Carson Hocevar once again proved why he's his own worst enemy

For all the talk about how Carson Hocevar supposedly doesn't care what anybody thinks of him, and how his bold and unapologetic attitude is what NASCAR needs in a day and age that is admittedly short on drivers with personalities they're actually willing to display publicly, perhaps the bigger story is how he responds when he believes somebody actually has shown displeasure with him.

Because when something happens that he doesn't like, he just can't seem to help himself on the race track. Sunday's incident with Austin Cindric, which resulted in a destroyed No. 2 Team Penske Ford after multiple brake-checks, was the latest example of why so many still view the immaturity of the "iPad kid" as a major weakness, and it provided those fans with even more evidence that, yes, his act might just be more of a publicity stunt than anything else.

If he really didn't care what anybody thought of him, he would have come up with something more than "it's just Martinsville" and "I had a lot of fun" when asked about the contact afterward, when it was blatantly obvious that he wrecked Cindric, one of about 30 enemies he's made this year with his antics, on purpose. Or is he only unapologetic when it's convenient?

We're not knocking his one career win, but pick any other driver whose career consists of one single superspeedway win, and they're called a "draft merchant". Yet Hocevar is inexplicably considered more of a Junior Dale Earnhardt than even Dale Earnhardt Jr. was.

Why, because he's not afraid to run into people and finish in the teens every week?

The Carson Hocevar act is becoming a recurring parody of itself

Up until Spire Motorsports took it upon themselves to suspend Hocevar, NASCAR, of course, had never given any indication whatsoever that they planned to do anything about it.

There had been growing perception that they will protect the new "golden boy" at all costs, and that has been abundantly clear over the course of the 2026 season. It's like the NFL's Travis Kelce rule; the instigator always goes unpunished, but if you react to the perpetual antagonizing behavior, you're the one who gets flagged for it. Meanwhile, NASCAR ultimately benefits from the added social media engagement.

The fact that NASCAR actually took time to document Brad Keselowski's comments after his run-in with Hocevar at Darlington Raceway was all we needed to see to make that obvious.

It's part of the reason why the fact that his suspension for this coming Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway came from his Spire Motorsports, rather than from NASCAR, was as much alarming as it was a breath of fresh air. Then and only then did NASCAR pitch in with a fine and a points deduction.

We hear nonstop about how he's "saving the sport" with his personality, and how he can sell more merch than any other driver. But where are the ratings that back that up? Where is there any proof whatsoever that he's actually why people are tuning in?

It's one thing if we're talking about a frontrunner riling people up; the late Kyle Busch, for instance, had an unmatched knack for that. And he won. A lot.

From a true publicity standpoint, what has he done so far other than bring out hordes of social media warriors, many of whom were already watching NASCAR anyway, and expose the fact that they too have very little to no respect for the sport and the drivers who actually take it seriously?

He can say all he wants to say about needing to grow from the experience and learn how to balance his aggressive nature, which everybody, fan or hater, knows he can't afford to give up, with a level of respect for the rest of the garage that he has never, until now, given any indication that he truly has.

But until he actually does something about it, which of his competitors is going to believe him? And unfortunately for him, he will not get that chance again in 2026, at a time where the respect for him is already at an all-time low.

I've said before that Hocevar is a net positive for the sport, and I still think that's true, because he's the one driver everybody is always talking about regardless of where he finishes. No other driver can do that right now. And for as much as we, among others, have been critical of his approach, we also understand that the sport would benefit from his success.

The problem is he's inhibiting his own success, and when it comes to changing that, talk is cheap.

The one non-drafting race he actually had a chance to win came at Bristol Motor Speedway in September. That was inarguably the best race of his career, and after months of generating headlines with his 18th place finishes, he finally looked like a legitimate contender somewhere other than a superspeedway.

Then he completely blew it, and Ty Gibbs proved what we've been saying all along: the rest of his competitors are not going to let him get to the front if they can help it. Gibbs gave up his own chance to win the race just to keep the trophy out of Hocevar's hands.

Even at Talladega Superspeedway two weekends ago, the same place he picked up his victory in April, how many times did he get hung out to dry by his rivals?

The idea that he's a talented driver with championship-level upside is based on what fans believe is his potential, and a lot of that potential admittedly might well be legitimate. But what reason does anybody actually have to believe that it will translate when he continues to willingly do absolutely nothing except shoot himself in the foot and then laugh about it afterward?

Maybe the suspension will truly be a wakeup call. Or maybe it won't. It does seem kind of strange that he can go from saying he "had a lot of fun" to "this is an embarrassing day", along with posting a video on his YouTube channel, in such a short stretch of time, especially for a driver who allegedly just doesn't care, so perhaps that will at least start him down the right path.

But this is still a driver whose career win percentage is lower than, for instance, Harrison Burton's. Burton, of course, is one of the alleged "draft merchants" whose superspeedway win conveniently gets disregarded, because he's held to the same standard that every other driver throughout NASCAR history has been held to.

Not Hocevar though. He gets a pass. And up until now, that pass might well have gotten to his head. The big question: has that finally changed?

At the end of the day, he does make things interesting. And guess what? It's working. The fact that we're still spending time talking about a driver who is, right now, a mid-pack driver as much as we are, after all this time, is evidence of that, and the fact that that driver has as many fans as he does is evidence of that, for better or for worse.

And quite frankly, that's all he has really seemed to care about this season anyway. Winning the odd drafting race due to being at the right place at the right time is just a nice bonus. But actually contending for a championship? At this rate, and in this day and age, you simply can't have it both ways.

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