By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
Sports Media Site | Detroit – Sky View S…
Brooklyn, Mich. — After Denny Hamlin won at Michigan for the first time since 2011, the three-time 2025 winner was asked about an equally controversial driver who ran up front for 32 laps on Sunday and put on a clinic going by the leaders late in Stage 2 and Stage three. Carson Hocevar is that driver, and he is running up front in multiple races. We spoke to Hocevar on Saturday and Hamlin on Sunday. Our Zoomcast with Hocevar is below bottom left, and Hamlin’s quote is below that. Even though Hamlin is critical of Hocevar on his weekly podcast, he has high praise for the Spire Motorsports budding superstar driver.
Zoomcast- then Hamlin quote on Hocevar
Hamlin on Hocevar
- At the end of the day it’s not your job to care about the competition. As somebody who has been through the ups and downs, can you have any type of empathy for someone like Carson Hocevar in the sense of gut punches, ups and downs?
DENNY HAMLIN: “No question. Yeah, absolutely. Where I don’t feel sorry for him is he actually is half my age, so I know he’s got way more time to win those races.
You can’t run as fast as he’s running, being up front as much as he’s up front, without eventually winning. I know that panic sometimes can set in. It’s like, God, we lost this opportunity.
But he’s with a team that is on the rise. He is on the rise. It’s just a matter of time. None of us would be shocked if it’s next week or a month from now or whenever it is.
I certainly give him his fair share of shit on Mondays on my podcast, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect his talent.
Absolutely just a superstar when it comes to actual raw talent. When he figures out how to harness that, pick and choose the moments where he is aggressive, he’s going to put it all together and just be the next whoever. There’s five to six elite drivers in this field. He can be one of those five or six very easily when he puts it all together.
He’s got all the tools to do it. He’s got all the pieces of the puzzle right in front of him. He has all the pieces. He’s not missing anything. It’s just when he figures out the riddle of how to put it together, he’s going to be a future star.
