'They Didn’t Like Me': Kurt Busch Details His Situation to Put Carson Hocevar Criticism Into Perspective

Carson Hocevar has been in the limelight for the past several weeks. His over-aggressive racing style, while entertaining, hasn’t been appreciated by a lot of quarters. He is only 22 years old and is already picking up too many enemies on the field, many argue. But what does Kurt Busch, a Cup Series champion who was famous for his notoriety on the track, think about all this?

Busch was never afraid of dumping drivers out of his way to earn positions. He liked being the dominant force on the track much like Hocevar does now. It is why he thinks that the Spire Motorsports driver will be just fine going forward.

He explained on Performance Racing Network’s Fast Talk, “That’s what you want to see out of a 22-year-old kid charging hard, trying to make a name for himself. I like what he’s doing. Yeah, he’s going to have those bumps in the road. 

“Everyone has their opinion on if this was right or if that was wrong. I think he flat-out just dumped Stenhouse at Nashville and it’s like, ‘Whoops, that was a little rough.’ But he’s learning and he’s putting his time in up front. That’s what it takes.”

He added his own experience as a young driver to make his case stronger. “When I was trying to break through, the veterans, they didn’t like me. The fans (didn’t like it) when I started beating their driver, right?” he said.

It took quite a while for fans to get accustomed to him beating the favorites of the 1990s, but they eventually got there. He believes the same will happen with Hocevar.

Will Hocevar become a superstar in NASCAR?

Characters such as that of Hocevar have become extremely rare in NASCAR. Drivers mostly try to walk within the lines set by their team owners and sponsors much to the dismay and frustration of the fandom. This is enough reason for Hocevar to become a fan-favorite in the upcoming years. But what he needs to do to ensure this is reach Victory Lane often.

Busch broke it down how the spark to be a superstar can happen at any time and how there is no set definition of what a top team is in the sport currently. So, if Hocevar can manufacture wins with Spire Motorsports, his door is eventually going to be knocked by an A-level team that will help him become the popular superstar that he is capable of becoming.