Hocevar has two top 10s and four top 15s over the last month
By Steven Taranto
• 8 min read
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Most rookie drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series from year to year are there because they've done spectacular things on the racetrack on their way up to Cup. But there's something to be said for a driver being just as solid as they are spectacular.
Carson Hocevar, after winning four times in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2023, certainly fit the mold of spectacular -- especially when he was so impressive in limited action for Legacy Motor Club a year ago that he earned a full-time Cup ride with Spire Motorsports. But over the past month, Hocevar has fit the solid moniker to a T -- Since the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, Hocevar has earned finishes of 12th, eighth, 10th and 11th, giving him an average finish of 10.25 and giving him a 19-point edge over Josh Berry in the Rookie of the Year battle heading into the fall months that will determine who earns top rookie honors for 2024.
Hocevar's current streak has also moved him into the top 10 in the CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings, where he now sits seventh among some very accomplished veteran drivers in the latest rankings following Daytona and entering the Southern 500 at Darlington:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tyler Reddick | -- | Tyler Reddick wound up 28th after getting taken out in the big crash with nine laps to go, marking his worst finish since a 22nd at Iowa and breaking his seven-race streak of finishes of sixth or better. It's only the second DNF for Reddick all season (both coming at Daytona), and his worst overall finish since he finished 32nd after cutting a tire late in a Darlington race he dominated in May. | |
| 2 | Christopher Bell | When Speedweeks 2025 opens in preparation for the Daytona 500, keep Christopher Bell on the short list of contenders to win The Great American Race. Bell has now finished third in three of his last four starts at Daytona. | ||
| 3 | Kyle Larson | Saturday night showed Kyle Larson can run up front at Daytona with five laps led, but circumstances once again did not work in his favor as he got swept up in wrecks and finished 21st. There will be a lot of attention on Larson next Speedweeks, as the Daytona 500 is now the lone crown jewel race in NASCAR that he has not won. | ||
| 4 | Ryan Blaney | Good thing for Ryan Blaney that the Southern 500 isn't part of the playoffs this year. Blaney has only three top-10 finishes in his career at Darlington, with no finishes better than eighth in spring 2021. | ||
| 5 | Chase Elliott | Daytona took a hit on the best finishing percentage in Cup this season, as Chase Elliott recorded his first DNF of the year after being collected in The Big One on Lap 60. Still, troubles for both Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson mean Elliott enters the Southern 500 just 18 points back of the regular-season championship. | ||
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | Excluding the COVID year where Darlington had three races and Kevin Harvick won two of them, Brad Keselowski has the chance to sweep the season at Darlington, something that hasn't happened in 20 years. The last driver to win both Darlington races in a given year was Jimmie Johnson in 2004. | ||
| 7 | Carson Hocevar | How quickly things change in one year's time: Carson Hocevar made just his second Cup start in last year's Southern 500, getting everyone's attention by running well and finishing 17th in the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club car that had run terrible before he got behind the wheel. Hocevar proceeded to earn five top-20 finishes in eight starts, which played a large part in getting him a full-time Cup ride for 2024. | ||
| 8 | Ty Gibbs | Ty Gibbs has stepped it up just in time to potentially seal the deal on his first-ever playoff appearance. Two-straight top-five finishes puts Gibbs 39 points above the cut line entering Darlington, where he finished a career-best second back in May. | ||
| 9 | William Byron | William Byron has one last chance to double up on crown jewel wins in 2024 this weekend. Drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and Southern 500 in the same year include Cale Yarborough (1968), LeeRoy Yarbrough (1969), David Pearson (1976), Bill Elliott (1985) and Jeff Gordon (1997). | ||
| 10 | Bubba Wallace | Bubba Wallace's criticism of himself after Daytona is understandable and, quite frankly, valid. When your teammate is a championship contender and you're fighting for your life just to make the playoffs, it's fair game to wonder what's preventing Wallace from going from a good Cup driver to a great one. | ||
| 11 | Chris Buescher | Chris Buescher's angst over just how close he came to securing a playoff spot at Kansas was on full display at Darlington in May, when he confronted Tyler Reddick about the way he raced him in the final laps. It would be appropriate if he held on and made the playoffs this weekend, and even more so if he can finish the job from the springtime and win Darlington for the first time. | ||
| 12 | Kyle Busch | Kyle Busch finished third by mere inches at Atlanta in February, then lost Daytona by about a carlength on Saturday. That could be the difference between Busch not only making the playoffs and missing them, but also between Busch preserving and not preserving his record of at least one win every year of his Cup career. | ||
