVERY race, because that would take away some of the cool factor.
But you’ve gotta think Chili’s is absolutely LOVING their partnership with Spire Motorsports and Hocevar right now. He’s exactly the kind of personality that can become a star outside the sport, and he’s a young driver who no doubt has a lot more wins to come in his career.
Hopefully we’ll get to see him Ride the ‘Dente again in the future too.
