For the second year in a row at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, Carson Hocevar was in position for his first NASCAR Cup Series win. Instead, history repeated itself in the closing laps, as some aggressive moves for the lead and his on-track decision-making rubbed several drivers the wrong way, ultimately leaving him to settle for fourth.
While Tyler Reddick came away with his second consecutive win to begin the season and finally ended a 16-year Cup Series streak, Hocevar was just as much in the spotlight for his aggressive driving that seems to be on an endless cycle at this point.
One week after leading at the white flag of the Daytona 500 before he and Erik Jones got together exiting the tri-oval, Hocevar restarted on the outside of the second row for the overtime restart at Atlanta. When a brief hole appeared between Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell in front of him, Hocevar forced his way in between the two, only to make contact with Bell and send him nose-first into the wall.
Moves like these and similar actions from Hocevar tend to ignite a fire in his competitors. After all, he had numerous run-ins with drivers and made plenty of questionable decisions as a full-time competitor in the Craftsman Truck Series before he even started racing on Sundays. Still, that aggressiveness currently has him fourth in the standings after two races and earning some high praise from a former driver.
Carson Hocevar's aggressive driving is nothing we haven't seen before
Hocevar's bold on-track moves may not earn the approval from most of his competitors, but this is not the first time we have seen someone with this sort of driving style and swagger on and off the track.
Former driver and current analyst Kyle Petty had nothing but praise for Hocevar on Inside the Race following the Autotrader 400, even comparing him to some of the sport's biggest talents and personalities.
"Carson Hocevar is going to be a superstar here," Petty said, per NASCAR.com. "...He's got the attitude of [Dale] Earnhardt. ... He's got the brashness of Tim Richmond. ... And then we get down to it, and he's got the desire to win and the passion of Kyle Busch.
"...My hot take is he's gonna get white hot and when he gets white hot, everybody better stand back. I don't care if he's at Spire, I don't care where he's at, what he's doing. He is going to be a superstar in this sport and he doesn't owe anybody an apology, nobody an apology. And when he's there, count on it baby, I'm gonna have my Hocevar fan club card, I'm gonna be wearing my Hocevar hat and my Hocevar shirt and saying, 'I was there from the beginning.'"
Those are certainly some strong comparisons, but it is hard to dispute what Petty is saying. The talent and raw speed are evident each week he straps into his No. 77 Chevrolet, and unless Hocevar gets to the point where his aggressiveness hinders his performance on the track and he is not a factor in most races, there's no need for him to change.
We have seen this before, too, with drivers such as Kyle Busch and Joey Logano when they got their start. More recently, Ross Chastain made many questionable and aggressive decisions, and he received similar criticism and even experienced a drop-off in performance when he pulled back the reins.
While Hocevar seems to be at a crossroads with most of the garage and has been called out for questionable moves and poor race craft, the three-wide attempt on Sunday came in overtime. Granted, there was not an entire lane for him to stick his nose into at the time, but he was at least going for the win with two laps to go and not causing a wreck in the first 100 miles of the race.
Hocevar is by no means a direct comparison to Earnhardt, Richmond or Kyle Busch, but his driving style and personality definitely brings out a lot of their traits, and there is no reason for him to change who he is. His competitors will likely not give him an inch and will ultimately be the ones who have a say in pulling him back with their actions around him, but the move he made in the Autotrader 400 was at least at the front and with a win on the line.
If Hocevar continues to put himself up front and mix it up with the leaders, it is only a matter of time until that aggressiveness is rewarded and he goes on a hot streak.