{"id":399348,"date":"2026-04-27T04:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399348\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:20:14","slug":"nascars-newest-winner-carson-hocevar-wows-with-epic-talladega-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399348\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s newest winner Carson Hocevar wows with epic Talladega celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2273286520-1.jpg\" alt=\"NASCAR\u2019s newest winner wows with epic Talladega celebration\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCarson Hocevar celebrates winning the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway. Image: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Controversy has long surrounded \u2018Hurricane Hocevar\u2019 for his at times erratic on-track behaviour, earning him an infamous reputation and the aforementioned nickname.<\/p>\n<p>Even his first race win came with some drama, hip-checking Erik Jones\u2019 #43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota Camry into a crash.<\/p>\n<p>Hocevar held off RFK Racing\u2019s Chris Buescher for the win in a three-lap dash to the chequered flag to etch his name into the record books.<\/p>\n<p>What followed was an epic celebration, which began with a burnout at the start-finish line.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fcttn.com\/products\/v8s-in-nz-tee\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-1.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then Hocevar hung out the window of his #77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro while banging the top of the roof.<\/p>\n<p>Hocevar waved to the crowd before nosing his car into the wall on the front straight, mashing the throttle to perform a burnout.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/nascar-news-2026-cup-series-talladega-superspeedway-results-shane-van-gisbergen-last-lap-crash-video-reaction-comments-carson-hocevar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018I\u2019m okay\u2019: Last lap Talladega crash thwarts SVG top 10<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In an emotional post-race interview, the 23-year-old paid tribute to his grandfather and his late grandmother.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing the crowd, I really got to hear them,\u201d said Hocevar of his celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had this thought up for a while. I\u2019ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care if it took 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure it out how to do it. It took me a while.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just so thankful. This is the biggest dream I\u2019ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn\u2019t have done it in any better way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully my grandpa\u2019s watching. My grandma died last year, so I\u2019m so thankful that I can give my grandpa a trophy now. Wish my parents were here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[This is] All thanks to Jeff Dickerson. Unbelievable. I\u2019m just so thankful, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NASCAR Cup Series returns on May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">For more of the latest NASCAR news and analysis, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/us\/tag\/nascar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speedcafe US<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/250635\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/250635.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carson Hocevar celebrates winning the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway. Image: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images Controversy has long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,9335,213],"class_list":["post-399348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}