CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carson Hocevar's move to the Cup Series has already featured a Rookie of the Year award and several top-10 finishes. This is the result of him finding his perfect home.
Videos by FanBuzz
For Hocevar, nothing is better than driving for Spire Motorsports.
"It's perfect," Hocevar told FanBuzz ahead of the NASCAR Awards. "I mean, it's the reason everybody — Rodney (Childers) and Travis (Peterson) and (Michael) McDowell and Luke (Lambert) — everybody loves to come to work and was convinced to go.
"It's not because we ran good — I mean, it helps — but, I mean, it was because of (co-owner) Jeff Dickerson. One conversation with him, and everybody's in on him."
rookie of the year ✔️ pic.twitter.com/5hZ9Tq9wXi
— Carson Hocevar (@CarsonHocevar) November 11, 2024
For Hocevar, Dickerson is the glue holding everything together. He is a former racer who knows what it takes to make it. He knows when to "rally the troops" and what each person in the building needs to hear.
Dickerson and Hocevar, in particular, have a unique relationship. They don't necessarily talk about Cup racing when eating dinner. Instead, they watch dirt races and talk about the dirt Late Model sitting at the shop.
This is perfectly fine with Hocevar considering that he just wants to race all of the time even though he spent his rookie season only focusing on Cup races and trying to do the best he could for Spire Motorsports.
Although he did win a micro sprint race in a one-off start, which prompted Dickerson to add a car to the shop's collection.
"I'm like, 'Man, I need to do this more often,'" Hocevar said about racing micro sprints. "And then all of a sudden, I showed up one day at a shop, and there was a Longhorn (Late Model chassis) sitting there.
"I think Jeff can read me. I'm his little angel, I guess, as he likes to remind me. And he sees a lot in me."
Of course, Dickerson isn't the only key figure driving Spire's progress. Co-owner TJ Puchyr, President Doug Duchardt, Director of Competition Ryan Sparks, and many others have continued to push the company forward and make it more competitive.
The results are easy to see. Hocevar, Zane Smith, Corey LaJoie, and Justin Haley qualified better as the season progressed. They contended for some stronger finishes, and they ran door-to-door with some of the big names in the series.
— Carson Hocevar (@CarsonHocevar) November 16, 2024
"(Dickerson) said, 'The best thing is we did like three years of development,'" Hocevar said. "We went from at the start of the year, nobody expected anything of the 77.
"Then they were shocked to see it upfront. And then they didn't expect that anymore, because they were just used to it by then."
The dynamic will change heading into 2025. Smith will leave while Michael McDowell will join Hocevar and Haley in the three-car lineup.
The goals will also change. Simply running better is not the focus. There is a real expectation that the team could continue to challenge for top-10s, top-fives, and wins.
This creates significant pressure, but Hocevar will continue to enjoy every moment as he races for the perfect team for him.
