How can you not love this guy?
Carson Hocevar has quickly become one of my favorite drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. He first took over the #77 car full time back in 2024, and made quite a few headlines for his hard-charging (and at times reckless) driving style, but also for not seeming to really care what anybody else thought about him.
Of course he also made a bunch of new fans earlier this year when he won his first career Cup Series race at Talladega, and then proceeded to drive all the way down the front stretch while hanging out the window of his car to celebrate.
But this week, Hocevar was in the headlines thanks to his growing feud – if you want to call it that – with fellow driver Zane Smith.
Smith, who drives the #38 car for Front Row Motorsports, spun out Hocevar last week at Chicagoland Speedway, and this week during an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast he made it clear that he’s not a fan of the #77 driver:
“He’s full of s–t. He tries to be your buddy and then will go and screw you. And so it’s like, just don’t talk to me in the first place because one, I don’t like you, and we’re gonna eventually have a run-in together, so let’s just not talk in the first place. …
If you’re going to be the guy like hiding behind social media … that’s a coward in my opinion. Act that way in in person, like say that to my face.”
Well the feud earned the two drivers a trip to the NASCAR hauler before this weekend’s race, which is basically like getting called to the principal’s office for a chat. And afterwards, Smith made it clear how he felt about Hocevar:
“I just don’t like him as a human.”
Hocevar, for his part though, doesn’t seem too bothered by it. When asked where they stood after the meeting, Hocevar was in a much more joking mood than Smith:
“We’ll have to go to couples counseling I’m sure at some point.”
He made clear, though, that he’s not bothered by how Smith feels about him:
“I said I don’t care. … It’s not a rivalry to me.”
Well Carson was clearly pretty unbothered in the car during last night’s rain-delayed race at EchoPark Speedway. The driver of the #77 car ran up front for the first half of the race, but suffered a flat tire at the end of stage 2 that put him deep in the field for the final run. But he managed to work his way back to the front, and with just a handful of laps to go Hocevar was racing for the win once again.
Now, most drivers would be laser focused on trying to get the win, especially in a race that featured a 3-hour rain delay and didn’t wrap up until nearly 2 AM. But Hocevar seemed pretty relaxed behind the wheel, because while riding around under caution before the overtime finish (and while leading the race) he keyed up the radio to tell his team about a problem he was having: He had a song stuck in his head:
Did you figure it out? He was talking about “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” by Cutting Crew…and his team managed to figure it out too, because a short time later one of his crew members helped him out by playing the song for him over the team radio:
Music playing over a driver’s radio during a race isn’t something you hear very often. In fact, we’ve asked several drivers about listening to music during a race and they’ve all said that they’re too focused on…you know, the race. But apparently Hocevar is able to focus on winning, even with a 1980s synth rock hit stuck in his head – and playing over his radio.
Unfortunately Hocevar wasn’t able to pull off a win, with Christopher Bell giving Ryan Blaney a push at the finish line to give the driver of the #12 car his second win of the season.
But after the race, Hocevar did joke about the entertaining moment on the radio:
“Is there a song for being a loser?”
