“He’s Creating a Lot of Enemies!” Bubba Wallace Gives Carson Hocevar a Brutal Reality Check

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has witnessed Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar establishing himself as the future superstar the sport looking for, silencing the critics. He won the Talladega Cup race and was even at the Met Gala. But one key issue is still making him a controversial figure in the garage and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace has given a reality chic on that.

After Michigan Cup race, where the No:77 Spire chevy driver failed to take advantage of his cars superior pace owing to the mistake he made due to the aggressive racing style, the 23XI driver had aa heart-to-heart conversation with the youngster. He was trying to impart the same wisdom he got from Kevin Harvick in the past; he needs to stop hitting people and start focussing on earning good finishes.

I said ‘I’m jealous of how fast you are, kid.’ No doubt, he’s one of the fastest in the field, and that’s just natural ability. And so, when you see that and you recognize that, I’ve got to give respect to it. But at the same time – Kevin Harvick told me, I don’t know, whenever I was hitting shit four or five years ago, he said ‘Stop hitting shit, and your finishes will show.’ And that’s what I simply tried to tell him, man.

Bubba Wallace told the media after Michigan race.

Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar were seen having a talk on the pit wall after finishing third and fifth respectively. What Bubba told the Prime broadcast he told Hocevar:

"I said 'I'm jealous of how fast you are, kid.' No doubt, he's one of the fastest in the field, and that's… pic.twitter.com/GwnG5zEX2W

— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) June 7, 2026

Carson Hocevar needs to learn that it is not wise to create a lot of enemies in the garage, when it is not rewarding him with race wins or sold finishes consistently.  He has natural pace that many in the garage including Bubba Wallace is jealous of and the youngster needs to take advantage of it. The racers less talented that him are beating him because they are not unnecessarily aggressive.

He’s fast, he’s going for every move every second, and it’s not worth it. He’s creating a lot of enemies. This is the same old story, same old Hocevar. But I just told him ‘You’re fast, a lot of us are jealous of what you have and what you’re able to do, but we’re beating you because we can put a race together better than you.’ That’s all.

Bubba Wallace added.

Bubba Wallace refuses to celebrate his strong Michigan run

Sunday’s race at Michigan was a solid outing for Bubba Wallace and the No:23 team. They ended a month of DNF nightmare to secure a P3 finish, which helped him to move up in the points table. But he isn’t celebrating the top-5, as there is no excuse for him to not consistently finish inside the top-10 in 2026, as the Toyota’s have the pace advantage this year.

It’s needed for all these people behind the camera here. We’ve gone through a month of hell, and it’s hard to be happy with a third place because this is what should be happening when we’re executing like we are, and we just… get blindsided by something. And so, at the end of the day, it’s no excuses. I just need to be better.

Bubba Wallace said.

Further talking about the points, the TRD driver highlighted an asterisk with his p3 finish, as they No:23 Toyota Camry’s splitter was damaged. So, if they had a better car, the overall day would’ve been much better and he might have given his boss Denny Hamlin a run for him money, for the fight for the race win.  

We have an asterisk on our finish because of the splitter damage. One of the most important parts of the car was damage. So, who knows where our potential was. But after stage one, I thought we were third or fourth. So, I would say we executed all day. It’s a valiant team effort.

Bubba Wallace added.

The comments from Wallace are more hard hitting considering his teammate Tyler Reddick has won five races in the 2026, more than the No:23 driver has won his whole career. So, he needs to make a massive step-up in performance that coming years.

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