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Dale Earnhardt Jr. 'Rips' NASCAR Driver Carson Hocevar

Originally posted on The Spun | By Daniel Bates | Last updated May 14, 2025 8:38 PM ET

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has mixed feelings on Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar.

On this week's edition of "The Dale Jr. Download," the NASCAR Hall of Famer ripped into last year's Cup Series Rookie of the Year for his treatment of Layne Riggs — whom Hocevar referred to as "kid" following Saturday's victory at the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway.

"Riggs is older than him," Dale Jr. pointed out. "Is he self-appointing himself some sort of veteran? Y'all heard that [expletive]. 'Man, that kid's gonna win a lot of races.' What the [expletive] dude? You're a kid."

"That was a very egotistical move. I think it's an asinine way to look at things," Earnhardt continued. "… I know that Riggs is not in Cup, but in terms of ability, talent, I don't really set them too far apart. You could put Riggs in the No. 77 [car] and eventually get reasonable results."

While that didn't sit right with Dale Jr., the two-time Daytona 500 winner didn't seem to mind Hocevar not owning up to shooting Riggs the middle finger during last weekend's battle.

"I didn't mind that he didn't own it," Earnhardt admitted. "… I know that he by owning it has opened himself up to some sort of retaliation from NASCAR, and NASCAR is reactive. If he owns it, and there's a big backlash on social media, NASCAR then reacts to that."

The 26-time Cup Series winner went on to say that he probably would've flipped Riggs off too given the context.

"Layne Riggs goes down into Turn 1. He's underneath Hocevar, wrecked them both. The [expletive] wall saved Hocevar," Earnhardt explained. "… How much talent does that take to go down in the corner, drive up the racetrack into the guy's left-rear corner panel, damn near wreck both of you. I'd have flipped his ass off too."

At the end of the day though, Junior believes that maturation comes with age and Hocevar is just going through some growing pains.

"Most people are 22-year-old 22-year-olds, and they're going to [expletive] up," Earnhardt said. "They're going to act like that, and it's going to be too big for them, and they're going to [expletive] up a lot. If you can be patient with a guy like Hocevar, the 26-year-old Hocevar will be the driver that you want him to be."

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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