Carson Hocevar shares surprisingly thoughtful note on 2026 season

Carson Hocevar has built himself quite a reputation for a driver who is just 23 years old.

The driver of the No. 77 is known for his aggressive racing and bold attitude, which has earned him plenty of fans, but also come with some animosity from his NASCAR peers.

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Racing is a sport built on storylines, and storylines need villains, and Hocevar seems exceedingly comfortable taking on that role, at least for the time being, among the younger generation.

But in modern storytelling, the villains are often just as deep and compelling as the heroes they’re up against, and it appears Hocevar is no different. In a social media post, Hocevar shared a photo of his first day driving in the Cup Series, and offered an appreciation of how far he and his team have come.

“This was when I first sat in a cup car,” he wrote. “It didn’t even have my name on the roof rail. The car I got to take over full time the next year was 33rd in points. The same group of guys are still on that car today. Spire has done a great job the last 3 years giving those guys the tools they needed to go from 33rd to being in the chase for the piston cup.”

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He continued:

“My team is a bunch of rockstars and it’s easy for us to want to win more than we have or be higher in points. The reality is that in less then 3 years the guys getting laughed at in 33rd and not taken seriously when they said they have plans to be competitive. They did exactly what they wanted to achieve.”