Carson Hocevar walked away from San Diego, disappointed with his 19th-place finish, having been strongly in contention for the win. 

Corey Heim spun out Hocevar while the 77 Spire Motorsports driver was chasing down Kyle Larson to take the race lead. While Heim came out with his first-ever Cup victory, Hocevar’s army of loyal supporters has demanded payback. 

Hocevar was in conversation with Jeff Gluck post-race. Gluck shared the video speaking to Hocevar, who said, “I don’t know if he got hit from behind,” giving Corey Heim the benefit of the doubt. 

Gluck asked Hocevar if he thought he could have won the race, to which the 77 Spire driver responded:

“I thought so. I thought we were going to have a lap advantage. I don’t know, I ran my fastest lap of the race on that run. I think we definitely could have had a shot there. We’re kind of catching them, catching the 5, compared to the 67 there. I felt like we had pace to have at least a shot up there.” 

Hocevar also took to X after the race and left a dejected note that read, “well shucks. gw gr. that was a lot of fun.”

While Hocevar wasn’t aggressive on his reaction, his fans were left disgruntled. 

One fan wrote on X, “It's payback time next year, Hocevar nation gonna hound you down, Heim. You just triggered a Generational Rivalry with this.”

Hocevar fans left riled up after incident with Heim

This isn’t the first time that Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim have tangled on the race track. Fans will remember the 2023 Truck Series finals when both Hocevar and Heim were in contention for the Championship. 

Heim was in the lead when Hocevar tapped him out while battling for position. Both drivers lost out to Ben Rhodes in the title race. 

But Hocevar fans want payback in the Cup series. One fan wrote on X, “Don’t be soft...” While another wrote, “You know what you have to do next year”, along with a Palpatine meme reference. 

Another fan was supportive of Hocevar’s drive and seemed to be more gutted that the Spire driver. This fan replied to Hocevar, “It wasn't your fault Carson. You got points which is good. Also Corey heim spun you, you would have won that race. I'm proud of you Carson for working hard and getting points. I know you can win that championship.”

One fan wrote what all other Hocevar fans were thinking after the incident, which was to take down Heim when he gets a chance.

While the fans have had their say, despite their favorite driver’s rather mellow response, do you think Hocevar is likely to pay it back in the near future? Let us know.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason