It was a clean race for Carson Hocevar, but his interactions with the media as he found out that Bubba Wallace was given the black flag remained the same fun and chirpy version that has garnered Hocevar so many fans. 

Hocevar’s final classification was P3 after Bubba Wallace, who crossed the line in 2nd, was penalized for going over the yellow line during overtime at the EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. 

Hocevar joked around with the media after the race despite narrowly losing out on the win when Bubba Wallace gave eventual race winner Ryan Blaney enough of a push to get past Hocevar in the lead. 

Speaking to the media while watching the race highlights on the big screen, Hocevar was recorded by Steve Taranto laughing and saying, “Oh s*** that lost me the race. [expletive]. If he didn’t get to the bottom there, I could’ve won.”

The reaction was a hilarious one as the Spire 77 driver multitasked by talking to the media as well as watching the updated classification, seeing his name next to P3. 

But Hocevar was pretty relaxed right through the race and looked like he had to pace to win at a point, having made up several places on the green flag stint before the caution caused by Kyle Larson spinning out. 

With overtime to play, Hocevar said that all he saw was Toyotas in his mirrors and no one who would have given him the kind of push that won Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney the race. 

Hocevar doesn’t know how to spell?

It was clearly visible that Carson Hocevar was having a fun time taking his Spire 77 Chevrolet around the Atlanta track at night. If it wasn’t apparent from the way he was driving, Hocevar’s radio made it as clear as day. 

Hocevar was singing songs, and his team was even putting on tunes over the team radio to get the Talladega race winner grooving. Hocevar spoke to TNT Sports about how his race went, and he said he had a lot of fun, although he would have liked to win with someone giving him a push. 

While Hocevar didn’t find his tandem partner, it was a clean race from him, and the TNT host asked Hocevar if he had started to show R-E-S-P-E-C-T; yes, she spelled it out. 

Hocevar replied, “What did you spell there?” When the host repeated it, Hocevar laughed and said, “Oh, okay, yeah, I can’t spell.” Hocevar did get serious and answer the question, as he was now giving more respect to drivers around him, thinking about the longer-term season. 

Hocevar said, “I mean, they’re all different manufacturers. I raced them super hard, and I enjoy racing hard, so I don’t know.” Hocevar said he was getting multiple signs from drivers like fist bumps, but thankfully no fingers this time. 

He added. “I think I maybe made some gains. But there’s another time next week to probably mess that up. But no, it was fun for me, and I enjoyed it.”

Hocevar may want to stick to the clean-and-hard racing style because he’s currently 8th in the standings, but if drivers come looking for payback, that may not be enough to give him a genuine shot at the title. 

Do you think Hocevar would have won had Wallace not gone wide? Let us know.

Read more at RFK Racing Digest.  

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason