Zeigler Sponsored NASCAR Driver Carson Hocevar wins Rookie of the Year

Make it, grasp it, hold on to it, and say thank you, and execute on it.

Welcome everyone to the driving vision podcast brought to you by the Zigler Auto Group. I'm your host, Sam Dark. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Like it if you do and leave a comment. So hey, everybody.

Welcome, to the Future of Zack Today Driving Vision podcast with us today back again. Carson, host of our number 77. Driver of the Spire Motorsports number 77 NASCAR. So, Carson, welcome.

Yeah. Thanks, Sam. I feel like a regular guest on this, show.

It's a

lot of fun. So I'm glad to Yes. Check-in and, we've had a great year. So glad to be here.

Your first season comes to an end. So how would you describe what's happened this 1st year in the cup series? This is your 1st full year driving cup.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of progress from myself as a, you know, a cup driver to spire as a whole and everything. You know, our results have have gotten exceedingly better from the start of the year in our performance and everything and what we've been able to accomplish and do and our point standings, everything. So, it's been fun to do these throughout the year. Right?

You know, going and and changing our expectations and talking about it. So, it's been a lot of fun to do that with team Ziegler. And, yeah. I mean, at the end of the year with the team Ziegler race car, I think that was our best overalling, you know, overall arching day at Homestead, you know, with the final 8. Yeah.

Competitors in points were 7 of the top 8. And then, you know, the 77 Ziegler Auto Group bright yellow race car was just there in the mix. Yeah. So it was a lot of fun to to be able to do that and then, cap it off with Ricky Deere.

So to that point, I'm gonna read you a list of names and tell me what puts these names in common. So I'm gonna read a list of names, tell me what everybody has in common. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, Jimmy Johnson, Tony Stewart, Carson Hocevar. What does everybody have in common in that list?

I don't I don't know.

They all won rookie of the year in their, in their first year.

Faculty won rookie of the year. So,

It's impressive because each one of those individuals went on I mean, Dale Earnhardt, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart to create great legacies within NASCAR. What does it mean to you to join that group?

Yeah. I mean, it's huge. Yeah. It's a really good name and and even too. Right?

Like, you know, I went back and looked at a little bit more recent too. Right? Like Larson, Blaney, all all them won their rookie, you know, category and whatnot and then went on to win a lot of races and championships and everything. So, and they won it right with a team that had won races and championships in advance too. Yeah.

So for us to be able to come in, you know, with a newer ish team and do that when and get Spire's highest finishing point standings. You know, we finished 21st in points. Their previous best was 26. You know, teams spend a lot of money to gain that type of spots. And we were able to do that with, you know, realistically, kind of the same program as last year.

A lot of those changes in people and personnel wasn't gonna get implemented till, you know, today, you know, Tuesday after Phoenix that Yeah. We're seeing, you know, a lot of renovations and everything to the shop and new cars and new parts, new pieces, new people. So to be able to to be as fast as we were, I think was maybe a little ahead of schedule. But, you know, as, you know, I don't think anybody does anything slow from who I've met at team Ziegler. Right?

They can't No. They just go do

it. Let's go.

And make it happen right away. So we're able to do that on the 77.

So thinking about the parallel between NASCAR and business, that's one of the reasons why Aaron at the Zigler Auto Group does NASCAR. Everyone does their job. They know their job. How important is it to you to have a pit crew and a team around you that executes at a super high level?

Yeah. I mean, it's everything. It's, you know, it's like studying it's like doing a group project at school. Right? Like, if you did your part and you show up expecting your teammates to do the other part and they show up and was like, you know, I overslept and then do it and this and that.

You know, you did all the work and, you know, you showed up prepared and you know? But you don't get the result because you're dictated your result was in their hands. So, you know, my crew chief, our crew guys, you know, overslept or didn't spend the extra little bit and tighten all the bolts tied and something fell off or, you know, pit crew guy was, you know, out the night before and slipping and sliding on pit road and and we lost few spots. Right? You know, then we're not showing up doing our our part and and our results get, you know, affected.

And and and then we're not having any fun too. So Yeah. You know, our pit crew that same day at Homestead had the fastest stop in NASCAR history. Yeah. And we had no mechanical failures all year, that put us out of any race.

