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Carson Hocevar’s Incredibly Inconsistent 2025 Season
Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Carson Hocevar finished 6th at Talladega for his 9th top ten of the year. With all the struggles Spire has had this year, outperforming teammate Justin Haley by tons this year. Justin Haley was a highly regarded driver heading into this year. But he is beating Beat by McDowell so far.

Breaking Down Hocevar’s 9 Top Tens This Year

So how come he’s being beaten by a teammate that has barely over 50% of the top tens he’s earned this year? Well, it’s not hard to see why if you were following Hocevar closely heading into Talladega. As he earned his 9th top ten of 2025, he came off finishes of 29th, 29th, and 32nd. That’s a small sample size, sure, but it follows with the rest of his year. Hence why McDowell is beating him in average finish, 18.3 vs. Hocevar’s 21.1, and why he’s beating him in points, 21st to 23rd.

McDowell is also beating him in average start, 15.2 vs 18.1, and poles, 2 to 1, which definitely helps when it comes to having more consistency in the Next Gen. With the car being really tough to pass on single-lane tracks like Watkins Glen or Martinsville. And that’s only part of the reason why Hocevar is as inconsistent as he’s been this year.

Hocevar’s early season struggles!

Despite his oh-so-near win at Atlanta, a lot of his early season was spent in the back half of the field rather than in the front. With him only having 3 top 15 finishes in the first 9 races. With 5 of those finishes being 30th or below. 2 of those were entirely the team’s fault, being mechanical failures, suffering from a fuel pressure retirement at Daytona and a blown engine in Miami. Although he also suffered from bad luck, like getting caught up in McDowell’s blown tire, which caused a big one at Phoenix. But we’ll see his own current driving habits get him in trouble as well.

Hocevar Gets Spotty Mid-Season

After he earned his 2nd top 10 of the year at Talladega with a 6th place finish, things started to pick up a little bit. He earned his 1st pole of the season and in his Cup career at Texas, although he finished 24th. After a couple more sub-top-20place finishes, he had what has so far been his career performance in the Cup at Nashville.

The 77 starting 26th made his way up the field very quickly. Making it to the 9th mid-race and averaging a 14th place position for the whole race. Showing he spent a lot of it upfront. But most importantly at the end, as it became a strategy race, Luke Lambert nailed it and put Hocevar in position to win his 1st career race.

Trailing Ryan Blaney in the dying laps, waiting for a pit stop that’d never come, Hocevar for the 2nd time that season came across the finish line 2nd.That wouldn’t be the only storyline for him leaving Nashville, however. In the middle of the race, he tried an aggressive dive to the inside of Stenhouse, only for the 2 to make contact and the 47 to spin.

This started a rivalry that continued into Mexico City, where he made contact with Stenhouse again after going for an aggressive move and getting in the marbles. He even spun out on his own after another aggressive mistake and was confronted by Stenhouse post-race. This shows that it’s also Hocevar’s inexperience and aggressiveness that lead to his own mistakes as well.

Flashes of Brilliance and Inexperience

This was the middle of another poor stretch for him. With 3 straight sub-20th-place finishes, stopped by another top 10 at Atlanta. Where his dazzling and aggressive moves reminded fans why they root for him. Then Chicago reminded fans he has a lot to learn as he qualified an impressive 3rd but on the 1st lap miscalculated the apex and hit the barrier, wrecking himself and causing a big one.

After 3 straight sub-30th finishes, he’d earn back-to-back top 10s at drivers’ tracks like Iowa and Indy. Before Dega, he also earned top 10s at drivers’ tracks, like a 7th at Bristol and a 9th at Darlington. But also 4 total sub-25th-place finishes show he has much to go before he puts his immense talent together for a full season. Thanks a bunch for reading!

This article first appeared on Total Apex Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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