There is no doubt that Carson Hocevar has been one of the most exciting drivers this season. From his career-high runner-up finish at Atlanta early in the season to a strong performance at the Coca-Cola 600 and then finishing up in second place again at Nashville, he has shown flashes of pure speed. Whether it’s leading laps or battering wheel to wheel, he’s making a name for himself on the track, and veterans are starting to take notice.

Let’s be honest—Carson loves to race hard, and sometimes that means things get a little out of control. Having locked horns with Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and now Ricky Stenhouse Jr., he has become a fan favorite for both his talent and his aggressive style. He’s even received parallels to Dale Earnhardt, The Intimidator, who made a name for himself with his no-holds-barred style. Now, it seems like Hocevar’s raw talent and the fact that he is just 22 years old are turning heads, and one of them is Dale Earnhardt’s former competitor!

Ken Schrader’s Cup wishlist

For all the raised eyebrows and bent fenders, Carson Hocevar still has believers in the garage—and not just the young guns. Some of NASCAR’s most seasoned voices are ready to be big on the 22-year-old. If Ken Schrader were starting a Cup team tomorrow, he knows exactly who would be in the driver’s seat. Schrader made his choice very clear in a podcast with Kenny Wallace.

Without a blink of an eye, Ken Schrader finalized his lineup: “I don’t know Carson Hocevar, but if I was starting a cup team, I want Carson Hocevar. Yeah. Because, you know, he’s 22, is he?” Impressed by Carson’s performance at such a young age, Ken Schrader wants the #77 driver on his team. Kenny Wallace chimed in with the kind of reaction you’d expect from a person who has seen more than a few hotshots rise and fall: “22 announced last week. It’s like, Lord, he’s a baby.”

Carson Hocevar has shown some real speed behind the wheel of the Spire Motorsports Chevy. Sitting 17th in the Driver standings, the team now faces the pressure of pushing him into playoff contention, and they are extremely determined to do so. And to that, Schrader, still showing confidence in the young driver, goes on to say, “You know, they always say it’s a lot easier to slow someone down than it is to speed them up.” Well, with his aggressive overtaking, Hocevar definitely knows how to slow down his competitors; however, sometimes he might frustrate them, but to that, Hocevar had the perfect response.

After angering Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and his mentor Ross Chastain in Atlanta, Hocevar was the talk of the town. Blaney and Chastain confronted him post-race, and Busch later went on Kevin Harvick’s podcast and delivered a scathing verdict on the driver. What did Hocevar have to say about all this negative attention? Well, he put it plain and simple after his 2nd place finish at Atlanta, “We’re here to win races, not be in a boy band.” This is the personality that veterans like Wallace and Schrader sorely miss, and even pointed it out using another all-time great as an example.

Kenny Wallace believes that Carson is different from the pack. He even went so far as to compare his freewheeling style to the more polished image of Jeff Gordon back in the day. Gordon used to be a guy who never shied away from a scrap. From his incidents with Brad Keselowski at Texas and Clint Bowyer at Phoenix, we’ve seen Gordon go rowdy. However, all that toned down toward the end of his career, and now, as Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon’s image is as polished as ever.

To this, Wallace said, “You and I love Jeff Gordon, but Jeff could have had a little bit more fun, and Jeff likes everybody, and Hendrick tidied up Jeff Gordon. All our drivers will be perfect. Here’s Carson over here just living life and runs second. I’m just saying I like that. I like that.” Hocevar might not be driving for Rick Hendrick directly, but his team, Spire Motorsports, has an alliance with Mr.H, and if there was ever an opportunity at HMS, Carson would be high in the pecking order for sure. However, Wallace did note that he will have to work on his on-track antics.

Wallace added, “Now, as far as him running into everybody, I’m sure he’ll figure that out.” Known for his notorious behavior to ruffle people up on the track, Carson needs to get this under control. Ken Schrader, not wanting to let go of Carson and having full faith in him, agreed, saying, “He’ll get over it.” Every driver has that phase, where they run into trouble in pursuit of their first victory. However, once Carson breaks that duck, we could see a more confident and clean driver, and Ken Schrader is backing that.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled about Carson’s full-contact racing style. Especially after that dust-up with Ricky Stenhouse Jr at Nashville. Hocevar dove into the inside lane early in stage 2 and did not check up with he saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slide in front of him, leading to a tap on Ricky’s left rear bumper, sending him into a spinning crash. Stenhouse has vowed payback, and even Spire Motorsports’ co-owner, Jeff Dickerson, did not sugarcoat it.

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Dickerson, who’s close with Stenhouse, tried to be fair towards his own driver but couldn’t help express frustration, wanting Carson to get on the right track. Dickerson said, “There are some things I’d like him to — maybe round out a couple of the edges. But I don’t want to slow him down. I don’t want him running into the #47 [Stenhouse] there. I want them to cut him a break and let him back in and, you know, kind of show that maturity… Over time, he’ll learn to — he’s got to get his nose out of there, not because it was something that he did ‘wrong.’ It was just, why go out of your way to make an enemy that you don’t need to?”

Well, as Hocevar toes the fine line between racing and wrecking, he acknowledged the room for improvement after his incident with Stenhouse Jr.

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Carson Hocevar tries to find balance

Amidst the calls for him to “clean it up” and the praises for running well, Carson Hocevar isn’t brushing things under the rug. Fresh off his win in the Money in the Bank 150 super late model race, the 22-year-old sat down with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to talk about his Cup campaign, his mentor, and the balancing act between being aggressive and being smart. And one thing was clear: Hocevar put a lot of stock in what his team boss, Jeff Dickerson, had to say.

Hocevar said, “I look at Jeff [Dickerson] for not just race car advice, but, like, life advice and everything else in between. So, like, he’s lived it. And he said so many times, I think he said on the DBC [Door Bumper Clear podcast], ‘you can figure it out on your timeline, or my timeline, and l’d like to do my timeline, because I think it’s going to be quicker.’ So yeah, we look, we’ve done it a lot. We work a lot. Me, Tyler Green [spotter] and Luke Lambert [crew chief], we always sit down. We go through so much stuff.”

It’s not just seat time that Hocevar’s banking on—it’s reputation, refinement, and relentless communication. His words reflect a driver who is aware of both the opportunity in front of him and the room to grow. He went on to say, “They give me all every info they can find, and we work nonstop about just our communication, how we can get better, how we can race others, how we can race ourselves, teammates, everything, right?”

The No. 77 driver may be brash on the track, but off it, there is a clear sense that he is absorbing wisdom from the right people. Several “massive people in the sport,” as he put it, have reached out to help guide him. And while he isn’t trying to reinvent himself, he understands the value of subtle evolution, especially if it means more clean passes and fewer angry drivers post-race.

But the driver doesn’t want to lose his grip. He went on to acknowledge, “We don’t want to change … you don’t want to change. And you know, lose our edge. But, as Jeff [Dickerson] had told me multiple times, let’s just round the edges off and have less moments of that and more moments of passing the other 25 cars without hitting them.”

As NASCAR heads to Michigan—Hocevar’s home turf–it’s safe to assume that he’ll double up with Spire Motorsports in both the truck and cup series races. For a young driver trying to sharpen his edge without losing his bite, it may just be the perfect proving ground. Do you think Carson Hocevar can make it big and win in Michigan? Let us know in the comments!