Nascar Driver Carson Hocevar at Indy | EP131

She can feel how powerful the Michigan presence is, how powerful team Ziegler is. We wanna run very, very well for the people that allow us to go have fun.

Welcome everyone to the Driving Vision podcast brought to you by the Zigler Auto Group. And here with me, auto group director of talent development, Mike Van Ryn. Welcome, Mike. Hey. Thanks, Sam.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Like it if you do, and leave a comment. Coming up this episode, I sit down with Ziegler sponsored NASCAR driver, Carson Husavar, about his race at Indianapolis, the heated competition for rookie of the year, and Carson's opinion on social media haters. So, hey, everybody. With me today is NASCAR race car driver Speier Ziegler sponsored driver, Carson Hocevar.

Carson, welcome back to the show.

Yeah. Thanks, Sam. I appreciate it. Always love coming on here and talking to Clem Zigler.

It's been so much fun during this season to have you on from time to time and just get your insights and kind of the update on the season. So this past Sunday, today's, what, Tuesday, so just a couple days ago, you raced the ziegler.com car at the famous, world famous Indianapolis Raceway, and we were there. Aaron was there. We had a big contingent from team Ziegler there. First off, it was your first experience racing at Indianapolis as a cup driver, but not your first experience there.

You pointed out a place that you had raced before. Tell us a little bit about your history with Indy.

It showed that without actually physically being able to see it, but we were up top, top of the pagoda, which is a great view of the racetrack. But what you could see that not a lot of people could is you could see the parking lot right behind the suites, which is not normally what you'd look at. We don't know what the except from over above, and you could see a rubber outline of a big circle. And that was the quarter midgetrack where kids would race from ages 5 to 16. They would race it.

I grew up racing there for years, in the actual in the, you know, Indianapolis Motor Speedway right in the parking lot. You have 300 to 500 families which show up with their cars and kids, and go racing, and I raced there for years, growing up and had a lot of fun. And, when you'd win, you it would be a big deal. You go the brick yard or you go to line and take pictures. You know, then you get the milk and everything.

It's 6 years old or better than 10 years old or whatever age you know, you were, you'd be drinking the milk if you won that race. So they're super cool, but, we did one lap around the whole Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They they lined up all the kids, all 400 kids on the front shirt and pushed us all off. So going into the weekend, I had one lap of experience, but I think that was the coolest moment was sitting up on top of the pagoda and seeing the rubber. And it wasn't even just the fresh rubbers because they raced a few months ago or a few weeks ago.

It was seeing the old rubber that was still there that I've been very much remember, the very, very faded rubber that when they moved the rates track right after I retired a little bit left, you could still see the remit of, you know, where I actually was racing not too long ago.

That's cool. You know, part of our guests, there were a couple of executives from Subaru America, and they talked about their experience at Indianapolis. And it really does seem like that track is not only historic, but it's family centric. So he talked about backing up to the track 30, 40, 50 years ago in a truck and watching a race out of his tailgate before the track had been built up. So it was meaningful to him in in a very different way from you, but still that connection is similar.

What did it mean to you? What does it mean to you to come back and drive the cup series for your debut in that ziegler.com car, 2 days ago?

Oh, it's huge. You know, ever since racing there as a kid. Right? You know, I've always dreamt of actually drinking the milk in real life or at least racing, you know, not just in the infield parking lot, racing in the actual racetrack. So the first laps, the first few laps of practice, I was sitting there smiling the whole time.

And I think that's why we're so fast was I wasn't thinking about you know, I don't I wanna take care of the car, and I wanna manage it. And it's only practice. It was, man, this is the most fun and and, like, best racetrack I've dreamt for years years. And I've dreamt the Indy 500 and and and everything. I've been there.

But, you know, this is the return of the Brickyard 400 to a fairly even more special just being that, you know, we haven't got to watch it. You know? We haven't got to watch it, and I get to now experience it the first time way everybody else is experiencing it again for the last few years. So I was just smiling the whole time, and we were one of the fastest guys at the start of the day just because I wanted to see how fast I could go just at that place.

Well, it was amazing because we watched you that race. So whether on Pit Road for the for the for the launch, the national anthem and whatnot, or up in the pagoda suite, which has an incredible 360 degree view. It was amazing. And you had a really good race. Like, you had, was it 1 or 2 laps in the lead spot for a little bit?

Yeah? Tell us about that.

