After the first two drafting-track races of the season, former drivers certainly had different takes on Carson Hocevar.
Richard Petty, Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr. compared the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to early Dale Earnhardt Sr., whose aggressive driving style carried him to seven Cup Series championships and 76 victories in NASCAR’s premier division.
On the other hand, Kevin Harvick commented that, “The way I would approach it is I’d probably wreck him the first chance I got,” elaborating that other drivers who have been put in bad spots by Hocevar’s aggressiveness might teach him a lesson with their bumpers.
Hocevar was at or near the lead coming to the white flag at both Daytona and Atlanta before finishing 18th and fourth at the respective tracks. As a driver who has studied the accomplishments of competitors from earlier eras, he relished the comparisons with Earnhardt.
“I just go out and race and I enjoy it,” Hocevar said Saturday morning before practice and qualifying for Sunday’s DuraMAX Grand Prix at COTA (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I take it as a massive compliment, you know, from Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, Dale Jr., all of them making comparisons. I’m appreciative of that.
“I would like to just have half the success any of those guys did. But I think we’re getting ready to get our cars in a really good spot to be able to be in position. I think we’ve been in position to win three of these races. I don’t know if this week we’ll show that, but I think we have really good tracks coming up that we can do that.
“But for me, I’m just going in the merch hauler and signing 77 diecasts. You know, that’s me. Maybe in 20-30 years, somebody’s hopefully making comparisons of myself to the next kid that was doing it and running good.”
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