Seems like he learned his lesson.
Carson Hocevar has released an 18-minute video addressing his suspension from this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, reflecting on the changes that he needs to make heading into next year.
Spire Motorsports announced on Tuesday that they were suspending the driver of the #77 car following last weekend’s race at Martinsville, during which Hocevar brake-checked Austin Cindric multiple times on the straightaway and ultimately knocked the #2 car out of the race. And he was also accused of intentionally spinning out to bring out a caution, though Hocevar has neither confirmed nor denied that he spun on purpose.
It was just the latest in a long season of high-profile incidents for Hocevar this season, which saw on-track altercations with…pretty much every driver in the field, and of course included the high-profile fight at Bristol with Ryan Blaney back in September:
Well it seems that this past weekend was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for his team, with Spire Motorsports announcing on Tuesday that they had made the difficult decision to sideline their most high-profile driver for the season’s final race:
“A decision like this has a lot of variables and a cascading effect across an organization like ours. The easy thing would have been to leave this in NASCAR’s hands and let them decide what any penalty should be. To us, however, this isn’t about money or points. We believe in respect. Our integrity matters. This is the right decision for Spire Motorsports.”
After the suspension was announced, Hocevar released a contrite statement, expressing his embarrassment at the situation and vowing to be better next year:
“This is an embarrassing day for me. I let the people down that gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to drive a Cup car. I also let down my team, sponsors and fans. I crossed the line with my on-track actions and gave Jeff and Spire Motorsports no option but to put someone else in the 77 car this weekend at Homestead. I’ll be rooting for the entire organization this weekend and look forward to coming back in 2027 as a better driver, competitor and teammate.”
But Hocevar has never been one to shy away from controversy or the spotlight, and has built a large following thanks in part to his presence on YouTube. And last night, he released an 18-minute video discussing his thoughts on the suspension and his mindset going forward.
In the video, which features Hocevar sitting alone in his office and speaking without a script, the driver makes clear that he doesn’t blame his team for suspending him and that the situation is entirely his own fault:
“To my fans or anybody out there that’s saying … that I should leave Spire, or Spire’s the bad guy in this situation, I’m the bad guy. I made the mistake. I forced their decision. …
I’m 100% in agreement of their penalty or suspension.”
And he says that next season, he hopes to remain aggressive while making some changes to the way that he reacts on the track:
“Ultimately, it’s very small instances and we’ve been working on those and just balancing out and, you know, trying to take our incident counter next year from 40 to maybe five or 10. That would be a an upgrade. … I just think it’s really important to specify that I’m not changing how I race.”
As for this weekend at Homestead, Hocevar assured fans that he would still be at the track and meeting with fans. (He’s allowed to be at the track because his suspension came from his team, not from NASCAR).
“I’ll be there at Homestead, I’ll be rooting on the 77 car, I’ll be signing every autograph I can.”
There is one exception, though, to when Hocevar will be willing to sign autographs for fans:
“I’m going to be at the pit cart and everything, please, don’t be offended if I don’t stop and sign an autograph when I’m with my team, right? I want to show them that I’m obviously a professional race car driver and I want to give them their time. So when I’m at the pit cart, I’m not going to ignore the fans, but I need to be with them.”
And he also joked about how much free time he’ll have to meet with fans this weekend:
“I have plenty of time clearly in my schedule after that I’ll sign for anybody.”
It sounds like the suspension was a wakeup call for Hocevar (though I’d say the real wakeup call will come this weekend when he sees another driver driving his car), and Hocevar plans on maintaining his aggression next year while cleaning up some of the unnecessary outbursts on the track.
I guess we’ll have to wait for 2027 to see.
