{"id":632268,"date":"2026-04-27T16:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:54:19","slug":"nascar-chevy-driver-sends-it-with-hands-free-victory-lap-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632268\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Chevy Driver Sends It With Hands-Free Victory Lap: Video"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As though winning his first Cup Series race wasn\u2019t impressive enough on its own, NASCAR <a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/gm\/chevrolet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chevy<\/a> driver Carson Hocevar just had to go and outdo the field\u00a0after the checkered flag, too.<\/p>\n<p>At Talladega on April 26th, 2026, Hocevar\u2019s No. 77 <a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/gm\/chevrolet\/camaro\/nascar-chevrolet-camaro-zl1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1<\/a> charged into the lead with 19 laps to go and never looked back. He even defended his hold on the top spot after a late-race caution and ensuing restart, fending off a charge from the Ford of Chris Buescher as they streaked toward the checkers. When the flag dropped and the 188-lap contest was complete, Hocevar eked Buescher out by a mere .114-second margin.<\/p>\n<p>After reining the No. 77 NASCAR Chevy to a halt, Hocevar appeared to be preoccupied with something while sitting on the windowsill of the race car. Then, after a few minutes, his intent became evident as he drove that <a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/gm\/chevrolet\/camaro\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Camaro<\/a> around for a one-of-a-kind celebration. Still perched on the windowsill, Hocevar took a lap in front of the grandstands, taking both hands off the wheel to raise cheers from the crowd as he celebrated his first win in three years at NASCAR\u2019s top level.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NASCAR-Cup-Series-race-Talladega-April-2026-002-No.-77-Chevy-Camaro-ZL1-Carson-Hocevar-Win-victory-burnout.jpg\" data-original-width=\"1500\" data-original-height=\"1000\" data-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-916453 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NASCAR-Cup-Series-race-Talladega-April-2026-002-No.-77-Chevy-Camaro-ZL1-Carson-Hocevar-Win-victory-b.jpeg\" alt=\"A photo of Carson Hocevar's No. 77 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1 celebrating his win at Talladega on April 26th, 2026. \" width=\"720\" height=\"480\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had this thought up for a while,\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. And I don\u2019t care if I took me 20 minutes or whatever. I was going to figure out how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cI\u2019m just so thankful. This is the biggest dream I\u2019ve ever thought of. Thank you everybody. I couldn\u2019t have done it any better way. Hopefully my grandfather is watching. My grandmother died last year and I\u2019m just so thankful I can give my grandfather a trophy now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hocevar has ruffled some feathers over the past few years for his rough driving style and unapologetic attitude. But he certainly won some fans over at \u2018Dega, and fellow NASCAR Chevy driver Alex Bowman \u2013 who is back in the race car after missing several weeks due to lingering vertigo \u2013 praised him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe deserved it for sure and this is a perfect place for him to get it,\u201d said Bowman, who finished third.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>SUBSCRIBE TO GM AUTHORITY<br \/>\nGet our GM news straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">We&#8217;ll send you one or two emails a day with the latest GM news coverage. It&#8217;s totally free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As though winning his first Cup Series race wasn\u2019t impressive enough on its own, NASCAR Chevy driver Carson&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-632268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632268","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=632268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}