| 13 | Daniel Suarez | Can I say something about Daniel Suarez being on the edge of "en fuego" after last week at Michigan? What happened to Suarez at Daytona isn't what I meant. I'm glad he got out of that thing. | ||
| 14 | Ross Chastain | Good news: Ross Chastain has a great feel for Darlington, as he's led 131 laps there in his career, including 93 in spring 2023. Bad news: He only has two top-five finishes there. | ||
| 15 | Denny Hamlin | Denny Hamlin has a chance at history at Darlington, as he has the opportunity to become just the fourth driver ever to win the Southern 500 at least four times. A win would tie Hamlin with Bobby Allison for the third-most Southern 500 wins all-time. | ||
| 16 | Joey Logano | If there's any positive to be taken out of the rash of rollover crashes in the past two weeks, it's that the Next Gen car's roof is much stronger and holds its shape far more than the previous generation of car did. Compare the roofs of Corey LaJoie and Josh Berry's cars to Joey Logano's from Talladega in 2021, which caved in quite significantly in his rollover. | ||
| 17 | Michael McDowell | Unfortunately for Michael McDowell, Saturday in Daytona marked the third time in his career he's had a car leave solid ground. Everyone remembers his wreck at Texas in 2008, but McDowell also about rolled over in a nasty wreck at Watkins Glen in 2014. | ||
| 18 | Josh Berry | Oldhead race fans may have felt something was familiar about Josh Berry's crash on the backstretch at Daytona. In the Twin 125s back in 1981, Johnson City, Tenn. driver Connie Saylor -- driving the No. 4 car -- took off on the backstretch before landing on his roof and sliding down the racetrack upside down. | ||
| 19 | Todd Gilliland | The 2022 Cup Series Rookie class of Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland are all very close friends with each other. Cindric and Burton now have both earned their first career Cup wins at Daytona. Your move in February, Todd. | ||
| 20 | Zane Smith | Zane Smith lost out on a numbers game at Trackhouse Racing, as a ride that it seemed like he would have for 2025 will instead go to Shane van Gisbergen. I would be very surprised, however, if Smith doesn't return to Front Row Motorsports given that they've got an opening for their third Cup car. | ||
| 21 | Austin Dillon | With a Daytona 500 win and a Coca-Cola 600 win on his resume, Austin Dillon is still looking for his third win in a crown jewel race. He's come close in the Southern 500 before, as he was running down Kevin Harvick in the final corner in 2020 before settling for second. | ||
| 22 | Harrison Burton | Want to feel old? Of course you do: With his win at Daytona, 23-year old Harrison Burton became the first driver born in the 2000s to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. | ||
| 23 | Austin Cindric | Austin Cindric deserves a lot of credit for the low-key way he's become one of NASCAR's best speedway racers. The chance he had to win Daytona in the closing laps bodes very well for his playoff efforts, as Atlanta -- where he finished fourth in February -- is first up. | ||
| 24 | Justin Haley | It's remarkable to think how Rick Ware Racing has turned from also-rans into what they are now. The investments that Ware has made in his program paid off at Daytona, as Haley led 21 laps -- the most ever a RWR car has led in a single race -- before Cody Ware earned a fourth-place finish to match the best in team history. | ||
| 25 | Martin Truex Jr. | There is hope yet that Martin Truex Jr. will be able to add a Daytona win to his Hall of Fame resume. Speaking to reporters in the Media Center over the weekend, Truex said that a deal he has in place to run the 2025 Daytona 500 is "pretty much done". | ||
| 26 | Noah Gragson | -- | Noah Gragson got unwittingly pushed into Justin Haley to trigger The Big One, leaving him with his fourth DNF of the 2024 season. It's his second in the last five races, bookending a stretch that includes finishes of ninth at Indianapolis and 12th at Michigan. | |
| 27 | Daniel Hemric | There's certainly worse ceilings that a driver can have, but it must be maddening for Daniel Hemric that he hasn't been able to improve on his season-best result this year. All four of Hemric's top-10 finishes have seen him finish ninth. | ||
| 28 | Alex Bowman | It's a major concern that the bumper of Michael McDowell's airborne car flew toward Alex Bowman's window net before essentially scalping the left side C-pillar of his car. But at least it resulted in the amusing post-race sight of the rear pillar of Bowman's car being comprised almost entirely of enough BearBond as would allow him to finish 16th. | ||
| 29 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | It happened again! Ricky Stenhouse Jr. followed up another top-15 finish with a crash at Daytona, keeping up the rollercoaster ride he's been on since New Hampshire. I guess that means we can pencil Stenhouse in for a top 15 or better in the Southern 500. | ||
| 30 | Chase Briscoe | Interesting consideration for this weekend: Chase Briscoe finished fifth at Darlington back in May, his first top five at Darlington in Cup. Briscoe has also won Darlington in the Xfinity Series, so keep an eye on him in the Southern 500. |
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