So, I'd say between the three parts of us on the 77 group, we all executed very well and at a at a very high level. And, you know, that's what makes it, you know, so fun to to go race is, you know, we have those faith that our our teammates are gonna show up, you know, well rested and ready to do their part of the group project.

Yeah. So thinking about Homestead, your team and your team, your team broke a record that had never been, broken all time record in NASCAR history. The fastest 4 tire pit stop in NASCAR history. A, did you know it in the moment? And when did you find out?

And then how did you celebrate as a team?

Yeah. Well, we first, we we knew it was fast, because we came in we came down pit road 6th, and we got blocked in just a little bit. Otherwise, we would have came out 1st or second. Normally, it's like a big you know, you're racing within the top 5. You know, we're running 6 on down pit road, or maybe it was 5th.

I think we came down 5th

on the road

and gave Yeah. It was 5th. Almost 3 spots, which is pretty crazy in in the top 5. Because, I mean, those are the best guys. To almost gain 4 or 5 spots, I knew it was fast, but didn't know till after the race.

And once we did, Dan, our car chief, made these custom medals basically that were hand engraved or wood engraving, like it was basically the Olympics and had them all, with their names for every crew guy. That's cool.

That's cool.

You know, what the time was. I mean, that's gonna be, I think, a really, really difficult time to be. Yeah. It's rare to get a high 8 seconds, let alone a low 8. Like, I mean, that is I I think that's as fast as it'll probably ever get.

And was that the pit stop? Because obviously we were watching where you kinda got blocked in. There was one pit stop. Was that intentional by the other team blocking you in or was that just bad placement by their tire guys?

I think it was just a like, just it just happened. Perfect storm of he was maybe a little far right. And the guy came around and they had it. Like, they had a jumbled up stop and it forced them the guy to walk around the other guy. And then he he had his hand way out with the tire and holding it in the pit road right when I was coming out.

So it was just the perfect storm of bad.

What goes through your head as you're seeing you know it's time to go and you're gonna break a record, an all time NASCAR record. You didn't know it in the moment. And you see a tire guy right there in in your windscreen, do you just go and and you trust the process? He's gonna get out of the way? Or

A little

bit. You came inches.

Yeah. A little bit. I mean, you cut it as close as you can get. Right? Yeah.

He is holding a tire So if if anything, if you do hit him, he's or you're gonna hit you're gonna hit the tire

first. Yeah.

You're watching you're more watching the cars coming down pit road, like, because we were one of the first late last stop of pit stalls. So we're towards the end of pit road. So the guys we're racing would already finish their stop. They're rolling down pit road. So as I'm coming out, I'm trying to be able to get out just quick enough that I can cut in front of them and basically block them in.

Yeah. So that just cuts it really tight is like knowing, alright, it's already gonna be, I'm merging into oncoming traffic basically. And now this little old lady's in front of me, basically. Yeah. I'm gonna have to swerve around and they they're they're taking their sweet time.

But, yeah, you're just you're just trying to map out this guy. If if he can move out of the way, I can straighten this up, and I can maybe get in front of these guys that are already going 50 mile an hour.

Yeah. I'll tell you it was awesome to watch. And it's interesting when you think about this past season with Ziggler and you driving the 77. You know, Aaron always says most people in business make the mistake of not being aggressive enough, and he always says we will never make that mistake. And I still remember the press conference at motorsports.

He tells this story often where a reporter said, hey, you know, what would you say to Carson? Like like, he's an aggressive driver. Do you have a problem, you know, with him being as aggressive? And Aaron recited that thing about most people aren't aggressive enough. We want him to be aggressive.

We love that he's aggressive. You showed that and you defined yourself this season in NASCAR to some criticism. What would you say at the end of the season about several moments, throughout the season where you demonstrated aggressiveness? Some cases paid off, some cases drew you intense criticism.

It's hard to map out a single one, but Jeff Dickerson, our our owner at Spire, told me this, and and I I didn't think about it until till now. Tyler Reddick, racing for a championship final 4. And we were racing up inside the top 10 at Phoenix. And we ran as door to door as we could get for 10 laps straight. You know, he didn't he couldn't lose a spot.

