EDITOR’S NOTE: Spire Motorsports announced Thursday afternoon that it has decided to withdraw the No. 77 from competing at Dover Motor Speedway and will re-focus its efforts on next month’s race at Darlington Raceway.
If you’ve been watching the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the past three years, it’s easy to see the speed that Carson Hocevar has displayed. The full-time No. 42 Chevrolet driver for Niece Motorsports turned all the close calls – and a win earlier this month at Texas Motor Speedway – into a six-race Xfinity Series schedule with Spire Motorsports this season with a technical alliance from JR Motorsports.
“He doesn’t need my help driving a race truck fast,” Ross Chastain, Hocevar’s mentor, said recently. “That came natural to him.”
RELATED: View Hocevar’s career stats
Originally, Hocevar was slated to make his series debut at Dover Motor Speedway this weekend. But when Blaine Perkins departed SS GreenLight Racing in late March, the No. 07 team needed a driver. Team owner Bobby Dotter reached out to Chastain about running at Circuit of The Americas. The Cup star was already committed to running the Truck Series race earlier that day. In steps the 20-year-old, who was recommended to drive the car by Chastain.
Being thrown into the fire on a last-minute notice at COTA wasn’t a colossal deal. Hocevar had been driving the simulator for JR Motorsports for some time, just to get a feel for the Xfinity car and relay information back to the team that won 15 races last season.
Because of Hocevar’s experience on the simulator, he expects to be up to speed come practice this Friday at the Monster Mile. He’s also formed relationships with all of the JRM drivers.
“There’s a lot of people in that building that I can lean on and bounce ideas off, or at least pick apart their brain,” Hocevar told NASCAR.com. “I’m going to be really prepared when I walk into Dover. I don’t think it should take any more than a lap or two to get up to speed.”
And though Hocevar only made it seven laps into the COTA race before experiencing a part failure, he now has firsthand experience of the inner workings of an Xfinity car. Frankly, he doesn’t think anyone is ever 100% ready for their next foray up to a new series because “racing is tough.”
“Carson is a really intriguing talent that a lot of people want to get some eyes on,” Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire Motorsports, said. “He had a thirst to move up and run a handful of races this year. It all made sense.”
Dickerson also believes that in order to have a successful showing, Spire needed to have an alliance with one of the bigger teams in the series. After all, this is the team’s first foray into the Xfinity level.
“In a situation like this where you have a driver like Carson, you want him to be the worst part of the program,” Dickerson said. “You don’t want any question marks for a guy like that; you want him to shine. Carson’s not doing this, and we’re not doing this to just show up and make laps. The guy has real speed, so you’ve got to have it.”
MORE: 2023 Xfinity Series schedule | 2023 Truck Series schedule
Following Dover, Hocevar will next be in the car at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May. His schedule finishes with trips to Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Originally, he was scheduled to run at Richmond Raceway, but a scheduling conflict with the Truck Series changed that to Bristol.
Hocevar has competed at five of the six venues. The lone track he’s yet to check off is Michigan, despite growing up an hour and 40 minutes away from the 2-mile venue. That race was guaranteed, given it’s a home race for him and his sponsor, Premier Security.
“They are all good JRM tracks and good tracks for me,” Hocevar stated. “They asked for my list of favorite race tracks, and I gave them my list.”
Among the six tracks Hocevar will race at, JRM won at five of the six venues in 2022. However, the team has gone winless through the opening nine races of the 2023 season.
Expectations will vary over Hocevar’s six-race schedule. Starting off with the “Monster Mile” was by design, as it can take a toll on a driver and equipment.
“I think they will migrate over the six,” Dickerson said of his expectations for Hocevar. “By the time he gets his feet underneath him in these cars and figures out what they give him and what he needs out of them, I would expect him to be contending. I think he would expect the same.”
Three of the six races – Charlotte, Nashville and Bristol – will coincide with his Truck Series schedule. While some could see running a second event on a given weekend as a distraction, Hocevar wanted those additional laps.
“I wanted to get used to it,” he said. “The goal was to fill some of the gaps. We had a month off last year right before the playoffs, and I didn’t want to have that off. I wanted a few doubleheaders to get used to that and help. But also, I wanted to fill the gaps and make a 23, a [29]-race year.”
Even though Hocevar is a high prospect on many lists, he doesn’t desire a ride in the Xfinity Series now. His ultimate goal is to get to the Cup Series, and he doesn’t necessarily think he has to make a stop at the Xfinity level on a full-time basis, similar to Todd Gilliland’s path at Front Row Motorsports.
“The Xfinity deal was to help my day job on Friday,” Hocevar said. “I thought it would help me as a race car driver; that’s more of what I’m focused on. I have people around me that make the decisions. I’m not writing the checks, so I’m not making the decisions of what cars I drive or who I drive for. I just give recommendations, and they give decisions.”