Yeah. We we took a lap or 2 just without the strategy and everything, but, but it was fun to just be in the top 5, and we were running 5th or 6 there for a quite a while, and, just always sort of in the top 15 to 10, and and the strategy kept flipping. And, unfortunately, for us, you know, we're almost a little bump from 12th because of how much was available there at the end on fuel strategy. So we were 1st or second of the most fuel. The next batch that was gonna run out were all in front of us.

So if that had one more restart, we were gonna be lining up on the front row for a shot because we were the next 2 best on on fuel. So unfortunately, it wasn't like natural, and it it didn't just keep going so we could cycle the lead. But, you know, a lot of guys, the second yellow came out, they ran out of fuel and then we're able to coast it. You know, we would be able to sneak a few more spots, but to still run 12th in the ziegler.comchevy, you know, first every time there, we were, the best fire finish, which is obviously great for our bunch to be able to lead the charge again. But it was super big to just leave there.

Number 1, we're, you know, we had so many people there. You know, obviously, Aaron and all and we had 25 representatives of team Ziegler, but a lot of people are watching. It's a crown jewel event, but also too for us as a race team, we're heading into 2 weeks through almost 3, with the Olympic break here that, you know, we can sit here smiling for the next few off weeks and be excited that there's more left on the table for us in the next few weeks.

Yeah. It was interesting, Carson. One more lap. Had it gone just one more lap and and you easily would have been right there on the front line because of the fuel situation. Everyone in overtime basically run out of gas.

Right? You had a couple drivers run out of gas basically, in front of you and around you.

Yeah. Yeah. When the so the yellow came out right off of turn 2 for the white flag, and, you know, you can hear people sputtering through 3 and 4 and down the front stretch. And luckily, for them, they had enough speed to just carry the momentum. Like, you know, if it was under green conditions, we were gonna pass them all.

But under yellow, they could just maintain enough pace under yellow that they could coast. And if under green, it wouldn't matter if you could coast or not, you know, we would have been able to sneak right around them and for sure been in the top ten, almost top 5 there. But just to be able to put ourselves in a really good spot there, it was tough to pass, you know, really, really tough. But to to position ourselves with strategy and a constant variable change of yellows and not yellows and people changing and when to take fuel, when not to do, or when to take tires to for us to be able to put ourselves in that spot. You know, when good luck finds our way, you know, we're gonna be in a really good spot to to capitalize for that opportunity.

And I think that's what we're doing every week right now is just putting ourselves in the possibility that if the opportunity comes, we can capitalize upfront, just waiting on lady like to just strike us one time.

So I think a lot of team Ziggler would be super interested to know what it's like to be in a car when there's an accident unfolding in front of you. And you you had a couple instances in the final few so many laps of the race where, a wreck happened in front of you and you're able to navigate around it. What's that like being a driver in a fast car? And all of a sudden, you're going from speed and wanting to pass to all the you you need to avoid this wreck.

I mean, normally, I'm really good at analogies, but I don't know if there's a good analogy for it. I'm probably the I'm probably the worst at describing this in that moment because I I don't even know what I do is to think.

Yeah. You know, I'm It's muscle memory probably.

Yeah. Well, no. It's it's it's even more than that. It's just you're doing off instinct. You're not thinking about it.

It's going off instinct. If I relied on what I could process in my head and think about it and then process it and then do it. I'd be in the crash before I could even put out, you know, one word in my head. You know, muscle memory of knowing exactly, you know, what you're reading with your eyes and not even thinking. It's just reacting.

It's a 100% reaction time. And, you know, I think that's why I would be a horrible coach at teaching, how to try being it. Like, a lot of it's, and and even the TV booth, I was rewatching practice and they said it, and I thought it was a biggest compliment I could do is, you know, I'm not and land I don't even know how to say the word, but, like, you know, I'm not data driven on how I drive a race car fast. I just react, feel it, and then, you know, just do it. You know, I don't have brake markers.

I don't have I don't have markers. I just do what it feels. You know, we come to pit road, everybody kind of has their marker. I'm like, I don't know. I just kind of come off pit road and I shift shift down when I think and I hit the brake when I think I'm gonna run out of time and and a lot of times

You have a feel for the car. Yeah.

