Kyle Petty victory laps searing hot Carson Hocevar take, doubles down after Nashville 'ruffled feathers'

Kyle Petty has been on record saying that Carson Hocevar is an emerging star in the NASCAR Cup Series. Hocevar proved him right in Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

He scored his second runner-up finish of the 2025 season, just falling short of race winner Ryan Blaney. Hocevar might have ruffled some feathers along the way, but Petty isn’t too concerned about that.

“I’m gonna pat myself on the back a little bit. I said last week that Carson Hocevar was going to be an emerging star. Little did I know that he was gonna come back the next week and prove it to you guys. He can run up front and do it,” Petty said Monday. “Yes, he ruffled some feathers and that’s one thing I wanna talk about.

“Listen, this fascinates me. From the time Carson Hocevar showed up in NASCAR, he’s been ruffling feathers for two reasons: he shows up not to make friends, to win races. No. 2, that’s all he cares about. All he wants to do is run up front. All he wants to do is be a NASCAR Cup Series star, and he is well on his way.”

Carson Hocevar welcomes ‘talk’ with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after wreck at Nashville

Hocevar, 22, has been involved in his fair share of conflict throughout his brief tenure in NASCAR. Sunday, it was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who had a problem with Hocevar. Stenhouse went for a spin through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 106 in Stage 2. Hocevar, riding behind Stenhouse in the corner, clearly got in the back of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Chevrolet. Prime Video‘s on-air analysts — Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Steve Letarte — all assigned blame to Hocevar.

Stenhouse said he would be having a chat with Hocevar. The Spire Motorsports driver said he would welcome one. Several veterans in the garage, such as Denny Hamlin, have said that Hocevar has a receipt coming his way. Some would prefer he settle down on the racetrack.

Kyle Petty high on Carson Hocevar’s NASCAR future

Petty made the argument that Hocevar is hardly the first young driver to go through this. Dale Earnhardt ruffled feathers. Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch did as well, Petty said. Those drivers eventually became fan favorites. Petty sees the same happening in Hocevar’s future.

“Yesterday, he ruffled a little bit of feathers with Ricky Stenhouse,” Petty said. “Did Ricky Stenhouse ever ruffle any feathers when he came in? It seems like he did. Did Kurt Busch? Did Kyle Busch? Listen, Amazon has a four-part series that they are promoting every week on Dale Earnhardt, the ultimate feather ruffler. Here’s a guy that disrupted the whole sport from the moment he showed up in 1979. He disrupted and changed the whole sport. Can Carson Hocevar be that person? Will he be that person? We saw Kyle Busch do the same type of thing and we booed him and now we cheer him. Are we gonna boo Carson Hocevar and then one day he’s gonna be our superstar?

“They have shown at Spire that they can put cars under him that can run up front. He has shown that he can run up front. I said it last week, I’ll say it again: when you inject new blood into that top tier, when you inject into that top-four or five, the guys that have been there go, ‘Oh, no, he’s not supposed to be up here running with me. He’s not supposed to be driving like that. He’s not supposed to be on the same racetrack I’m on. Doesn’t deserve to be here.’ Carson deserves to be there, and he shows it time and time again. … This is who he is, and he can’t change that.”