1) Is Carson Hocevar’s approach to driver confrontation a good or bad thing for his NASCAR Cup Series career in the long term?
Christopher Hansen: The run-ins Carson Hocevar has already had in his young Cup career are going to make it hard for him to win races if he continues making enemies out on the track. There’s no doubt Hocevar has shown at times he has the raw speed needed to run up front and contend for wins. More often than not, he finds himself making multiple rivals on race day, most recently Zane Smith last weekend at Iowa Speedway. Many drivers have been vocally frustrated with Hocevar’s aggressive driving tendencies, and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. The aggressiveness he’s shown behind the wheel will be a detriment to his long-term success if he continues to rub competitors the wrong way.
Steve Leffew: Hocevar’s take-no-prisoners and give-no-apologies approach will help his career, but it has a shelf life. Right now, with the cars being so equal and passing being so difficult, aggression is required in order to get and keep track position. However, he’s making enemies, and as he wrecks the same drivers multiple times, it will start to come back to haunt him. He can use a mulligan with a driver, but after that all bets are off. He’s still above his Spire Motorsports teammates in the standings, so despite the bumps in the road, Hocevar is running at or above what his team is capable of, and that never hurts.
Mike Neff: Everything that people do in their career builds their legacy. When Dale Earnhardt first raced in Cup, he was criticized for his aggressive style. Throughout his early career, he ruffled a lot of feathers and didn’t spend much time trying to smooth things over. Hocevar is similar. He doesn’t bother with making friends; he is there to race. The time is going to come when retaliation is going to happen. It at least appears he knows it is coming. How he handles that will be a major moment in defining his career.
James Krause: Hocevar’s approach has already come back to bite him, and he’s bound to worsen his reputation without a change. Simply brushing off people mad at how he drives means every move — accidental, overly aggressive or otherwise — will be under a microscope. Iowa Speedway was a perfect example. His disregard for relationship mending meant that a simple, unintentional bobble that led to a Smith spin required a confrontation with a crew chief. If Hocevar builds a professional rapport with his competition the way others do, he probably reduces his chances of eventually getting berated with something worse than words.
2) How many RFK Racing drivers will make the playoffs?
Luken Glover: It’s hard to go with more than one given where we are in the season, as well as where the trio sits in the standings, but the intrigue is the fact that it could be any one of them. Chris Buescher has won at each of the remaining three tracks, including being the defending winner at Watkins Glen International, while Brad Keselowski is no stranger to success at Richmond Raceway and Daytona International Speedway. Richmond feels like the bread and butter for someone like Ryan Preece, and it holds potential to produce a new winner. Ultimately, my gut sits with Buescher because of his history at the remaining tracks, as well as his points advantage, but don’t be surprised if any one of the three are part of the 16-driver postseason.
Krause: Buescher, and that’s all. I have faith in him to perform well over the final three races, which would hurt the organization as it’d probably widen the gap to Preece. The race at Daytona will be, like it is for most of the field, the nuclear option for Preece and Keselowski.
Leffew: The obvious answer is one, but which one of them is the better question. Keselowski has scored more points than any other driver over the last four races (146). Unfortunately, if Keselowski doesn’t manage to win a race, it will be too little, too late. Keselowski probably will not be a factor for a win this weekend at Watkins Glen, but his RFK teammate Buescher could be. When the series goes to Richmond and Daytona, any of the RFK drivers could potentially win. The problem for RFK is after Bubba Wallace locked himself in with a win, the cut line moved up in a way that makes Buescher very vulnerable. If Preece or Keselowski manage to pull out a clutch win, it will probably come at the expense of Buescher.