And a lot of times my pit entries are the fastest. So the biggest thing I could say is what I've, you know, taken over the years and and even just this year, it's not washing the car that's wrecking. The car that wreck that's wrecking is the easiest to know where it's gonna go. A lot of time, you know, like in India, the forward progression, they're gonna take it to the top. And so when they spin, they're gonna spin up because they're gonna spin backwards and then then they're gonna go back up the racetrack, especially a flat track.

A bank track's a little different, but a flat track, all that speed's gotta go somewhere. And the second they're spun around, they're gonna back up and slide up and, because there's no banking to catch them and they're gonna spin into the wall. So you kinda know that what spins down probably is gonna come back up, but the biggest thing is I'm more reacting to the cars reacting to the wreck. They're the ones not thinking if there's a guy outside of me inside. A lot of times you get involved in a crash because somebody spawn avoiding or somebody's avoiding or somebody was trying to speed pass the wreck and then hit you from behind.

So a lot of times, you know, I'm not watching the guys that are wrecking. It's I'm watching the guys looking left, looking right to see where the guys reacting to the crash or the guys that didn't miss the crash that gets fun. That's a lot of times what, can really bite you is, you know, when you're focused on 1 guy and maybe there's 20, 30 guys behind you that are reacting to the same guy, a lot of times you're not gonna zig when they zag and everything. And and especially too when they're on the outside, they have to go left. If you're if you think you're gonna miss them, well, if you have a guy next to you, he's panicking because you're good, but he's not he's in the right seat.

You just always have to have that perspective of where everybody else is gonna react and how they're gonna react. And a lot of times, like, at a super speedway, there's a reason, like, you see a crash, you almost just stop, or you just try and get all the way to the inside because there's you know, you're at super speedway, the straightaways are super wide and everything. You just try and slow down and react because, you know, you're tucked up behind people, especially on restarts. Some of these guys behind you might not even see the wreck because they got cars in front of them, and it's tough to tell. You know?

A long story short, that's that's probably the best way of if you're just you're not even watching the guy crashing most of the time. You kinda can guess where he's gonna go the second he's done or second he starts crashing. It's just reacting to the others around that might miss it or might hit you avoiding or might get involved that then once you get past, you're like, oh, I'm clear. And then another car comes spinning.

It is fun talking to you and asking you questions about your thought process during a race, because you very clearly are able to visualize and see it in your head after, during. And I think even before you anticipate it, and that's a great skillset for anyone in business as well. So at the Zigler Auto Group, our mission statement is our family delivering your family, the ultimate automotive experience. And our team members, salespeople, and technicians and folks in the office and everywhere throughout the auto group, they're constantly working to deliver that great experience. And they the best of us do it in a very similar way to how you do.

You they think it through. They're very contemplative. And they may not be able to like, describe it in the moment perfectly, but they're thinking it through. How do I do better? How do I improve?

What, you know, how do I have a conversation with a customer? So I connect with them and, and in a way that, that, that is unique and unusual. So I want to ask you one question and I can pull this out if you don't want this, but, but I'm going to ask it anyway. It's interesting because after the past couple of races, there's drama. Right?

You hear drama, and NASCAR has drama, and you are a rookie, highly ranked. I haven't even looked. Are you at the top right now on the rookie standing after the finish? Because

We're almost tied. We're, like, 5 points straight behind. Okay. We'd be we'd be ahead without the penalty, but we're Yeah. With our penalty, we're right there.

Yeah. So anytime, any any we know this in our world. Anytime anybody does really well, you you get more exposure, you get more criticism. People take potshots. I was watching the post race coverage from India and I'm like, it was like some of the people were watching a different race than I was watching.

How do you deal with some of that negative and critical feedback and just continue to focus on what you do, which has raised so well.

Yeah. I mean, if you ask my dad, he doesn't understand social media very well. So he gets one bad review or one bad sees one bad thing. You you would think Yeah. You burned out It's everywhere.

Ever. Yeah. But, for me, I've I've known this for a long time. Right? You you're in the public eye.

You know? People can do there's there's nothing stopping anybody from saying anything. And truthfully, in in my mind, I've put the perspective of 2 to 4000000 people watch. Right? And a lot of times, you'll see the comments.

It's not more than a 100 to 200. Maybe 20 of them are good or maybe 20 of them are bad. You know, it just depends on the synopsis. But truthfully, I mean, it's a minority of people that are actually walking. And a lot of times, I don't, you know, I don't go to a restaurant and I don't think of, oh, I'm gonna give this great review.

