Oh boy, Sunday’s short track action was eventful. The 500-lap close-quarter race was a hell-raiser for the fans with the Joe Gibbs Racing cars going on a roll and picking up their second win of the season, as NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin registered his first win of the season.
If we are strictly talking about the race, it was nothing the fandom expected. Goodyear’s new compound certainly played a pivotal role in separating the best from the rest. Teams and drivers had to time their pit stops as the newly paved surface was shredding off rubber-like cheese and many prominent drivers got the worst end of it at Bristol.
Speaking about the race on the DBC podcast, a veteran RFK Racing spotter pointed out the most frustrating aspect of the race and it wasn’t NASCAR’s caution policy or the new track surface’s dynamics, but it was Carson Hocevar’s cheeky move.
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A NASCAR insider and renowned spotter blasts Carson Hocevar for his Bristol antics
NASCAR rookie Carson Hocevar and his peers tackled Sunday’s unusual conditions at the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, going through what for many was a test of tire management and patience in the Food City 500.
After three seasons in red clay, NASCAR made a change at Bristol for the 2024 season. In its place, the track authorities put down a peculiar resin to combat the slick surface. However, the result might not have been what everyone was hoping for. Despite an eventful race, Sunday’s feature recorded a whopping 54 lead changes, and plenty of drivers weren’t too happy with the new surface and what it did to their tires. Specifically, teams were going through tires at an alarming rate early on as they realized how quickly the resin tore through them.
Speaking on the podcast joined by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Freddie Kraft, and TJ Majors started a banter on the Hocevar situation where the rookie deliberately acted out to catch a caution. In fact, the driver, as per Kraft, was running under pit road speed on the track and was desperate for a yellow flag. Putting on a critic’s robe, he said, “He spent a lap trying to draw a caution which is not right. You should not try to manipulate the race by drawing a caution.”
While Majors voiced his difference in opinion on the show, Kraft upped his rant, saying, “What I’m talking about here is the son of a bi**h is out there running 30 mph on a track that guys are running a** somebody runs in the back of him he’s going to get hurt or somebody’s going to get hurt.” Before this Majors also admitted that the youngster was trying out his luck to catch a yellow and utilize it to the max, and not even turning his car, he said, “He didn’t want to turn, he was trying to cause a wreck.”
Hocevar gives his take on Sunday’s race with a simple tweet
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The Spire Motorsports driver was also not impervious to tire problems, much like his peers, including 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, etc. The fallen rubber shreds from the tires made the race more complicated as Hocevar drew a parallel from the popular Pixar animation, Cars. In his tweet, the driver briefed about the experience of racing under such a condition.
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hi jeff, my experience this week felt like this video i have attached so my opinion might be skewed in comparison.
thanks, will be back next week. pic.twitter.com/W1VNNEDR9m
— Carson Hocevar (@CarsonHocevar) March 18, 2024
Going against popular opinion, Hocevar shared a GIF animation from the movie and summed up his thoughts in a few lines. Reacting to Jeff Gluck’s poll, he wrote, “Hi Jeff, my experience this week felt like this video I have attached so my opinion might be skewed in comparison. thanks, will be back next week.”
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What are your thoughts about the race in the comments below?
READ MORE: ‘Hurt’ Martin Truex Jr Details the Strategic Fumble That Handed Denny Hamlin the Bristol Crown