Carson Hocevar Nearing NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year Crown
With three races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series season, the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award hasn't been clinched, yet, but Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar is zeroing in on that distinction very quickly.
Heading into Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hocevar holds a firm 99-point advantage over Stewart-Haas Racing's Josh Berry, 137 points over his teammate Zane Smith, and 430 points over Rick Ware Racing part-timer Kaz Grala for Rookie of the Year honors.
If the 21-year-old racer can exit Sunday's race at Homestead with a 118-point advantage over second place, or more, he'll lock up the award with two races remaining. While Hocevar has never competed in a NASCAR Cup Series event at the 1.5-mile track in South Florida, he did score a win in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competition a season ago, which secured his place in the Truck Series Championship 4 field.
The young racer is excited to see how his skills at Homestead in a truck translate over to the NASCAR Cup Series car.
"I'm excited to get back to Homestead," Hocevar said in a weekly team preview. "I've [run] really well at Miami in the trucks and it is a fun track overall. I didn't get to run the Cup Series race there last year, but [I] was able to watch and learn some things. Winning a race at a track helps build your confidence. [Crew Chief] Luke [Lambert] and everybody at Spire likes this racetrack, and Luke even won the Xfinity race a couple [of] years ago with Noah (Gragson). So yeah, we're pretty excited."
Had it not been for a 25-point penalty assessed to Hocevar earlier in the year for spinning Harrison Burton under caution in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, Hocevar would enter this weekend's race above the magic number.
But with how the Michigan native has performed as of late, it feels like a foregone conclusion that rather he wraps up the award this weekend at Homestead. But if clinching the award somehow gets dragged to Martinsville Speedway or Phoenix Raceway, it would take a catastrophic collapse for Hocevar to relinquish the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year point lead.
It's been kind of a surprising end result to what was at one point a very back-and-forth Rookie of the Year battle between Hocevar and Berry. But where Hocevar ultimately took over was over the 10 most recent NASCAR Cup Series races.
Over that span, Hocevar has two top-10 finishes, including his season-best finish of third, which came at Watkins Glen International and has recorded a total of five top-15 finishes. Hocevar, who drives the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, has tallied 204 points over the last 10 races. Berry, on the other hand, has had no top-20 finishes through his last 10 starts, and among the subpar finishes came four costly DNFs. Berry has accumulated just 107 points over the last 10 races.
97 points of Hocevar's current 99-point lead over Berry were gained over the last 10 NASCAR Cup Series events.
If Hocevar officially locks up the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year Award, the 10-race stretch from Michigan International Speedway to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the late Summer to Fall of 2024 will be a heavy part of how the award was secured.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.