Most fifteen year old kids are focused on grades at school and getting their driver’s license. Carson Hocevar wasn’t most fifteen-year-olds.
Last year, at the age of fifteen, Hocevar made his debut in the ARCA Menards Series at Toledo Speedway. An eleventh-place finish belied the talent the Portage, Michigan youngster had already displayed in his brief stock car racing career. By that time, Hocevar had already scored victories in both template-bodied late models and wedge-bodied late models at the ultra-competitive Berlin Raceway, becoming the youngest driver in the track’s storied history to do so.
Hocevar is still working on locking down that driver’s license, despite being comfortable at racing at over 100 miles per hour all across the country on some of the sport’s most demanding tracks. And he’s still in high school, so it’s appropriate that he offer up grades on his performance to date in the 2019 season.
“I would give us a B or a B+ if we are going on that scale,” he said. “It hasn’t been bad but we all want to win and we want to perform well and we want the results to show that. We have had fast cars and we have been performing decently well, but we all have to prove – especially me – and we need to get through this little dry spell. Last year we ran really well and we had high expectations. Everybody else in our group says we have met those expectations but we set them higher for ourselves.”
Hocevar’s “dry spell” was back-to-back sixth-place finishes at Toledo and Madison. After a mechanical failure at Five Flags in March, he rebounded with consecutive top-five efforts at Salem, a third, and Nashville, a fourth. Like any good high school student, Hocevar looked at his mid-term marks and highlighted areas where he needs to improve.
“It’s more on my end if anything,” he said. “I need to be more consistent. I need to finish these races out. It seems like I am always there at one point in the race, but whether it’s the end of the race or not it’s been hit or miss. I need to get better at holding those positions myself. My guys have been doing a great job. At Madison, we had an issue mid-race and Mike Bursley made a great call to get us on the front row for a restart and we stayed up at the front before we ended up sixth. Top fives are what means the most. I need to get a little more consistent in the car. We need to make adjustments better and then my feedback will get better and we will get a lot more scripted with our adjustments.”
Since he’s still just sixteen years of age, Hocevar isn’t eligible to compete on the ARCA Menards Series’ biggest and fastest tracks. But his team, KBR Development, owned by Mike Bursley has had at least one car in every race to this point. Brandon McReynolds has held the wheel in most of the big track races. Hocevar also gave his team high marks for their first go-round of the full ARCA tour.
“I think they’re right there,” Hocevar said. “B+/A- kind of deal. Everybody has said we’ve done a great job for a first-year team. There are nine or ten really good racecars right now. To run above the average guys, third to fifth, week in and week out that’s pretty solid for us. Especially considering all these guys have notebooks and years of experience. We don’t want to just come here and run third to fifth though, we want to come here to win.”
While he’s been knocking on the door to victory lane throughout his brief ARCA career, that first victory has proven to be elusive to this point. Hocevar and Bursley have pinpointed some races – six of them to be exact – which they feel they can compete to score that first series win.
“I would like to tell you all of them, but we have to take every week as it comes,” he said. “I am really excited for Iowa. Whether we perform well and have a shot to win, who knows? A lot depends on how pit cycles turn out. If we can get in the top five late in the race we’ll have a shot to win. The dirt races will be the hardest ones because none of my guys have done dirt before. It will be important to get the feedback to my guys and help them get used to the dirt stuff. Elko is a really tight, small track and it’s right in my wheelhouse, and Salem might not be my favorite race track but we got a pole there and finished third so I think we’ll be solid there.”
Hocevar and the rest of the ARCA Menards Series returns to action on Saturday July 13 in the Menards 250 at Elko Speedway. Practice is set for 2:15 pm ET/1:15 pm CT, General Tire Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 6:15 pm ET/5:15 pm CT, and the 250-lap feature event will go green shortly after 10 pm ET/9 pm CT. The race will be televised live on MAVTV, and ARCA for Me members can follow every lap made my every car entered throughout every on-track session with free live timing & scoring at ARCARacing.com. Discounted tickets to the Menards 250 are available at nearly 40 Minneapolis-St. Paul Menards locations for just $20. For more information, please visit ElkoSpeedway.com or call (952) 461-7223.