“I wasn't trying to ideally wreck him”: Carson Hocevar gets brutally honest about his ‘embarrassing’ 2023 Truck championship ordeal 

Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar was recently featured in an interview on former NASCAR Cup Series star driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast, the Dale Jr. Download. During the interaction, the duo recalled Hocevar's 2023 Craftsman Truck Series championship race ordeal with Corey Heim.

The 22-year-old stock car racing driver was set to take the Craftsman Truck Series title in the 2023 championship race at Phoenix. He had a solid run during the race and was holding off Corey Heim with all his might and spun Heim out. However, Heim made a comeback, and with just three laps to go to the finish line, he tapped Hocevar's bumper, sending him into the wall, ending his chances to win the title.

Recalling the moment, Carson Hocevar claimed his moves to be "embarrassing" and told Dale Jr.:

"Absolutely, it was me just going, this might be my only and last time to win a championship, right? I don't know if I'm gonna win. I don't get a shot at XFINITY. This is it. I gotta go get this thing. And, you know, I wasn't trying to, you know, ideally wreck him, yeah, but my plan was to hit him in every corner. Like, I hit him three times because I was just like, I can't let him get two cars in between. I got us, like, if there's a restart, I gotta be, I gotta be, he's gotta be. Next week." [00:04 onwards]

"I was like, the only goal I have is to keep him as slow as possible. I was just trying to get there, and I thought he was trying to get away from me, and he was gonna slide, and we're gonna slide. And I just yeah, that that whole night, like, anytime I see the video, I'm just embarrassed of it," he concluded.

Neither Carson Hocevar nor Corey Heim won the 2023 Truck Series championship title. Additionally, Heim received a five-figure penalty of $12,500 and was docked 25 points. On the other hand, Corey Heim got his career-best finish in the series and wrapped up the season in third place.

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Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar's career so far in the 2025 Cup Series season

Former NASCAR Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar had a slow start at the beginning of the 2025 season. He finished P30 atthe Daytona 500.

Hocevar then had a successful run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he ended the event in second place, followed by a P13 finish at COTA. Hocevar then had tough luck in a series of races, finishing outside of the top 30 drivers.

Then he made a comeback at Nashville Superspeedway, nearly missing out on the win to Ryan Blaney. The #77 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver had some unsatisfactory finishes at Michigan, Mexico City, and Pocono Raceway. He then had a P10 finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but then got involved in a crash at the Chicago Street Race.

Carson Hocevar ranks 21st in the Cup Series points table with 368 points to his credit. Additionally, he has four top-ten finishes and two top-five finishes with one pole position in 19 starts this season.