Carson Hocevar turned an impressive charge through the field at Darlington Raceway into one heck of a business decision.
Hocevar’s online souvenir shop approached $200,000 in sales in the 24 hours following Sunday’s Southern 500, according to Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern.
➡️ Hocevar gave a 29% discount: 23 percentage points for moving up that many positions plus six more after his tussle with Brad Keselowski.
The remarkable sales surge followed a promotion Hocevar launched after racing from the back of the field to a top-15 finish at Darlington. The Spire Motorsports driver offered fans 29% off his merchandise, and the seemingly random number had everything to do with what happened during his night at the track.
If I suck and I finish outside the top 30. I’ll make it 77% off as a punishment.
Twenty-three percentage points represented the 23 positions Hocevar gained during the Southern 500.
The other six?
Those were added following his memorable run-in with Brad Keselowski.
Carson Hocevar’s 29% Discount Turns Into Nearly $200,000 in Sales
Hocevar has built a reputation as one of NASCAR’s most unpredictable personalities, and his post-Darlington promotion leaned directly into it.
Rather than simply celebrating the positions he gained, Hocevar tied his merchandise discount to his entire Southern 500 experience.
The result was a 29% sale that NASCAR fans apparently couldn’t resist.
Stern reported Monday night that Hocevar’s online souvenir shop had approached nearly $200,000 in sales over the previous 24 hours.
That’s a staggering response to a promotion born out of a single race weekend, and another example of Hocevar finding a way to turn attention on the track into engagement away from it.
It also came after an eventful night for the No. 77 team.
Hocevar started towards the rear of the 38-car field after Saturday’s Cup Series qualifying session was canceled because of inclement weather. The starting lineup was instead determined by NASCAR’s metric, putting Hocevar 34th.
He spent Sunday evening working his way forward and ultimately finished 11th, gaining 23 positions from where he took the green flag.
Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski Had Heated Southern 500 Exchange
The additional six percentage points came from one of Hocevar’s more memorable moments of the night.
Hocevar and Keselowski tangled during the Southern 500, adding another chapter to a race in which Hocevar seemed to be at the center of the action.
Instead of running away from the attention afterward, Hocevar turned the entire night into the premise for his merchandise sale.
Twenty-three positions gained. Six more percentage points for the Keselowski incident. Twenty-nine percent off.
And NASCAR fans responded in a major way.
Hocevar has become one of the sport’s most polarizing young drivers, but the numbers reported after Darlington make one thing difficult to dispute: people are paying attention.
In this case, they were paying for merchandise, too.
For a driver who entered the Southern 500 from the back of the field, fought his way forward and found himself in another highly discussed on-track moment, the weekend didn’t end when the checkered flag fell.
Less than 24 hours later, Hocevar’s unconventional promotion had helped push his online souvenir sales toward $200,000.
That’s quite a payoff for 29%.
Carson Hocevar’s Southern 500 Move Just Paid Off in a Massive Way