Carson Hocevar spent the entire week at the center of NASCAR’s biggest controversy.
Then Sunday happened.
The Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway turned into one of the most chaotic afternoons of the season, with cautions, crashes and playoff contenders finding trouble seemingly everywhere. And somehow, through all of it, the No. 77 wasn’t responsible for any of the mayhem.
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Hocevar knew exactly how funny that was.
Rather than quietly take his eighth-place finish and move on to Bristol, the Spire Motorsports driver logged onto Facebook after the race and offered an “apology” to an especially important constituency: NASCAR podcast listeners.
“I just wanna apologize to all the nascar podcast listeners out there,” Hocevar wrote. “Although there was a record high amount of cautions. The 77 didn’t cause any so it’s gonna be a slow news week. Maybe pick up a hobby and resume your podcast listening after we try again at Bristol.”
For a driver who has heard just about every version of the criticism by now, it was a pretty good way to have the last laugh.
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Carson Hocevar Couldn’t Resist After a Week Dominated by Controversy
The joke landed because of everything that came before Gateway.
Hocevar arrived in Illinois after his feud with Brad Keselowski consumed much of the NASCAR conversation leading into the weekend. Their escalating war of words became one of the sport’s biggest storylines, adding another chapter to the larger debate surrounding Hocevar’s aggressive driving style.
That reputation isn’t exactly new.
Hocevar has repeatedly found himself in the middle of incidents, confrontations and criticism during his young Cup career. Other drivers have called him out publicly, and his aggressive approach has made the 23-year-old one of the most polarizing drivers in the garage.
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So naturally, NASCAR went to Gateway, chaos broke out everywhere, and Hocevar wasn’t the one causing it.
The race featured a flurry of cautions and several significant accidents. Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe saw promising afternoons end together after Elliott suffered a problem entering Turn 1. Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick were swept into another major late-race crash.
Hocevar?
He kept the No. 77 clean enough to reach the checkered flag in eighth place.
Considering the week he had just endured, there was no chance he was going to let that go unnoticed.
Hocevar Turns His Reputation Into the Punchline
There’s also a reason the Facebook post works better than a defensive response ever could.
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Hocevar isn’t pretending the reputation doesn’t exist. He’s making fun of it.
The suggestion that NASCAR podcasters might need to “pick up a hobby” because he failed to provide them with another week’s worth of material was a direct wink at how much airtime his driving has generated.
And then came the kicker: “resume your podcast listening after we try again at Bristol.”
In other words, enjoy the break while it lasts.
Bristol Motor Speedway isn’t exactly known for lowering the temperature, either. The short track has produced plenty of hurt feelings over the years, and Hocevar’s willingness to joke about “trying again” there practically writes the setup for the next race weekend itself.
For once, though, nobody could pin Gateway’s carnage on the No. 77.
Hocevar made sure everyone noticed.
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