Carson Hocevar

Carson Scott Hocevar (born January 28, 2003) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports. He is a former member of the Drivers Edge Development driver development system.

Early career
Hocevar began competing in quarter midgets at the age of 7, winning 79 feature races and 15 national championships. He started racing at Berlin Raceway in 2015 as a 12 year old and won the track's Outlaw Late Model championship. He won his first Super Late Model race at the track in 2016, but NASCAR stopped all drivers under 14 from competing at sanctioned tracks. Hocevar returned in 2017 and won the track's Super Late Model championship.

ARCA Menards Series
Hocevar competed in 11 ARCA Menards Series races between 2018 and 2019, with 9 top ten finishes and 2 pole positions.

In 2019, he joined the Driver's Edge Development Program.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Hocevar made his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series debut in the 2019 Eldora Dirt Derby driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado for Jordan Anderson Racing. He qualified for the main event by finishing third in the third qualifying race. He returned to the series in November at the Lucas Oil 150, driving a No. 56 for JAR in a partnership with Hill Motorsports.

On December 20, 2019, Hocevar joined Niece Motorsports for a nine-race schedule in 2020.

On September 24, 2020, Hocevar and Niece announced a full-season schedule in 2021. During the season, Hocevar would have a very successful rookie season nearly winning multiple races. He finished second at Charlotte and fourth at Las Vegas. He re-signed with Niece in 2022 and led the most laps of the Spring Vegas race until he was turned with 36 to go.

On June 4, 2022, Hocevar broke his right tibia at the ankle during the final lap of the Gateway race when his truck was t-boned by Tyler Hill. He underwent surgery prior to the Sonoma race. Hocevar took the pole position before wrecking in turn 10. On lap 11, he was relieved by Daniel Suárez, who took the No. 42 to a sixth-place finish.

Hocevar started the 2023 season with a 12th-place finish at Daytona. He scored his first career win at Texas in double-overtime after race leader Nick Sanchez made contact with Zane Smith on the final lap and Hocevar unintentionally spun Sanchez from behind. Hocevar also scored wins at Nashville and Richmond. He won at Homestead to make the Championship 4. Hocevar finished 29th at Phoenix after Corey Heim slammed him on the turn 4 wall in retaliation for spinning him earlier in the race; he also finished fourth in the final points standings. After NASCAR penalized Heim 25 driver points for intentionally wrecking him, Hocevar was credited with a third-place points finish.

NASCAR Xfinity Series
On March 7, 2023, Spire Motorsports announced that they will expand their racing operations to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, with Hocevar running six races in their No. 77 car, making his debut in the series at Circuit of the Americas in the No. 07 for SS-Green Light Racing before suffering a brake failure leading to a 36th-place finish. He was initially on the entry list for the race at Dover Motor Speedway, but was withdrawn due to the weather providing the risk of qualifying being canceled. His debut with the team was thus scheduled for the next race at Darlington Raceway. He would finish 6th at Darlington and 8th at Charlotte Motor Speedway but would DNF at Nashville Superspeedway.

2023: Part-time
On May 30, 2023, Hocevar was named the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Camaro ZL1 for the Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway Motorsports Park after Spire's full-time driver Corey LaJoie would fill in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy while HMS driver Chase Elliott served a one race suspension. He finished in 36th place after suffering a brake rotor explosion going into turn 1 in the second stage on lap 91 while running in 16th place. Hocevar drove the Legacy Motor Club No. 42 (originally driven by Noah Gragson, then by Josh Berry and Mike Rockenfeller on road courses after Gragson was suspended prior to the Michigan race) to a 17th place finish at Darlington. He then scored a career-best 11th place finish at the Bristol night race. On October 4, Hocevar was signed to drive the No. 42 for the remainder of the season, except at Homestead-Miami where the team's 2024 driver John Hunter Nemechek drove in the No. 42 car instead.

2024: Spire Motorsports
On October 10, 2023, Hocevar announced on NASCAR Race Hub that he will bypass the Xfinity Series to join Spire Motorsports in the Cup Series full-time for the 2024 season, driving the No. 77 car under a multi-year deal. Hocevar started the season with a 40th place DNF at the 2024 Daytona 500. He scored his first career top-10 finish at Texas. At Nashville, Hocevar spun out Harrison Burton during a caution lap; as a result, he was fined US$50,000 and docked 25 driver points.

Other racing
Hocevar has also run in Midgets, Micro Sprints, and Dirt Super Late Models on a part-time basis in addition to his full-time rides since 2015.

Personal life
As a kid, Hocevar, while racing Quarter Midgets, was around many notable drivers due to his dad Scott who was a crew member as well as a sponsor for various local teams, and through this Carson was mentored heavily by Bryan Clauson, who Scott Hocevar was a crew member for. Later he would also be mentored by Johnny Benson who was sponsored by Carson's dad which let Carson have the opportunity to turn wrenches for him on Benson's racecars and later also drive for him in his Outlaw Late Model program.

Hocevar is the son of Scott and Amy Hocevar. He graduated from Gull Lake High School in 2021.

Hocevar is in a relationship with Super Late Model driver Peyton Lanphear. In May 2022, Lanphear was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma; she would go into remission in December of that year.

Stock car career summary
† As Hocevar was running for points in the Truck series, he was ineligible for championship points in the Cup and Xfinity series.

NASCAR
(key) ( Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )

Craftsman Truck Series
$$ Season still in progress $1$ Ineligible for series points

ARCA Menards Series
(key) ( Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )