Carson Hocevar “Doesn’t Understand” The Real Reason Behind his Mainstream Stardom

Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar is the first NASCAR driver since Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon to get the attention of the mainstream media consistently. His aggressive racing style, bold one-liners and the Talladega win propelled him to stardom only a handful in stock car arcing has experienced. It was evident when he was invited in the Met Gala and made it Times Top-100 list.

The No:77 Chevy driver talked about this to the media while discussing his most recent Time Magazine Gala appearance. He highlighted how he grew up watching Dale Jr. being celebrated everywhere in the mainstream media and how it is good for his personal brand to get recognition similar to that.

Yeah, it’s great for me. 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.

Carson Hocevar said at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

He like many in the NASCAR community is really confused about how all of sudden he went from a Cup rookie to the face of the sport, overshadowing many legends in the garage. Carson Hocevar is cherishing every moment of the attention he is getting as he knows there might be once in a lifetime opportunity and also good for the sport in the long run.

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.

Carson Hocevar added, as reported by motorsport.com.

Carson Hocevar explains the importance of increasing drivers’ brand value

Later talking in the same conversation, he highlighted how much he enjoys being recognized for his racing and asserted that how winning isn’t enough to make a name outside the NASCAR bubble. Seven times champion Jimmie Johnson was the most dominant driver the sport saw in the 2000s and he never had the same influence as Dale Jr., who never won a title, did.

It’s been super cool for me. 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. 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?

Carson Hocevar said.

The Spire driver pointed out that the fans and casual viewer of the sport care more about the drivers than that race product. If the ratings were just based of the event production, NASCAR would have been one the most watched sport events in the world. But it is not, as the real value comes from who is inside the car.

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.

Carson Hocevar added.

The comments from the racer are on point and it has been a talking point for years in the sport. Evey championship needs one or two superstars that has an influence beyond their bubble. NASCAR has been looking for their spark for many years and it seems they might’ve found that person in Hocevar. It would be interesting to see how the Spire driver can change the sport in the coming years.

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