Carson Hocevar’s sudden rise among NASCAR’s popular circles has again brought up the debate as to where he stands in comparison with Chase Elliott. This debate exploded online, with fans picking sides on whether the Spire Motorsports driver could eventually challenge the sport’s long-standing Most Popular Driver.

The momentum to this fun debate was further provided by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who suggested that Elliott might have some “real competition” finally in this defining battle.

The reason as to why Hocevar is suddenly getting so popular can be linked directly to his sporting nature and his success at Talladega.

Speaking about his Twitch growth, Hocevar admitted, “I think I average a few hundred more viewers. You know, as the truck wins alone, like on Instagram, almost got like a million interactions and whatever.”

What is even more unique about Hocevar’s connection is how simply he connects with his fans, creating a more humane and lasting connection.

“I just enjoy streaming,” he explained. “Now, when I kind of click the live button… I get to sit there with my webcam on and yap about f****** food or whatever I wanna talk about.”

The scale in the growth of the Spire Motorsports driver’s online audience was clearly apparent, as he said, “There’s like probably 1500 people on Twitch and probably 2000 on TikTok.”

Hocevar then went on to explain why he thinks this is working out for him and why the numbers keep going up: “We’re all just realizing that… the more fun we have, the tendency to go up.”

However, as we have discussed enough about this new challenger, it is also necessary that we refer to the current king of this online debate, Chase Elliott, and why he was the majesty of this debate.

Why NASCAR fans love Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott simply became the Most Popular Driver king because fans see him as the perfect mixture between legacy, talent, and authenticity.

This award-carrying is generational within his family, as his father, Bill Elliott, has won the award a record 16 times, giving Chase one of the strongest fan inheritances in stock car racing.

But the fans then chose to stick with Elliott because they saw him as this calm and low-drama personality that rarely does anything extra to call attention to himself.

This connection he has with his fans went up exponentially when he won the 2020 Cup Series championship and just consistently performed great and attractively enough that his fans never had to jump in to defend him.

The award, which is fan-voted through the National Motorsports Press Association, has been won by Elliott eight consecutive times.

Whether he now has a challenger remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: NASCAR fans appreciate a clear, simple, and grounded driver, traits that are common between both Elliott and Hocevar.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Uday Jakhar

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason