Kevin Harvick follows Denny Hamlin's lead as Carson Hocevar splits NASCAR

Rory Robinson Sat, September 12, 2026 at 12:15 AM UTC

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Kevin Harvick speaks on his podcast (Image: Youtube @HarvickHappyPod)

Carson Hocevar has a knack for angering NASCAR Cup drivers for all the wrong reasons. The No. 77 car has become a lightning rod, and now a chorus of NASCAR's biggest names is turning up the heat on Spire's handling of its most polarizing young driver.

NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick is the latest to question how Spire Motorsports is steering its young wheelman after another round of controversy. The 23-year-old driver continues to race with a brand of aggression that's likely to spark a full-on feud rather than later.

Hocevar's latest stint arrived at Darlington after he made contact with Brad Keselowski on Lap 107 and sent the RFK Racing driver spinning during Stage 1. Keselowski finished 23rd, while Hocevar recovered from a 34th-place starting position to finish 11th and narrowly miss a top-10 result.

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"Let's get something straight - your owners are doing a bad job too because they're encouraging it," Harvick said on his Happy Hour podcast.

The former Cup champion argued that a strong owner should sit Hocevar down, explain the bigger picture and make him understand the damage caused when other teams' cars are torn up.

Harvick said he has fallen into a similar trap himself when people around him celebrated confrontation because it generated attention.

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He argued that personality, viral clips and merchandise sales can coexist with accountability, but warned that the current approach will not lead to championship-level racing.

"You can't just send them off and say, 'Oh man, everybody loves it. Keep going, keep going,'" Harvick said. "But if you want to be a champion of this sport, you can't do it that way."

Denny Hamlin reached a similar conclusion by directing his criticism straight at Spire. The Joe Gibbs Racing star instead turned his attention toward Spire and said, "There are no adults in the room, clearly, in that building," before calling the organization "unserious."

Hocevar and Keselowski race at the Cook Out Southern 500 (Image: Getty)

The Hocevar debate has outgrown one driver's aggression. Harvick and Hamlin are now both pointing fingers at the people shaping him, arguing Spire deserves a hard look for how far it lets the showman run.

Hocevar spoke after Darlington and joked about racing for TV and the clicks, tossing more gasoline on the fire already burning around his reputation. Keselowski was considerably less amused after being spun and after hints of future revenge. "His day's coming. It's coming hard," said Keselowski. "Watch out, Carson."

Hocevar shrugged it off, promised to tighten his belt in case of any future revenge plots, and claimed complete ignorance of the incident.

That laid-back attitude only deepened the divide between fans and a long list of drivers who have complained about Hocevar's racing style.

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Source: “AOL Sports”