Carson Hocevar has somewhat become the face of NASCAR in terms of people who don’t watch NASCAR and he isn’t totally sure why.
A decade ago, he was getting banned from his local short track for being too young to drive a Late Model in races he was already winning and now is being invited to the Met Gala and Time 100 Sports Gala.
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He’s only won a single Cup Series race to date but found himself mingling with Lebron James and Prince Harry earlier this week. He’s dating well known content creator Tabitha Swatosh.
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It’s a surreal life.
“Yeah, it’s great for me,” Hocevar said on Friday during a press conference at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “You know, like I say all the time, my favorite driver was Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. I saw him everywhere, right? You saw him on MTV, the music awards and doing all these really cool things, so I just always thought that’s really what NASCAR drivers do. In the 2000s, it was probably a lot more realistic that they all do it.
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“There’s a lot of times where I’m like, I don’t understand why I’m invited to these, but I’m definitely taking advantage of it, enjoying it, embracing it and just trying to have as much fun with it as possible, knowing that obviously it’s a really cool and once-in-a-life experience for me at a lot of these events. But also, too, it’s obviously great for the sport.”
When he first saw James, he wanted to ask for a photo, but talked himself out of it.
“I walked over and he was at his table,” Hocevar said. “I sat at a table far away from him and some guy came up to ask for a seat. He happened to know who I was and I knew him. He was like, ‘hey, I’m taking this seat over to LeBron, why don’t you walk over?’
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“And so, I walked over and you could tell his security guards just started to swarm in, and then all of a sudden, the guy put his hand up and that’s when LeBron stood up, took his glasses off and then we talked for a while. And then I was like, ‘man, I have to get a photo.’ It was cool.”
James actually knew who Hocevar was because his trainer’s son is currently racing in North Carolina.
And then there was Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and somewhat exiled royalty.
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“I think I was like, ‘man, I wouldn’t make my mom proud if I didn’t ask for a photo.’ That’s who she loves.”
Harry obliged and told Hocevar that he hopes the photo made his mom happy.
Hocevar knows he needs to win more to justify this spotlight, but also wants to do right by NASCAR, Spire Motorsports and his sponsors for getting him to this point at just 23-years-old.
“It’s been super cool for me,” Hocevar said. “I think Denny (Hamlin) and Michael (Jordan) were in (the TIME Sports 100) as well. But, you know, being the solo (NASCAR driver) in it, I guess, is super fun for me.
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“Obviously, I want to win more, but I think it’s been proven a lot within the sport that you can win multiple races in a row and that doesn’t make your (name) outside the NASCAR bubble, right? If our viewership was based off the racing production, we’d have 10 million live viewers for Atlanta every single time, I think.
“Ultimately, it’s just getting people to care who’s in the cars. You can have the greatest finish of all time, but if you don’t care who’s involved in the finish, you might as well go watch iRacing, AI Racing, an animation, any kind of motorsport. It’s been super humbling for me to have a lot of people ultimately care about who’s in my car.”
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