No one in NASCAR history celebrated a win like Carson Hocevar did on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chili’s Chevrolet went viral minutes after Hocevar’s victory.
Hocevar, 23, won his first NASCAR Cup Series race, holding off a hard-charging Chris Buescher for the win. But it’s what Hocevar did after the race that shocked the entire sports world. He literally drove his car while hanging out of the car, rolling down the frontstretch with his hair flowing in the breeze to a screaming crowd. To make matters even more special, he did a burnout, all while literally sitting on his door.
The scene was reminiscent of Dale Earnhardt cleaning his windshield during a caution flag at Richmond in 1986, and he has already been compared to Earnhardt this early in his career.
What makes the victory celebration more special is that it is one Hocevar had planned for quite some time.
“I’ve dreamt about that in the off-season,” Hocevar said of his unique celebration. “I just wanted to have something that was meaningful for me. I mean, obviously being a [Dale Earnhardt] Jr. fan, I remember that iconic clip, he was inside the car, helmet off, enjoying the fans going backwards. But the fans, they don’t really get to know if they hear ’em or see ’em and everything. So I had thought of just like, Man, I have really long legs, I wonder if I can hit the throttle and sit on the door and ride, just kind of see everybody.
“I just wanted them to get as loud as possible. I felt like they would if they could see me seeing them. Yeah, I mean, ultimately I just wanted to make sure I soaked every bit of it in. I think I could tell you what everybody was wearing, where every seat was, where every 77 shirt was. I think I could have pointed it all out to you because I remember it so clearly right now. That means more than anything else to me, just that I know this has been a blur. I could tell you exactly just off turn four, it was like, I have it, to right now, I could tell you every second.”
Who Is Carson Hocevar?
Hocevar made his way onto the NASCAR scene in 2019 at just 16 years old. Rapidly, he developed a name for himself, eventually catching the attention of Niece Motorsports, which hired him to compete full time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2021.
It was undoubtable that Hocevar had speed, but what lacked was race discipline. Time and again, he’s gotten himself into on-and-off-track battles that have infuriated his competitors.
Hocevar did not win a race until his third full Truck Series season, when he won at Texas, followed by three additional wins. He qualified for the Championship 4 in 2023, but while racing for it all, wrecked himself and Corey Heim to take both drivers out of the fight for the title.
Nonetheless, after making five O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts with JR Motorsports, Hocevar caught the attention of Spire Motorsports. He ran quite well for Spire when he subbed for Corey LaJoie in 2023 at Gateway, when LaJoie competed for Hendrick Motorsports in place of a suspended Chase Elliott.
Hocevar also ran the No. 42 car in eight races later that year for Legacy Motor Club, in which he showed he has the pace to be a Cup driver.
Over the last two seasons, he has gradually improved to be a threat for top 10s quite often.
“I feel like I’ve been reliving the same trajectory as my Cup three years,” Hocevar said. “This has felt almost similar, same sort of team, level, and everything when I was first walking in. I just felt like I watched Niece grow up and get to where it was when it started winning races. Now I’m at Spire at the different level.
“That’s what I just kept telling myself. It all felt so familiar. I just moved garages, reset the career mode, basically, or season or whatever on the video game. Jeff and I always joke about that, we’re in the video game. When you’re a kid, you might have the custom car, race it up there with — most of the time easy level is pretty low. Yeah, you’re just in the video game. We finally did it today.”
Carson Hocevar’s Future
Hocevar could have opted into free agency once his contract with Spire expired. However, he opted to sign a multiyear, long-term deal with the Jeff Dickerson-run organization.
By doing so, Hocevar strategically made a move that will mean the three-car team will base its future plans on its new star.
Spire now has a driver whose personality connects with both traditional fans, as well as new ones.
“There’s kind of like this big juxtaposition of how sometimes the garage looks at Carson, then you see the crowd up there going ape-shit while he’s hanging out the window,” Dickerson said. “It’s going to take stuff like that. That personality connects. Obviously it’s on the drivers. They’re the biggest part of it. It’s going to take the teams and it’s going to take NASCAR itself.”
As Spire continues to invest more in its program, its second-ever win comes in the team’s eighth years of competition. Now that Hocevar has one win to his name, more may come.
“I think we’re going to be dangerous,” Dickerson said. “I can’t tell you enough about the conversations that we have in our shop, how we’ve been building to this moment, how we’ve been believing in each other.”
Carson Hocevar, An Unprecented NASCAR Win Celebration, And A Bright Future