“He may have no common sense — he may be irresponsible and outrageous. But he is talented. He ain’t where he is for no reason. And you’d better watch him. And learn a few things.” – actress Katharine Hepburn on director John Huston, from “The Making of The African Queen'”
You’re probably asking yourself a very obvious question right now: What does Carson Hocevar, a 22-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver, have in common with John Huston, a Hollywood icon who died in 1987?
Surprisingly, a little.
For one, Huston was a man of many hats, working as a film writer, director, producer and actor for more than 50 years.
Hocevar, on the other hand, is a guy who literally likes to wear a lot of hats.
But truthfully, the director of The Maltese Falcon, Asphalt Jungle and The African Queen has one trait he shares with the Spire Motorsports driver: They were/are both unabashedly themselves. They dance to their own tune and don’t apologize for it.
That’s really where the similarities end.
Now let’s talk about Dale Earnhardt.
The Earnhardt name has been thrown around a lot in the last few weeks, thanks in part to the debut of Amazon Prime Video’s new four-episode docuseries on the seven-time Cup champion.
I’ve watched the first two entries in the compelling series — which I notably was skeptical of in this column not too long ago.
Of my takeaways so far, one is that Hocevar, in his second full-time Cup season, is navigating waters once charted by Earnhardt.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s take on NASCAR’s man of the moment.
“People are probably going to go crazy over this one,” Earnhardt said when the Amazon Prime social media team asked him which current drivers remind him of his father. “Hocevar is a little bit like a young Dale Earnhardt in a way. Making a lot of mistakes, ruffles a lot of feathers. But he’s very fast, very aggressive.”
During the early years of his NASCAR career, when he had the nickname Ironhead, it seemed that Earnhardt was often his own worst enemy — when the enemy wasn’t Darrell Waltrip, Geoff Bodine or anyone else on the long, yet distinguished list of drivers he terrorized and taunted over the years.
With Hocevar, that’s been the case more often than not over the last two years.
Instead of Waltrip and Bodine, the names on Hovecar’s list include Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and Layne Riggs.
Like Earnhardt and Waltrip in 1986 at Richmond Raceway, Hocevar has even managed to wreck himself while trying to dump another driver.
There’s one big difference between Earnhardt and Hocevar. Despite all the bent sheet metal Earnhardt left in his wake over the decades, he was able to back it up.
He won. A lot.
Hocevar, on the other hand, has just one NASCAR win in the last two years. However, he appears to be getting close to finally earning his breakthrough Cup win.
There’s a reason why a lot of ink has been spilled on Hocevar this season: He’s relevant. It would be one thing if Hocevar raced the way he did while perennially running in 25th. But he’s banging on the door of victory lane.
Hocevar has a lot to learn. But that doesn’t meant the drivers racing up front shouldn’t be taking notes themselves.
Kyle Petty, who raced against Earnhardt in his prime, said as much this week on the Performance Racing Network.
“I find it fascinating that I’m watching (the Cup race on) Amazon and they’re complaining about how Carson drives (before saying), ‘and hey, when this goes off, please stream the Earnhardt documentary,’ which is exactly what Earnhardt did,” Petty said. “He changed the sport the way he came in with his roughness and gruffness and his raw talent.
“He changed the sport and that’s what Carson’s doing, in a certain way. He’s changing that top group of drivers on how they’re gonna have to race.”
Hocevar is very talented and rough around the edges. But NASCAR needs a little bit of rough these days.
Even if it comes in a funny hat.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.