NASCAR Chief Executive Officer Steve O'Donnell gave a clean chit to Carson Hocevar after the Spire Motorsports driver delivered a rather controversial victory celebration at Talladega.

"One of the keys is showing the sponsors who pay a lot of those bills that you’re probably going to sell a lot more product when you allow your driver to be themselves. And I think for a while, a little bit of handcuffs were on and we were a bit of corporate in terms of what we do," O'Donnell said.

Notably, Hocevar stood on the door of his car after crossing the finish line and celebrated with pomp and show. He went on to do donuts in a traditional NASCAR way, bringing out a flawless post-race celebration.

Had the celebration been deemed risky, since the driver was outside the window with his feet on the gas and clutch pedal, Hocevar would have been in trouble. And considering NASCAR hadn't seen a driver celebrate in such a way, a ruling would set the precedent for the future.

The #77 Spire Motorsports driver started his race in 12th place, but fell to 16th place in Stage 1. Hocevar then returned to 12th place again in Stage 2, before taking the victory in his 91st Cup Series start, following which he carried out the exhilarating celebration.

Following this, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer shed light on how Carson Hocevar has a great connection with fans.

"But what our fans love and when NASCAR is at its best is when its personalities, it when people are in the racecar, who are in the industry who a fan can relate to and say, you know i’d have a beer with that person or i’d go to dinner with that person and they’re like me and they’re relatable, i think that’s what we need to get back to," the NASCAR CEO said.

Carson Hocevar Talks About Talladega Celebration

Carson Hocevar broke his silence as he celebrated with pomp and show. Answering the critics, Hocevar, who also showcased Monster Energy drink cans, one of his sponsors, here's what the Spire driver said: “I just wanted them to get as loud as possible. I felt like they would if they could see me seeing them,” Hocevar said.

“Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I just wanted to make sure I soaked every bit of it in. I think I could tell you what everybody was wearing, where every seat was, and where every 77 shirt was. I think I could have pointed it all out to you because I remember it so clearly right now.”

Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman finished in the top three, while Chase Elliott and Zane Smith wrapped up the top five. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson, and Kyle Busch completed the Top 10.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar