Denny Hamlin offers bold take on Carson Hocevar after latest setback at Michigan

Denny Hamlin may have left Michigan victorious on Sunday after having enough fuel in the tank at the end of the fuel-mileage race, but the contest was in the hands of Carson Hocevar during the final 49-lap green-flag run to the finish.

Although his team informed him that he was four laps short on fuel, Hocevar led 32 laps before having to pit from the lead for a flat left-rear tire with 19 laps to go.

Hocevar nearly came away with his first career Cup Series win, one week removed from tying a career-best finish of second at Nashville and blowing an engine after beginning the final stage of the Coca-Cola 600 on the front row.

The 22-year-old ultimately finished 29th on Sunday but put together a flawless race after all the talk during the week about his overly aggressive driving, which was on full display when he got into the back of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Stage 2 at Nashville.

Hamlin, who has called out Hocevar multiple times on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast, was asked in his post-race media availability if he felt empathy for Hocevar regarding the ups-and-downs he has experienced.

"No question. Yeah, absolutely," Hamlin said. "Where I don't feel sorry for him is he actually is half my age, so I know he's got way more time to win those races. You can't run as fast as he's running, being up front as much as he's up front, without eventually winning."

While Hamlin acknowledged that "I certainly give him his fair share of s--- on Mondays on my podcast," he made it clear that he recognizes Hocevar's talent behind the wheel despite the adversity he has gone through.

"Absolutely, just a superstar when it comes to actual raw talent," Hamlin said. "When he figures out how to harness that, pick and choose the moments where he is aggressive, he's going to put it all together and just be the next whoever. There's five to six elite drivers in this field. He can be one of those five or six very easily when he puts it all together.

"He's got all the tools to do it. He's got all the pieces of the puzzle right in front of him. He has all the pieces. He's not missing anything. It's just when he figures out the riddle of how to put it together, he's going to be a future star."

Clearly, Hamlin believes Hocevar has the talent to compete for wins in the Cup Series and has the potential to be one of the stars of the sport for years to come, which says a lot coming from a driver who has accomplished so much in the sport, aside from that elusive championship.

He continues to put the rest of the field on notice, and Sunday at Michigan was just the latest reminder of how close Hocevar is to that first win.