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Another Top NASCAR Prospect is Moving to Cup
28 comments
Hocevar is honestly becoming a very interesting person to keep up with. Im startinf to root for the guy
Hocevar totally earned it. Spire has become the most interesting team to watch in 2024. Silly season mostly became Spire season.
Next year’s rookie of the year battle is going to be one if the best in a long time, or a complete afterthought. I hope that Berry, Smith, and Hocevar are all able to be fairly competitive next season
even though they won’t be rookies, JHN and Hemric coming back to cup should be interesting as well
@Matt Strouse I’m hoping hemric will do well, I always love more drivers being in playoff contention
@Matt Strousethey should absolutely be included in the rookie of the year battle
And if Noah Gragson gets the 10 or 16 ride is he still considered a rookie for not competing in a full season
it’s crazy how spire was just a single car cup team in 2019 and now are a 3 car cup with xfinity and truck operations
Gotta respect it, doing what they got to do to be taken seriously
3 car cup team? There’s only the 7 and 77. What’s the 3rd ?
@Jonathan whatever car Zane Smith will be driving next year.
Smiley is surprisingly doing a good job in the 42. Im a Noah fan but makes me wonder why he didn’t do a lil better in that car. Hopefully he will land a ride wit SHR and he will click better with a new team and manufacture
Noah is used to top equipment and He was trying to get a better finish out of the car than it’s capable but he was over driving it and getting worse
Hocevar and Zane Smith being teammates is gonna be damn fun
i’m still struggling to root for carson considering the multiple counts of intentional wrecking and self spinning. that said he’s clearly very talented, hopefully he can keep his nose clean and develop into a really solid cup driver.
Hocevar is one of the biggest surprises of the year. The fact that he outran Lajoie in the 7 spire car while Lajoie was driving the 9 at Gateway of all tracks was jaw dropping.
Something about the Next Gen car is just super compatible with his racing DNA.
Carson said it best in his Bristol post race interview (when he was top-10 for most of Stage 2 and 3); Next Gen and Trucks both suit his driving style of just sending it into the corner, far more than Xfinity does.
And to think he’s pretty damn competitive in his Xfinity starts…
Still love the story of him winning at Berlin at age 13, which was too young for track rules and he had to wait a year to come back.. Hoping to see him win on Sunday next year! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFyxHQTXiQ0
I don’t know if you know this but during Carson’s twitch stream he was talking about the rookies of the year next year and he mentioned Riley Herbst, I think there’s a chance that Riley gets the 10 car next year plus he’d most likely bring Monster which would be good for SHR since Smithfield is probably leaving
You’ve got the wrong car number his car number will be 15 or 51
I know we’ve been talking about top prospects, but can we just take a moment realize how small the Truck series may end up being. GMS racing is not returning at all next season so 3 entries there, Spire bought KBM but I’d like to think the Spire bought the actually shop because the one currently is too small for them. Neice Motorsports is losing a top prospect, and its hard to say what their lineup looks like for next season, with allen performing terribly this season. What do you think about this?
Awesome news for Hocevar, can’t wait to see how he does for next year’s season!
Hey Eric, you have forgotten about Ty Gibbs’ (2) instances on pit road this year. Other than those, he has improved his temperament and done pretty well. I think the passing of his dad Coy has a lot to do with his maturity!
I have to agree he matured as the season progressed I think he also realized that he is the future for JGR
Hocevar definitely earned it. Driving that 42 car to a couple top 20 and 15 finishes in his first cup series starts after Gragson could barely get a couple of top 25 in 2/3 of the season, is very impressive.
I’ve been pulling for Hocevar since his rookie year in truck. I’m very glad to see this.
Happy Carson is getting this opportunity! With him and Corey LaJoie together on the same team, I think we’ll see something good in the future. There is a BIG part of my brain that fears this may turn out to be the creation of another rushed up NASCAR bust, as Carson is fairly young, and has had little to no Xfinity seat time. However, I am also confident that given how successful he’s been with Petty’s equipment this year, as well as stellar performance in the now semi-mediocre Truck series, it’ll be okay going forward.
I am really hoping the test after the year is over at Phoenix, is testing less downforce and more HP even if it’s only a little bit more HP, combined with less downforce, I think would have a significant impact.