The Homestead Miami Speedway has lived up to the expectations in 2024. Although a surprising highlight from the race was Carson Hocevar! He showcased one of the most splendid drives of a lifetime. Being a rookie driver and yet ensuring that one can battle at the front of the field with Playoff contenders for much of the race takes a lot of skill and determination.

 The credit that Hocevar deserves goes a notch higher as the Homestead Miami Speedway is known to be quite complicated and does not hold much solace for the drivers. His teammate Justin Haley spun out in the first lap, but Hocevar powered on and finished in the top 10 in what was an incredible drive from the rookie.

Hocevar marks an impressive performance at Homestead  

Hocevar started from the 15th position but it did not take the #77 much time to understand the grip of the car and move forward. He completed Stage 1 in 5th position and he was able to maintain his position throughout most of Stage 2 as well, but ended up finishing 8th. Still an impressive start to the race from a driver no one expected to be competing at all.

With only ten laps to go, he had to face a minor setback. This stemmed from a very chaotic final restart, and although he started at the bottom, Hocevar showed immense dedication when he took up bigger strides to move past cars and make his way to the top 10. He finished the race in 9th position and the stage points added to his victory chart tallied him at 37 points for the race! This was more than playoff driver Kyle Larson achieved. Dustin Albino, a popular NASCAR name, made an official announcement. It said, “It’s a ninth-place finish for @CarsonHocevar, but maybe his best race of the season. For the majority of the race, the No. 77 car was the best non-Playoff car”.

Carson Hocevar himself seemed to be ecstatic when he posted about this achievement over his social media account. The maestro wrote, “We’re here. p9 today. 📈”. Reacting to his performance on the Homestead Miami Speedway, he said, “I mean, I got to do ten Cup races last year, I had a lot of time in the sim and in development. I felt like I kind of got lucky, per se, that this car fits my style a lot”.

His performance became all the more noticeable as he surpassed two teammates – Justin Haley and Zane Smith. Although Smith had a good start where he was seen in the Top 10 driving early, he ended up P30 at the finish. However, Haley did not seem to have a good run. He spun twice in lap one and ended up finishing the race in the 34th position. Hocevar is currently leading Josh Berry in the Rookie of the Year race despite being deducted 25 points earlier in the season.

Carson Hocevar redeemed himself after a topsy-turvy season

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Carson Hocevar was penalized severely earlier this season but mended his reputation after some excellent drives this year. This happened in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway under the caution flag with 58 laps left. After assessing that Hocevar intentionally spun Harrison Burton, NASCAR penalized him 25 points and issued a $50,000 fine.

The spin took place after the backstretch was under caution following contact between Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon. Reacting to the decision, Hocevar mentioned, “My intentions were not by any means to have him (spun) around. If you get in a bar fight and whatnot, the guy who throws the last punch that lands somebody on the ground isn’t the one that gets in trouble. It’s the one that initiated it”. Hocevar went on to finish 16th after the chaotic five-overtime finish. Joey Logano won the race after he stretched his fuel more than 100 laps in what was a precursor for his performance at Vegas last week. 

Despite his brash tactics in Nashville, Hocevar has put together some impressive drives this season. He finished in the top 10 six times as a rookie and even showed out at Watkins Glen with a P3 finish. He is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, and it doesn’t look like he will let it slip. His most impressive performance is undoubtedly on Homestead Miami, as it is one of the most tricky tracks in NASCAR, and he was gliding through it. Do you think Hocevar is one of the best rookies of all time?