To paraphrase Corey Heim after winning the Brickyard 400, why are we talking about a driver who just finished 19th?
Well, that’s a fair question. Still … the garage can’t help but talk about Carson Hocevar, the polarizing 23-year-old who finished outside the top 15 at New Hampshire yet still garnered the most amount of ink. Or pixels. Or whatever it is that transfers the extended NASCAR podcast universe into your ear drums.
For instance…
Two days ago on Door Bumper Clear, Kyle Larson discussed Hocevar spinning at New Hampshire, saying, “Spinning out before the race? That was 1000% just to get on TV.”
Bubba Wallace warned him earlier this summer that his aggressive approach was “creating a lot of enemies.”
After Hocevar spun him in Atlanta, Ryan Blaney called him an “absolute weapon” and a “moron” over the radio.
And of course, earlier this month, Zane Smith used an appearance on Racin’ With The Boys to offer his own less-than-glowing review, saying Hocevar puts on “an act to get people to buy in” and didn’t hesitate to call him a “bum-[expletive]”.
Though that’s just a sampling of the negative rhetoric, it’s nowhere near unanimous – especially from those on the outside looking in.
At a time when reaching new fans means showing up in places beyond the traditional NASCAR landscape, Hocevar has done just that. From attending the Met Gala and TIME100 Sports Gala to regularly streaming on Twitch and turning the frontstretch of Talladega Superspeedway into his own personal playground, the young star has put himself and NASCAR in front of audiences that may not otherwise cross paths with the sport.
He has also found ways to turn his personality, and even the occasional controversy, into opportunities to engage with fans. When Smith criticized Hocevar earlier this summer, Hocevar responded with a t-shirt swap, inviting fans to bring another driver’s shirt in exchange for one of his own. Fans took him up on the offer, exchanging 77 shirts during the promotion, including newly purchased Smith merchandise.
The approach appears to be working. From January through May, Hocevar saw the largest percentage increase in cross-platform followers among NASCAR Cup Series drivers, growing his audience across Facebook, Instagram and X by 70.6% and adding nearly 200,000 followers.
The interest extends beyond social media. In the 24 hours following Hocevar’s first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega, sales of his Lionel Racing diecast ranked as the highest following any NASCAR race win since NASCAR and Lionel formed their joint venture in 2010. The mark surpassed the 24-hour sales following some of the sport’s biggest victories during that span, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2014 Daytona 500 win.
In addition, his merchandise sales continue to accelerate, making him the No. 1 driver currently in retail sales on the NASCAR Shop website and he’s ranked inside the top five of trackside sales. An impressive achievement considering he was ranked 32nd in trackside sales this time last season.
And, just for the record, there is indeed at least one driver who recognizes that the lightning rod nature of The Hurricane is helpful – one who also proudly wears the ‘love him or hate him’ badge.
“I think Carson’s great for the sport,” said three-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Joey Logano on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “I think he brings a ton of new fans, different fans. Just the way he is different than the rest of us. The way he speaks, he’s just, he’s younger. Yeah, I don’t know what he’s talking about half the time, I don’t know what these words mean. But people love it and there’s no denying that and that’s great, that’s great for our sport.”
Hocevar was unavailable for comment this week due to other distractions.
Love him or hate him, Carson Hocevar is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore… so catch him and all his enemies this Saturday night, August 29, during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
— NASCAR —