Carson Hocevar drops the mic on Atlanta controversy: 'I race for me, myself, and I'

Last week in Atlanta, Carson Hocevar put a spotlight and maybe a target on himself with the way he raced on the track. Hocevar had the ire of Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, and possibly even Hendrick Motorsports. It was also his best NASCAR Cup Series finish.

Carson Hocevar is an aggressive driver. He always has been. At age 22 he is embarking on his second Cup Series season and he may have made a couple of enemies.

You won’t hear any apologizing from Hocevar, though. Today, he put that Atlanta controversy to bed with his comments.

Here is what he said about his practice laps at COTA.

“I mean hopefully, maybe a little bit better,” Hocevar explained. “I wasn’t really happy with my lap but normally when you’re not happy and you actually have a lot of speed that’s normally a good thing on these road courses it seems, at least for me.”

Then he was asked about Atlanta.

“You know I just like racing and I’m there to race and I’m excited to race here, and I’m excited to have fast race cars,” Carson Hocevar continued. “I’m going to continue to try and do that. So, it’s been a lot of fun and you know, been a lot of positives from Hendrick Motorsports to Chevy and most importantly, my team. So, I race for me, myself, and I and you know, obviously a little bit for Spire Motorsports for sure. That’s what they pay me to do and that’s what we’re here to do and we’re here to win races.”

Bold statements from a young driver. He qualified P4 overall, sending another statement that his aggressive driving isn’t just working on superspeedways.

Carson Hocevar lays down a hot lap

Had it not been for a great team effort from 23XI Racing and a very impressive run from Chase Elliott at the last minute, the pole may have been Carson Hocevar’s today. He was fourth overall and could have picked up a lot more time in Sector 1 according to the numbers.

I’m not sure anyone expected Hocevar to come out and outqualify his teammate Michael McDowell this weekend. We know McDowell is a great road course racer and has won at the Indy Road Course. Hocevar was the only Spire driver to make the top-10 in qualifying.

Perhaps more impressive is the act that Hocevar outpaced the Trackhouse Racing group. He beat out Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen, Ross Chastain, and Connor Zilisch in qualifying. Now he has to back it up in the race.