Two punches drew louder cheers than Joey Logano winning under the lights at Bristol last Saturday. That’s the impact Carson Hocevar had when he threw hands with Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney following their confrontation. He walked away with the approval of thousands, as fans witnessed the latest evolution of one of NASCAR’s most exciting, yet polarizing, stars.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Once again, Hocevar’s popularity seems to be rising faster than his results on the track. The others, most of whom have expressed this displeasure with Hocevar leaning a bit too much into his controversial persona, have a reason to feel threatened. Not Chase Elliott, though.
“I view that as frustrating. I’m not sure that’s the right word for it all,” the Hendrick Motorsports driver said in an interview with Frontstretch at the Kansas Speedway ahead of the Hollywood Casino 400. “You know, a lot of people gravitate to… That’s everyone’s own personal choice.”
Elliott, a driver with eight Most Popular Driver of the Year awards, knows what it’s like to be in the spotlight. Instead of downplaying or questioning Hocevar’s rise to fame, he stopped short of describing it as a source of annoyance.
It’s fair to say that the No. 77 Spire Motorsports driver has made plenty of enemies in the garage in 2026. He’s clashed with Bubba Wallace multiple times, flipped the bird at Corey Heim in Indianapolis, wrecked Brad Keselowski at Darlington, and gave Blaney a black eye at Bristol. The controversy surrounding this fame — infamy, some would say — stems from the fact that Hocevar seems unapologetic about it all.
He’s thriving as the villain, claiming that the garage needs personalities like him. He may be right. A chunk of the fanbase agrees. But not all drivers.
Some, like Denny Hamlin, see it as disrespectful, especially his habit of monetizing other drivers’ misfortune, as he did with Blaney after Bristol, when he offered a 12% discount on his website as a jab at the No. 12 driver.
There is a difference between a driver being a polarizing figure among his competitors and being a popular figure with fans, and Elliott appeared to separate those two aspects when discussing Hocevar.
NASCAR realizes that the spotlight on Hocevar is good for the sport. At a time when viewership figures and race attendance have been dwindling, having a young driver come in with a fiery personality and attract more eyeballs could do wonders. After Bristol, where Hocevar crashed into Blaney and then punched him in the pit lane, NASCAR’s official account shared multiple videos of the incident, garnering millions of views.
NASCAR also had the option to penalize Hocevar for throwing a punch. But the sanctioning body saw it as two drivers hashing out their differences, and that was it.
The Cup garage believes in self-policing, and Hocevar keeps testing the waters while seemingly galvanizing fan support in the process. Team Penske’s Logano, however, wasn’t as diplomatic as Elliott when discussing Hocevar’s popularity during a July episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.
“I don’t understand, though. When I came into the sport and I had run-ins with veterans and all that stuff, right? And people hated me for that, right? Forever. And to this day, I still get booed like you wouldn’t believe for the things I did when I was 19 years old. This kid comes in and wrecks way more people than I ever did, and people love him!” the No. 22 Ford driver, who won at Bristol last Saturday, said.
At the 2013 Auto Club Speedway race, Hall of Famer Tony Stewart wanted to fight a 22-year-old Logano for making an aggressive block. Two years later, Matt Kenseth wrecked Logano at Martinsville, costing him a championship while sending a message and returning the favor after Logano had ruined his playoff run at Kansas. Back then, people hated Logano for standing up to those veterans, but now the roles are reversed.
Elliott has the luxury of not having any strong opinions about Hocevar for now, as he hasn’t been on the receiving end of his antics.
Maybe an on-track incident could change that, or maybe it won’t, because he may genuinely feel that how drivers view someone and how fans do are two entirely different things.