NASCAR CUP SERIES IOWA SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
AUGUST 8, 2026
Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Iowa Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Do you allow yourself this year to realistically entertain the possibility of winning the championship, or do you just kind of go, hey we’re ahead of schedule and the most we make of this is fine by me?
“Yeah, I mean I think for us, I think it’s an advantage for us that all the Chase races this year are good tracks for us, you know, statistically some of our best, so that’s an advantage. Obviously the Toyota’s are super-fast. Some of these guys that are super good that are obviously favorites, sometimes they take themselves out of it by just trying to get a little bit more, so you want to be next in line if it somehow gets given to you or they have trouble in front of us. Whether it’s three Toyota’s or (Ryan) Blaney, you want to be next in line so you can somewhat maybe take advantage of it.
We’re just going to just try and click off as many good races as we can and see where it shakes out. I don’t think any of us are changing anything differently going — okay, now we can win a championship or we can do this or that. It’s like sprint car or dirt racing with the Spire car… they hadn’t won anything, and all of a sudden, they win two-in-a-row. You just get hot at the right times and you can take advantage of it. We’re hoping that guys cool off and we get hot at the right time. You never know.”
What do you think about having Daytona as the cut-off? You’re really secure in where you’re at in your space, but what are your thoughts about that being kind of a wild card? “Yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s great. You know, that 25-point bonus can swing it pretty good for anybody that I’m sure is on the cut. Or even too, just the battle up front, I think it’s 29 points from fifth to 10th. Four stage points here and there, if it’s within 25, a guy can go 10th to almost fifth with one win at Daytona.
So yeah, I don’t know. You know, I think it’s probably just entertaining for the viewer. For me, for how good we are at the superspeedway’s, I kind of wish it was just the first one of the Chase. But yeah, from a fan perspective, I’m sure they enjoy it.”
The first time you got in a Cup car, just the magnitude of being in a Cup car at that track, how different is it when you’re one of the Cup drivers and you’re lining up at Daytona? “
“Yeah, especially for the DAYTONA 500. The 500 is a little different just because it’s always such a cluster of people throughout the day. I just enjoy Daytona because it sets itself apart. I think everybody wants to win there, especially the 500. But even too, the fall race is always a big deal.”
I was walking through the garage this morning and looking at where the Hendrick Motorsports haulers are compared to Spire Motorsports after you leapfrogged the Hendrick drivers at Indianapolis. Obviously, you noticed that. Is it weird? It’s your alliance partner and you’re out-running all of their cars. What’s the dynamic there?
“Yeah, it’s great for us (at Spire Motorsports). I think we’ve all noticed it and taken pride in it. Jeff (Dickerson) and Mr. Hendrick are super close. I think it’s probably the first time Jeff can probably rag on Mr. H a little bit, so I’m sure Jeff, knowing him, is soaking all that up not knowing how long this hauler parade might last.
Yeah, it’s just great for us. But also too, Mr. H, Hendrick Motorsports, the Hendrick engine shop, they like seeing us run really well. The pit crew takes a lot of pride in being good because they’re not on the house cars, per se. The engine shop enjoys it, and I know Mr. H does it because he likes to see seven cars, rather than just four, have a shot. I know they look at it, per se, like a seven-car deal because of the close alliance. They just get more shots to, hopefully, win races because they have Hendrick engines in them, Hendrick pit crews and people he employees are on those cars. Jeff is like a son to him.”
In Indianapolis, you mentioned that you were behind the eight ball the whole season. You felt like you could have been fifth already, and then, you jumped up to fifth after the last race. Do you feel as though you earned it just from last race or can you hold it?
“Yeah, I feel like we can hold it here. You know, I feel like we’ve been fast everywhere. I think our finishes are higher than our average running position, which is kind of always a telltale sign of maximizing our days. So yeah, I’ve enjoyed it. I still think we have a long way to go to our ceiling here, so that makes me exciting that we’re as fast as we are. I feel like there’s still a long ways to go on our progression here.”
Last year, you mentioned to us numerous times about getting to group two of qualifying. And this year, we’ve seen an over seven position increase on average of just your starting position. Do you contribute that increase as the biggest contributor to what your success has been this year?
“Yeah, I mean, when you’re higher in points, the average for sure helps. And when we finish as good as we have this year, that also helps. It just makes life a lot easier for you. You know, I remember we blew up at Charlotte, but then we finished second at Nashville from 28th. I think we were good enough that day, but we needed maybe three seconds to catch (Ryan) Blaney to maybe win that race. You think about your whole day of like, maybe that three seconds could have been attributed if we didn’t start 28th.
So yeah, it just all adds up. You can just see it being up front. It’s tough to pass in theses races, so for us when we’re up front, have better pit stalls and everything, it just makes life a lot easier when we can have smooth, up front days and get a lot of points that people don’t really see. Our season has been kind of built on stage points that just kind of add up.”
As someone that had a lot of success here last year, how excited are you for the announcement of next season’s Fourth of July race and how pumped are you to get back to Iowa around this time next year?
“Yeah, it’s great. I think this place already sells out, but hopefully the Fourth of July weekend just adds a little bit of excitement to it. Selfishly, I’m hoping they can somehow change the sprint car race so we can go watch that too during the weekend. I enjoy that while we’re here.
But yeah, I’m excited. The fireworks will be cool over all the cornfields here. Hopefully there’s a cornfield here where I can sneak off and light off some fireworks of my own.”
It’s a crowd that sells out all the time these last couple years. How does that get you and the rest of the racers in the garage juiced up for a race like this out in the Midwest, the pride of the Midwest, that is?
“Yeah, I mean, I obviously enjoy the crowd perspective. When it’s full, loud or really anything that just really moves the energy up is always fun for me. So yeah, it just kind of gives this race another kind of fresh element to it with a date change like that. Hopefully, it just gets them even more excited.”
You’ve been really quick in qualifying the last few races. How do you think that can translate over to Sunday? And also, do you think you’ll be able to keep that qualifying hot streak up?
“I mean, I hope so. We ran good here (at Iowa Speedway) last year. It seems like we’ve been faster just kind of everywhere we’ve gone lately, from year to year. So yeah, hopefully it just trends up. We were good last year and okay the year before, so hopefully we can kind of excel and keep that going again.”
The stage procedure was announced earlier this week. What are your thoughts on that?
“I think it’s good. It’s similar to short-track, late model racing, so I like it. I think it will probably change the game some. It will probably allow for crew chiefs to makes mistakes, maybe flip the field or just catch people off guard. But ultimately, just make the race not predictable and hopefully it just allows for mistakes on the box. I feel like mistakes from either the box or the car tends to kind of always make the racing better.
So yeah, it’s good. I think it’s an improvement. It’s less caution laps, which is good. I found out on X, so I was glad I was looking at my phone that day.”
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