Carson Hocevar tangled with Christopher Bell in the first overtime restart at Atlanta last Sunday. The incident sent Bell into the outside wall. Hocevar finished fourth, while Bell limped home 21st, raising quite a few eyebrows. Looking ahead to the next race at the Circuit of the Americas, Hocevar wants to keep things clean.
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The 23-year-old Spire Motorsports driver holds an average finish of 21.7 across road and street layouts. And at COTA, where he has had two starts, Hocevar has an average of 17.5. This time, he plans to flip the writing by cash in on his recent form.
Daytona slipped through Hocevar’s fingers, where he led to the white flag, before his bid went up in smoke when he got bumped by Erik Jones entering Turn 1, and hit the outside wall. He bounced back at Atlanta. And now the No.77 Chevrolet Camaro driver wants to carry that push into road courses.
“Our guys on the No. 77 team have done a great job this year building us fast Camaros, and I don’t see that changing this week. Of all the road courses, this is definitely the one that has been the most challenging for me,”said Hocevar.
Recalling his P4 qualifying run at COTA last year, Hocevar added, “We always qualify well on road courses. The goal for Sunday is to keep it on the asphalt and not make mistakes. If we can keep it clean, we’ll maximize our day and come out of the weekend with a solid points day.”
And when Hocevar talks about steering clear of “mistakes,” it could mean keeping things tidy and not lighting the same fuse he did in Atlanta that sent Bell spinning. It invited a lot of warnings from the fellow drivers and veterans, including Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Then again, Hocevar has never been one to tiptoe. So, it may simply mean staying out of the blast zone himself while still racing with elbows out when the chips are down.
