On one hand, it was the full Carson Hocevar experience at Atlanta, where he was going to take any gap that presented itself but he also acknowledged after the race that he likely has some apologies to make too.
It was an adventure out there:
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His race began with a flat tire running inside the top-five and lost a lap on pit road. He started racing the leaders to stay just one lap down but had his right side window blow out and lost another lap.
He scored two free passes to get back on the lead lap, earned stage points by the second stage. Joey Logano spun off his bumper with 22 laps to go. Hocevar is amongst the few to pit for four tires and the extra handling takes him back towards the front.
Racing for the win on the penultimate restart, Christopher Bell gets put into the wall off his bumper. He gets hung out on the final restart and ultimately finishes fourth and leaves fourth in the early championship standings.
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Incidents with Logano and Bell
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
“I turned Joey, I didn’t mean to do that,” Hocevar said. “He got stuck in dirty air? It’s my racing excuses like it wasn’t my fault but it definitely was. I was just looking in the mirror the whole time and thought I calculated my gap out front. I just missed it by an inch or two and I owe him a gift card.”
He got a push from Ross Chastain behind him when he got into Bell. Any second gusses there?
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“I probably could have slowed,” he said. “I felt like the Toyotas were going to maintain lanes and I felt like if they got lazy and left the middle open, I would be really aggressive and try to fill it. I saw it for a split-second right when I got a huge run and it looked like there was just enough when I was coming. I just went for it, it was in my mind, and by time I got there or by time he realized it, I don’t even need to see it, I’m sure it was closed up.
“I don’t mean to end their day or destroy their car. I just felt like it was in my best interest to break up the Toyotas from their best possibility there.”
Bell hadn’t seen the replay either.
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“I haven’t seen it,” Bell said. “I’m going to keep my mouth shut until I see a replay. Yeah.”
Bell thought Hocevar was going to push him out ahead of Wallace.
“That’s what was communicated to me but you never ever expect anything, especially from him and, again, I haven’t seen a replay and maybe there was a hole there and that’s what he thought he was going to do. I don’t know.”
Hocevar got a pair of top 5s between the Truck and Cup races and ultimately called the racing this weekend video game like.
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“I felt like the Truck race didn’t hurt, especially with no practice,” he said. “You have to race with aggression and confidence. It’s like a video game and I play a lot of those. Confidence is really big here and it worked out today.”
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