Carson Hocevar may have been gaining new fans everyday, but he's definitely not a favorite among the drivers. Yet, when most drivers have been critical of Hocevar’s driving, Bubba Wallace approached Hocevar with an unexpected gesture at Michigan.

Wallace was involved in the Lap 83 incident that collected nine cars was triggered by Hocevar, tapping John Hunter Nemechek’s rear, which spun the Legacy Motor Club driver into Wallace. 

While most involved in the incident didn’t cut Hocevar any slack, Wallace gave a pep talk to the Spire driver after the race, where he sat with the 77 Spire driver for about 5 minutes before both drivers exchanged shoulder taps and went their way. 

Wallace spoke to the media and praised Hocevar while saying he needs to get better. “He’s fast, and he deserves to be in victory lane multiple times out of a year. But making mistakes is gonna cost him, and he hasn’t realized that yet.”

Hocevar let three of the cars that were involved in the wreck go past him during the final phase of the race after Denny Hamlin took a sizable lead after the restart with 39 laps to go. 

Wallace said, “He’s playing the game. The point by letting me and Larson by and the 43 by was nice. But doesn’t ease the pain. That’s what I told him.

"I don’t know if you’re doing that on purpose, but you’re having to do that cause like, 'Oh man, I wrecked that guy earlier. I wrecked him last week...just stop hitting s***. You can race to your potential.”

Asked if he thought the message went through, he said, “It’s Hocevar, we’ll see.”

Hocevar Gets Real on Final Restart

Carson Hocevar has always been an aggressive driver, something which earned him comparisons to Dale Earnhardt for the Intimidator driving style of not giving the other drivers any room. 

But he left disappointed after not winning his home race the day after his mother’s birthday. In the end, Hocevar ended 5th, conceding places to Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and John Hunter Nemechek after he realised there was no catching Denny Hamlin once he got into clean air. 

Speaking to the media after the race about the final restart, Hocevar said, “It’s just probably gonna eat me watching the 11 come in my rearview, drive by me and drive away and then have a car between us. I really would have liked at least to see if I could have stayed with them in the draft and everything.”

He added, “The only way I would have been able to beat him is if I could have cleared the 7, put a car in between us. And Daniel is obviously really hard to pass, and hope he was able to hold Denny up, and I could squirt away.”

Hamlin, who was one of the cars involved in the lap 83 incident, started from the back of the grid and made his way up to the head of the pack with around 30 laps to go before running away with the win.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason