Celebration Not Complete: New Cup Winner Carson Hocevar Enjoying Ride

Texas Motor Speedway (Fort Worth, Texas) — Carson Hocevar has had the best week. Celebrating his first Cup victory, Hocevar enjoyed an epic celebration Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, a team party that night at sponsor Chili’s and a full week of interviews and appearances. Then he went out Friday night five days later and won the truck race at Texas Motor Speedway. At no point has anyone at Spire Motorsports told him it was time to stop enjoying the win and focus on Texas. Hocevar even tried to duplicate his Talladega celebration Friday night by sitting on the window sill and using his long legs to hit the throttle and drive the truck. “I’m not going to do the whole ordeal, … but it’s so fresh that I feel like I would have disappointed people if I didn’t at least do something remotely to that nature,” Hocevar said in his post-race news conference. Hocevar continued to build on his first Cup win by capturing the pole Saturday for the Cup race Sunday at Texas. And the 23-year-old Hocevar said he will continue to replicate what he did at Talladega — at least until he catches a beer thrown from the crowd. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to have to do this every time,’ and I’m all in on doing it on Sundays,” Hocevar said. “I’m all in until I catch whatever they throw at me, and then I’m done with it. “Because it’s not finished, and I think that would just be super fun. … Throw whatever you want, I’ll be prepared for it. At least be creative about it. Don’t line up and do a chant of 5-4-3-2-1 like it’s a ring toss.” At eighth in the standings, Hocevar knows every point is pivotal as he tries to be as high in points as possible so he can have more points for when the top-16 drivers in the standings have their points reset for the Chase after the regular season. He mentioned that, despite all the fun he’s had this week, he has worked on Texas and is prepared for the race. “They know me well enough [to know], I don’t drink, so they don’t worry about me being hungover walking into the track,” Hocevar said. “So they were all good there. But they know that racing means the most to me, and I’m never going to throw away a race. “I’m tall enough and uncoordinated enough that my head can’t get too big. Otherwise, I can’t walk. Think I’m doing OK right now.” By racing in trucks, he had the fun and freedom to make aggressive moves and not worry about points. “I think we are supposed to win this race for sure, but at the same time, I’m not going to cry myself to sleep if we don’t,” Hocevar said. “I might cry myself to sleep if we don’t win Sunday and think worse of myself. “But these truck races, I just hope it’s a really, really fun race and I get to enjoy it. And if I make 1,000 moves, I might make one wrong, but I’m just glad I’ve made 1,000 moves. … There is no excuse. If you’re a hero, you should take whatever they give you and win with it.” Winning in a truck meant something to Hocevar in addition to the fun. “I look at myself a lot different,” Hocevar explained. “I judge myself a lot differently, but at the same time, this means a lot to me, too, because I think the heroes that I grew up watching, they just win everything. … Ultimately, I just enjoy every little bit of this.”