{"id":501386,"date":"2026-02-26T18:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501386\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:59:10","slug":"which-young-nascar-star-did-richard-petty-compare-to-dale-earnhardt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501386\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Young NASCAR Star Did Richard Petty Compare To Dale Earnhardt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Dale<\/p>\n

Getty Image<\/p>\n

Perhaps the highest compliment you could pay a NASCAR\u00a0driver is comparing them to legendary seven-time Cup Series champion\u00a0Dale Earnhardt.<\/p>\n

Earnhardt wasn\u2019t just immensely successful on track; he also served as the face of the sport for several years, much like Michael Jordan in the NBA.<\/p>\n

It becomes an even bigger compliment when that comparison comes from fellow legend and seven-time champion Richard Petty, who is also considered a member of NASCAR\u2019s Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

So, which young driver had the honor of being compared to Earnhardt by Petty? None other than\u00a0Carson Hocevar, the 23-year-old who has become the Cup Series\u2019 most polarizing figure.<\/p>\n

Richard Petty Says Carson Hocevar Reminds Him Of A Young Dale Earnhardt<\/p>\n

Petty spoke about Hocevar on this week\u2019s episode of his\u00a0Petty Family Racing<\/a>\u00a0podcast.<\/p>\n

During the podcast, he discussed the controversial move Hocevar made in an attempt to pass Christopher Bell for the lead late in Sunday\u2019s race at Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s teammate, Denny Hamlin, called it an \u201cidiot move.\u201d<\/a> But Petty didn\u2019t see things the same way.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat boy in that 77 [Hocevar], he has him a time. Right now, a lot of the things he\u2019s getting by with, or doing, is not really that wrong,\u201d Petty said. \u201cIf I go back and watch him run and stuff, he reminds me of Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt learned to get by with that stuff, and that boy in the 77, he\u2019s just going to have to learn to get by with the things he\u2019s doing \u2026 Earnhardt never made no friends either.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the highest of high praise, from perhaps the sport\u2019s wisest mouthpiece when it comes to history and perspective. You have to imagine Petty\u2019s comparison will only encourage Hocevar to continue to race the way he has through three seasons in the Cup Series.<\/p>\n

And given his impressive results in cars that most wouldn\u2019t expect to compete for victories, it\u2019s hard to say he should change anything.<\/p>\n

But Petty is certainly right about one thing, Hocevar isn\u2019t making friends out on the track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Image Perhaps the highest compliment you could pay a NASCAR\u00a0driver is comparing them to legendary seven-time Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[2571,49,48,26749,34486,634,582,25834,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-501386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-auto-racing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-carson-hocevar","12":"tag-dale-earnhardt","13":"tag-nascar","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-richard-petty","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}