Man, I was pumped of of this service and everything, but I feel like it's just negative it's just very human nature to to be very passionate about negative. So I think that's what's my perspective of it too, but also it's just it's just racing at the same time. You know? Nobody knows the situation. There's there's so you know, from the TV camera blimp, from the TV camera, depending on the angle and and you look at my in car, I mean, there's so many different perspectives that show a different picture too.

And racing is probably the toughest to judge. Right? It's so different than, you

know Perspective.

Somebody's eventually throughout life, somebody's throwing a baseball. Somebody's caught a baseball. Somebody's thrown a football. Throughout life, eventually, you've done almost every sport whether young or old. Not everybody can drive a race car or can say they've drove a race car at any time at any competitive nature.

So it's the hardest thing to judge and know and feel and and and smell. And and and sometimes there's a disconnect for that, but I think that's why the sport's so loved and sometimes why it's so passionate is because you do have very wide spectrums of opinion sometimes.

Well, it's been exciting to watch you this season. It's been exciting to see the exposure that you've had, And it's also been exciting as young as you are to see the class with which you handle it and how competitive you are. You want to win, and you are unwilling to accept anything but winning. And anybody can say what they wanna say, but you are committed to this sport and to your art, which is which is driving. And and and it's just it's been a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

So 5 points, rookie, you've got 2 weeks off. Right? And then you go back to the track and the race continues. It's gonna be exciting. And the entire team Ziegler is pulling for you.

Our next race with you is August 7th at the Berlin Raceway. You were there several weeks ago. You're coming back. Tell us about what you expect, at Berlin. It's not a NASCAR Cup Series race.

It's it's off that track, but you've got an front of your Michigan Western Michigan fans there. Yeah. You know, we obviously got to the shot in in the spring, early summer

to to go do that, which is a lot of fun. Aaron was even able to come in, and it was great to see all the Zigler folks, up in turn 1 at the tent, but also 2, you were able to start on the front row, lead a ton of laps, which was great for us, and and, you know, be able to run a late model. This is what I grew up doing. For those that don't know is I grew up rating late models, which is like, man, I don't even know college ball. Maybe in in baseball terms, I try to think of it like that.

You know, maybe that's, but it's it's, you know, where I grew up at the home track that I got my first win at 13, on the NASCAR level circuit. It's the NASCAR local short track group, you know, series type of deal, so it's gonna be fun to be able to do that in the team's Ziggler colors. You know, it looks very, very similar to the cup car, intentionally. It has a 71 on it just because it's my team that I drove with. No connection to the 71 Spire car.

It's a funny coincidence, but, I drove that 71 car for TK racing when I was growing up and won a lot of big events that put me onto the main stage of NASCAR. So be able to come back there with the teams at good colors and have a lot of people out there would be fun.

And in fact, we're trying to put something together. It's in the early stages right now. We're pivoting quick, but we may be able to offer some fans the opportunity to ride with you around that track. So we've got the ziegler.comwrapped Camaro. It's a late model actual Chevy Camaro.

And, we're gonna actually try to put you with a a couple of few lucky people and take laps out there. We we're working with Jeff Schriegel and some others to see if that happens, but that'll be an exciting opportunity. And listen, whatever it takes, I want at least a lap, Carson. Come on. I wanna be with you in a car as we go around a raceway and see your perspective.

So if we can make that happen, that that will be a lot of fun. And then after Berlin, Next up is MIS. So team Ziegler comes home August 18th here in Michigan. What does it mean? Like you're so close to your footprint in Indianapolis and then Chicago before it.

Now you actually come home to your home state. What does it mean to you to come back to MIS and drive a cup car at MIS?

Yeah. I mean, it's super cool. I got to run there the first time. And last year in the expanded car, it was so cool to see how many friends and family that could come. And but also too, I think it's so perfect.

Right? I mean, this is why this, you know, merge of Ziegler and myself and and in this race program works so well is when I come home, it's it's coming home to team Ziegler as well. It it works out perfect. It's such a perfect mix of being able to do things like Berlin, but also do things like the big track in MIS and being able to have those two dates really close together, I think symbolizes from the short tracks to the big track, you know, what teams in there can do, but also, that we can, try and compete at every level. So that's super cool, and I'm excited to just go home.

