Carson Hocevar may be on the list of Time’s top 100 leaders in sport, but he’s far from being a favorite amongst his competitors on the Cup series grid. 

Despite the pack moving to Pocono for another race week, his antics from Michigan are still the talk around the garage. Hocevar tapped the rear of John Hunter Nemechek, triggering a 9-car wreck that included an unhappy Bubba Wallace. 

After the race, Wallace spoke to Hocevar and gave him a pep talk. Wallace was unhappy, and that didn’t go unnoticed. When Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe were on the Bussin with the Boys podcast earlier this week, the latter gave his thoughts on which driver was likely to lose their cool first with Hocevar. 

Briscoe responded, “I feel like Bubba was pretty mad last week. I can see Bubba maybe throwing hands.” The question the former SHR drivers were asked was who was likely to throw a punch at Hocevar first for his overtly aggressive driving style. 

Front Row Motorsports driver Noah Gragson, who has been a part of a physical altercation himself, was asked if he was the one who needed to do it. He replied, “I haven’t had a problem with Hocevar on the track.”

The Hocevar topic came up shortly after Gragson gave his thoughts on his own bust-up with Ross Chastain back in 2023 in Kansas. JGR’s No. 19 driver Chase Briscoe said, “He was Hocevar before Hocevar.”

Lines are unclear, says Gragson, recalling the Chastain incident

Gragson’s fight with Chastain still appears in several highlight clips and compilations. Back in 2023, Chastain was fast, just like Hocevar, but he was also extremely aggressive and didn’t give his competitors enough room. 

When he crowded Gragson on the last few laps at Kansas, Gragson's race was impacted, and he was waiting to meet Chastain. Once both drivers were out of their cars on the pit lane, Gragson grabbed Chastain’s firesuit. 

Chastain was visibly upset, throwing a punch at Gragson, who tried to retort, but NASCAR’s security staff showed up. Gragson recalled the incident and said that he was ready to fight that day.

But the heated fight didn't last past a day.

“We went to the dirt track and tested a micro sprint car the next day. And I went, ‘That was like, 'Hey, nice shot. But just letting you know, if Stan didn’t grab my arm, I was coming. I wasn't stopping,'” recalled Gragson, telling Chastain.

Both Briscoe and Gragson agreed that fights made NASCAR more exciting, but there was no clear line about the aggression, and hence it's difficult to know what gets fined and what doesn’t. That's because, surprisingly, neither of them was fined for the brawl.

Coming back to Hocevar, both Briscoe and Gragson were on the same page as several others. That he’s making enemies, and when the time comes that he is competitive, someone who has been affected by Hocevar’s aggression is going to make his life difficult on track. 

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason