At 12 years of age, Carson Hocevar stepped into a super late model at one of the country’s most competitive race tracks and showed he could compete with drivers two, three, and four times his age.
A rule change was made that limited competing in NASCAR-sanctioned events to drivers that were 14 years of age or older, meaning Hocevar would have to sit on the sidelines. He waited, came back when he was of age, and won the track’s super late model championship in 2017.
In 2018, at 15, he made a limited number of appearances in the ARCA Menards Series. Hocevar qualified well and ran well in his debut at Toledo Speedway, finishing eleventh after a mid-race spin. He returned next to his home track, Berlin, and earned the pole with the fastest lap in practice when rain forced ARCA officials to set the field per the rule book. Hocevar led 28 laps and was in the mix for the win on the final lap when Joe Graf Jr. won in a slam-bang finish over Zane Smith, Travis Braden and Hocevar.
Still not old enough to participate in the full ARCA Menards Series schedule in 2019, Hocevar ran in 12 of the 20 races, with four top-five finishes and 10 finishes among the top-10. He earned his second career pole award, this one coming at Salem Speedway, where he also finished a career-best third in a race that was shortened by rain one lap past the halfway point.
Hocevar would also rack up top-fives at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and Iowa Speedway in 2019 before moving on to compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Niece Motorsports.
Hocevar has been shown brilliance in his 41 career Truck Series starts, finishing in the top-five six times and earning 13 top-10 finishes. He has already matched his 2021 top-five production in 2022 with three. He’s finished second three times, including last year at Charlotte, and then this year at Bristol and Texas. He was in position to win the 2022 race at Charlotte when he got together with Ryan Preece during an overtime restart and ended up in the outside wall.
Hocevar sits eighth in the series standings with six races remaining before the NASCAR Playoffs start.
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