Hansen: One. After Iowa, where Keselowski had the car to beat most of the afternoon and teammate Preece earned another strong top-five finish, it’s anyone’s guess as to which RFK driver will run for the championship this season. The third driver, Buescher, sits 23 points ahead of teammate Preece with three races remaining before the playoff grid is locked in. Keselowski, who was 33rd in points after Kansas Speedway in May, has rocketed up to 19th after Iowa. The driver/owner of RFK needs a win to secure a spot in the postseason, likely at the expense of one or both cars. Daytona seems the most likely spot for both Keselowski and Preece to win, while Buescher enters this weekend at Watkins Glen as the defending race winner.
3) Was the racing at Iowa better or worse than last year?
Neff: After watching a race with basically 20% of the laps run under caution, the only passing taking place on restarts or during pit sequences and the incessant fuel mileage gambles being extended to ridiculous lengths by the abundance of caution laps, it is impossible to think the race was anything but worse than most any of the races this season. The surface of the track was combined with a tire that never fell off, and the competition was just neutered.
Glover: There are too many dramatics and concerns being aired about the race at Iowa. Sure, passing was challenging once again, and reverting back to fuel mileage talks on a short track wasn’t favorable. However, there were positive elements to the race, such as strategy, the uncertainty of the old/new pavement entering turn 1 and an epic stage one battle. Last year’s race was the better show, but I wouldn’t mark this year’s race as a disaster either. If anything, it further shows the need for improvement to the Next Gen car.
Leffew: It was equally bad. Last year, Ryan Blaney led 201 laps en route to his victory. In that race, just four drivers led more than 10 laps. This year’s Iowa race saw six drivers lead more than 10 laps, but that run to the finish with Byron coasting and nobody able to pass was very damning of the overall product. When a guy is going half throttle down the straightaway saving fuel and nobody can pass them, something is wrong. Don’t blame the track though. We are seeing this at all the short tracks lately.
4) Who will win at Watkins Glen: Shane van Gisbergen or the field?
Krause: Shane van Gisbergen. Even at a track on which he had no Cup experience on last season, he was in the battle to win at the end against Buescher. He hasn’t made a mistake on the road courses since the series went to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and as long as that continues, he’s the favorite by a huge margin over anyone else.
Hansen: van Gisbergen has been the best driver in the Cup Series on road courses all season, so he is my favorite for this weekend at Watkins Glen, barring any sort of mechanical failure or being involved in a crash during the race. Last year, where he was passed for the lead on the final lap by Buescher, van Gisbergen still had one of the best cars that day, despite not taking the checkered flag. If anyone else in the field Sunday wants to win, they’ll have to beat van Gisbergen to do it.
Glover: I might regret it, but give me the field on this one. Out of all the road courses on the schedule, Watkins Glen might be the field’s best opportunity to overcome van Gisbergen. It is a high-speed road course, and there are limited braking zones compared to other courses, something van Gisbergen excels at. Similar notions were made at Sonoma Raceway because of the field’s experience there, and we saw how that played out. In this case, however, drivers can extract some principles from ovals, and the constant drive for improvement makes it hard to bet against another road course star this week.
Neff: With the overall talent in the Cup Series, it is foolhardy to think that one driver is that prohibitive of a favorite in a race. van Gisbergen is uber talented at road racing and will most likely set the all-time win record on road courses. However, with all of the different things that can happen during a race, you have to take the field.
Entering his fifth year with Frontstretch, Luken Glover is the author of The Underdog House, shedding light on the motivation and performance of NASCAR's dark horse teams as they strive to fight to the top. Additionally, Glover reports for the site at various events, and he contributes in the video editing department.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a middle school math and PE teacher, as well as a basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.
Steve Leffew joined Frontstretch in 2023 and covers the Xfinity Series. He has served honorably in the United States Air Force and and lives in Wisconsin.
What is it that Mike Neff doesn’t do? Mike announces several shows each year for the Good Guys Rod and Custom Association. He also pops up everywhere from PRN Pit Reporters and the Press Box with Alan Smothers to SIRIUS XM Radio. He has announced at tracks all over the Southeast, starting at Millbridge Speedway. He's also announced at East Lincoln Speedway, Concord Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, Caraway Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.