Carson Hocevar’s Strong Run at Homestead Shouldn’t Be a Surprise

LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE - JUNE 22: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Delaware Life Chevrolet, leads the field during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 22, 2024 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
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Carson Hocevar made his presence known at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The rookie driver was battling at the front of the field with Playoff contenders for much of the race.

It’s not the sort of thing rookies tend to do in their first Cup Series season, especially at a challenging driver’s track like Homestead Miami that chews through the tires and forces drivers to slide around right next to the wall on old rubber. But it’s the sort of thing the runaway rookie of the year points leader has tended to do on multiple occasions this season.

At Homestead, Hocevar started 15th but quickly got a feel for the car and drove through the field. By the end of Stage 1, he was in fifth, and he continued to battle in the top five throughout the middle section of the race. Hocevar finished Stage 2 in eighth.

He ended the race ninth after fighting hard in a chaotic final restart with under ten laps to go. Restarting on the bottom, he was not shy about making big moves to get around cars that got a worse jump en route to securing the top-ten finish.

Those stage points and that finishing position all helps add to Hocevar’s season points total. He sits 21st in the standings with 655 points, while the next-closest rookie driver – Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry – is in 27th with 545 points. That’s a 110-point lead even despite a 25-point penalty for spinning Harrison Burton under caution at Nashville.

MADISON, ILLINOIS – JUNE 01: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway on June 01, 2024 in Madison, Illinois. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)

It’s certainly a big gap to his Spire Motorsports teammate and fellow rookie Zane Smith, who sits 29th in the standings with 488 points – 167 less than Hocevar. With that performance in mind, it’s no real surprise that Hocevar’s future with Spire is secured while Smith has no ride locked down after being released from a promised future Trackhouse Racing seat midway through the season.

Both Hocevar and Smith came from the Truck Series, but Hocevar got a much more immediate handle on the Cup car and has consistent speed throughout the season. Hocevar’s best result was a third-place finish at Watkins Glen, but he has a total of six top-ten finishes in his rookie season. To his credit, Smith also has four, but those are most recent after wracking up nine finishes of 30th or worse earlier in the season.

Hocevar acknowledged that he really just got lucky not to have had to adapt his driving style much in moving from the Truck to Cup car.

“I just think we’ve been pretty good,” he said when asked ahead of the Playoffs where his success was coming from.

“I mean, I got to do ten Cup races last year, I had a lot of time in the sim and in development. I felt like I kind of got lucky, per se, that this car fits my style a lot. Entry speed and roll speed and minimum speed being very important, driving off the front tires, it really fits my style a lot and I feel like I’m able to adapt with this.

“Some people struggle with finding the limit, while I feel like I’m really beneficial with being able to find that limit to find speed with this, which has made that learning curve pretty quick,” he concluded.

He certainly showed off his progress up the learning curve at Homestead-Miami. But it wasn’t just Hocevar. His No.77 Spire Motorsports team not only unloaded a fast car with a good setup, but they were good on the pitstops and gained Hocevar spots on pit road in critical late pitstops.

As Hocevar enters his sophomore season in the Cup Series, the No. 77 could be a combination of driver and team that makes for a serious contender.

Owen Johnson