Carson Hocevar doesn’t want to lose his edge, just his bad habits

gettyimages-2303870745 — HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 06: NASCAR Cup Series driver, Carson Hocevar speaks to the media during a press conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 06, 2026 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar addressed his team-mandated one-race suspension Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 23-year-old driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet earned the first NASCAR Cup Series trophy of his young career at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

But in addition to his success, Hocevar’s style of competition has also been a regular topic of concern among more experienced drivers who question his brash, often full-contact racing techniques.

At Martinsville (Va.) Speedway last week, for example, he brake-checked Team Penske driver Austin Cindric multiple times damaging both their cars. And there have been incidents and warning about his rough driving in the preceding weeks.

NASCAR fined Hocevar $100,000 following the Martinsville race and his Spire team executives made the unusual move to bench him this week for the season-finale. Justin Haley will instead drive the No. 77.

“There’s certainly some challenges, right? But I like what he brings to the fan base in terms of going out, meeting with fans, talking,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said Friday when asked about Hocevar.

“Does he have some things to work on on track? Absolutely. We’ve talked about that, and we all know where that stands today.”

Since he isn’t under a NASCAR suspension, Hocevar is trackside this week in South Florida and maintained his media appearance commitment despite the situation. He issued a lengthy apology statement on social media Thursday evening as well and answered questions from reporters for nearly a half hour Friday.

“For sure,” Hocevar told the Homestead media of possibly adjusting or finetuning his style of racing going forward.

“There’s obviously things I can work on to change, so Martinsville won’t happen again. But, at the same time we still want to keep the Bristols [Motor Speedway] because that’s still part of racing. We can’t lose the aggression side. We just can’t get that creative and flagrant foul-ish.’’

“The line in the sand is probably the sportsmanship and integrity” part of it,” Hocevar said acknowledging, “I’m well past that. … I made a flagrant, unsportsmanlike foul.”