And, there's a lot of selfishness of me to wanna run really, really good, at Michigan, but also too, I think my team. Yeah. There's not a home field advantage in racing really ever, but, I think, the r 77 bunch can feel how powerful the Michigan presence is, how powerful team Ziegler is. You know, we wanna run very, very well for for the people that allow us to go have fun and allow us to do our day job every week, and, I think they they are working really, really hard to make sure Michigan's a big one for us.

And then after that, drive for life, it's Ziglar Auto Group's annual charity event. You'll be with us September 23rd here in Kalamazoo, Michigan as we raise money for charity. You helped us already at the, Portage tornado relief event. Raised a lot of money that goes back to benefit people that were impacted by the tornado. And then this night, our record year was over $2,000,000 hauled in a couple years ago.

It's always fun to raise money for charity and have a great experience. So, you we're excited to have you part of that. Last couple questions. Take us behind the scenes, if you would, at Indianapolis. People wanna know what is something that most people wouldn't know about your experience this past weekend at Indianapolis, this iconic raceway.

What's something that most might surprise most people to learn about that racetrack or that race experience as a driver?

I mean, just a a lot of little things. It's the joke of, you know, how you you watch a LeBron. You know, he's getting starstruck over, you know, a famous, you know, football player, you know, or famous, you know, from other countries or whatever. You know, it's it's like watching celebrities get excited over this f one craze or, you know, even tough drivers. You know, it's watching celebrities be excited.

I think the biggest thing for us is we all go in there like we're kids, you know, for the first time, and we appreciate so much the racetrack. Like, we are fans of the racetrack, which I don't think there's a single racetrack on the schedule almost that has the drivers racing it. There's our fans of the place and the fans of being there. You know, it's not really like the behind the scenes, but I just think it's it's how much every driver appreciates that racetrack. It's you know, it could be the most boringest race, single file, nobody passes.

It could be the most boringest race, and I think every single driver down the line would is loving it and excited to go back regardless, you know, maybe they're not happy with the finish, but by Monday, they're excited to go back in the second the next time they're getting prepared. They're gonna work that much harder. So I think that's the biggest thing. Yeah. The facility just got a ton better, obviously, with Roger Penske.

He's he's as clean-cut as you could imagine and and just wants everything picture perfect. And, you you walk up to the pagoda, you see his parking spot right there, right in front with, you know, with his car and everything. But, I remember when I was a kid growing there, and, you know, it wasn't the nicest of facilities inside the track per se, and it's just gorgeous now. Every bathroom is beautiful. Every rush every concession stand, every every little knickknack you go is is picture perfect of what you'd expect that facility look like.

Beautiful and everything. And and crazy enough, a lot of people I didn't realize I didn't realize they play golf during the weekend. I thought Isn't

that crazy? Yeah.

I realized they play golf during the weekend, and it is like years in advance, like, wait list that people specifically come to only play one weekend, and that it's during the all the cars are out. They wanna play around the golf, which I thought was super cool as well. I didn't real I never realized that they have the golf course open during our race weekend.

That was crazy. They had 4 holes as I as I saw it on the inside of the track, which is which makes it not only an iconic raceway, but an iconic golf course, I would suppose, as well. So heck heck of a lot of fun. What what's the one meal you eat before you jumped into the race car at Indianapolis? That might be something most people don't know.

Oh, I mean, it's it's not the meal I want to eat. It's the meal I have to eat free range.

Performance. Yeah.

Yes. It's, you know, just chicken or rice, a little bit of salads, maybe some cucumbers and eggs, you know, you know,

probably some fair for you. We've heard that before. I love it. That's awesome. You're consistent then.

You have a process. Right?

Yeah. It's not not very fun, but I just do the same thing every week. And, I'm very routine based. So just, like, once I find something that works, I just stick with it, and

I just help

veer off the path.

So I just Also a similarity between you and the Ziegler Auto Group. Right? So our best performers find that routine, and you repeat that routine over, and then you learn how to improvise and become better at it. Right? That's the importance of routine.

That's exactly it.

That's awesome. Well, Carson, host of art, it's exciting to have you here. Thanks for sharing some time with us, this week. We're, congrats on your, great performance and great finish at the Indianapolis Raceway. We look forward to seeing you in Berlin on August 7th and then MIS shortly behind that and ultimately at Drive For Life, September 23rd.

Thank you, Carson.

Thank you, Sam. Appreciate it.

A big thanks to Carson Hocevar for contributing to this week's episode. Until next week, how are you driving vision

today?