Carson Hocevar came into the NASCAR Cup Series carrying the reputation of being an aggressive driver in the Craftsman Truck Series. Every industry expert warned him at the time to put his toughness in the backseat and bow down to the veterans on the track when necessary. But the 22-year-old has done the exact opposite over the past couple of years.
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He has mixed his extraordinary talent with a rock-solid, merciless character and earned the wrath of many fellow competitors. Some have even compared him to Dale Earnhardt Sr. because of it. That might be a tall order right now but he seems to be getting there. Interestingly, Brad Keselowski sees similarities between himself and Hocevar — and it goes beyond their shared Michigan roots.
The RFK Racing co-owner said in Michigan that he used to be a similarly aggressive driver when he started in NASCAR. He said, “I bullied my way into the sport to some degree. There were some ramifications for that but it was better than sitting on the sidelines. I imagine Carson has similar feelings. He’s had to fight to earn his spot to get where he is today.”
In his initial days, Keselowski picked feuds with several drivers including Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, and Kyle Busch. But it was only after he moved to Team Penske that his performances on track began to speak for themselves. He believes that Hocevar is in a similar position with Spire Motorsports and all their advanced engineering.
The battle between Keselowski and Hamlin in 2009
Keselowski and Hamlin are two veterans whom every young driver looks up to today. But there was a time when they were young and far more hot-blooded than they are today. It was during one of those days that they crossed each other and sparked a feud. It all started during a Nationwide Series race at Dover in 2009 when Keselowski caused Hamlin to crash.
Hamlin was deeply offended that Keselowski did not reach out to apologize and let his feelings be known publicly. He said, “I still don’t agree with him, and he hasn’t called me to reach out to say he’s sorry. So as far as I’m concerned, he needs to be worried whenever I’m around.”
Keselowski, being the troublemaker he was back then, responded by stating that he’d expected Hamlin to call him. His retort was, “I didn’t know I was supposed to call him, I thought he was going to call me. It got crossed, huh? I guess it should get uncrossed. This is what makes racing awesome, otherwise it’s just cars going in circles. You’ve got to have some human drama.”
One can’t help but see how much both their responses sound like something Hocevar would say after wrecking a competitor. The problem is, such characters are seldom found today. Hopefully, Hocevar’s presence on the grid will ignite a fire for the foreseeable future.
