The Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway got off to an unusual start. Officials moved the green flag up by an hour to beat the incoming weather, but as the field rolled onto the wet track, Carson Hocevar’s decision to test the limits quickly became the center of attention.
Joey Logano, who started from 21st, had the perfect view of Hocevar spinning and wasted little time letting the No. 77 Chevrolet driver know exactly what he thought.
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“Look at this guy. Look at this idiot,” the Team Penske driver said on the radio, as Hocevar lost control of his car during the pace lap.
The track was extremely wet as the field made its way around on wet-weather tires at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Drivers were essentially using the pace laps to gauge how much grip was available before NASCAR could give them the green flag.
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For Logano, the conditions were far from ideal. His Team Penske group had already made its feelings known before the spin, firmly landing on “Team thumbs down” when it came to whether the race should start. Hocevar, meanwhile, took the opposite approach.
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He seemed willing to find out just how slippery the track really was. That decision produced an immediate answer when his car stepped out and spun while the field was still behind the pace car.
It was hardly the kind of incident a driver wants attached to his name before the race has even started. Logano, pacing nearby, could only laugh at what he had just witnessed.
Hocevar later attempted to explain his reasoning on social media in a post that was later deleted.
“I much rather test the track when no one’s around vs green flag and ppl around. If no one else was gonna test it, I’ll do it lol,” he wrote on X.
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Hocevar’s spin also highlighted the severity of the conditions. If a driver could lose control while simply circulating behind the pace car, there was little reason to believe the track was ready for 36 Cup Series cars racing at full speed.
And the rest of the afternoon suggested Hocevar’s concerns were not entirely misplaced.
Tyler Reddick started from the pole after posting a 29.054-second qualifying lap. Yet the 23XI Racing driver spun exiting Turn 4 on the opening lap after the delay, bringing out the first caution. Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher were caught behind Reddick’s spinning Toyota. Later, John Hunter Nemechek spun his No. 40 Legacy Motor Club Toyota and scraped the wall on Lap 22.
The New Hampshire surface proved difficult to navigate, and several drivers learned that the hard way. For Joey Logano, however, the lasting image was always going to be Carson Hocevar’s spin before the race had even begun.
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