Like he was, you know, kind of bleeding some spots. His final 4 other final 4 competitors were up the road. And, last thing he needed to be doing was losing a spot to us and losing a few more. So he's trying to hold on as much as he can, to kinda keep in touch. And he, you know, made it as tight as we could make it to try and hold me up and try to hold me down and pinch me down.

And Jeff, you know, took it as a sign of respect watching it. Right? Is he discussed, you know, Reddick basically put his championship into my hands and our hands on our 77 group that he had enough confidence in us to be within an inch. And I wasn't gonna get loose and get into them or spin out or get loose or drive into them or push it too hard knowing what he's racing for. And I think that's the difference.

Right? Start of the year, they never would have, you know, they would have gave extra room or frustrated. I was even to him. But, you know, by the end of the year and and, you know, racing for the biggest trophy you can get, he had enough faith in the guy that still had rookie stripes Yeah. To to run an inch off our door.

And I think helping, well, you know, we raced super hard with him at Homestead. You know, he won the went on to win the race, but we were up there racing with him, throwing slide jobs. And one of the ones that I was doing to make speed, he found later and then went on to win the race with it, Yeah. Which was kind of funny. But, but, yeah, I think that's the the biggest thing is just seeing, you know, the the guys racing that go win races and have a fight for a championship, you know, hold a lot of respect or faith that we're a top tier car, becoming a top tier car that we can go up and run with them.

But, you know, we're not gonna be a dart without feathers either while doing it.

I love it. Trust and respect. 2 huge and important, principles in business. Right? And ones that we at the auto group live by, we believe in.

And it's interesting at the beginning of your career, the beginning of the year, people knew what you had done in the truck series but hadn't seen you race cup yet. So you had to earn that trust and yet to earn that respect. How do you take some of the drama that happens during the course of the season, kinda set it aside and just continue to perform? So, for example, when you were fined, right, you bumped I forget even who it was. You bumped someone, they got all bunched up even though it was probably it could have been a break check or whatever, Like, how do you set aside drama to continue to perform knowing that you can?

Because trust and respect only happen on the other side of experience and you had to get through the experience to earn that trust and respect.

Yeah. I mean, luckily, I mean, you race every week. So, I mean, with that one, we were able to go to Chicago, the very next week and ran top 5 there for the later half of the race and run good. So when you go to the racetrack and run good, you instantly forget about it.

Yeah. Success kills it.

There's, like, one lap. Right? You see the guy you just got into, and that instantly says, if you just run one corner next to each other and you don't hit, it's it's the sign of, alright. We're done. We're done.

Like, it's that that's moved on. Right? Is

Okay.

You know, if you see a guy that you've drove into the next week and they're, you know, they even if they, like, said in the media or anything or or whatnot, right, of, you know, I'm gonna get you or you got one coming. You know, if you run side by side the next week and you guys don't touch, I feel like that's like the, you know, driver driver code. Like, alright. We're done. I'm not messing with you.

You're not messing with me. I'm gonna patch you and move on. Like, that's that's I feel like the easiest thing, and kind of the way it's I feel like it's gone. You know, 2 months down the line, the second you touch again, everybody remembers. Yeah.

Like, the second you get race cars touch, it remembers. Right? Like Yeah. But if you're around each other and you guys don't touch race cars, it's like you forgot about it.

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. When you think about this past season, 1 top 5, 6 top tens, 15 finishes, your 3rd place career best at, Watkins Glen in September. What are some of the best moments of this past year?

What stands out to you where you're like, man, I'm so glad that happened. You you felt a a a sense of satisfaction at the result or the way the team performed. What what were some of the highlights for you? Having

a shot to win a cup race at Watkins Glen was super, special. I mean, you're just lining up on their green white 3 green white checkereds on the front row is super special and having a shot to win a race. But also, I mean, I kinda go back to homestead, but, like, that was the problem. You know, we got stage points in both stages and finished top 10 in that one. And then you you're in the one of the most crucial races, right, of finally Yeah.

Everybody's bringing the a of a, like, their best of best stuff. They're, you know, the big teams, they find even more resources. You know, you know, the unlimited amount of resources become a little bit more unlimited. You know, people's pockets get deeper, manufacturers, sponsors, team owners. Right?

It it turns you know, when you get to the final 8, it's like, alright. Well, whatever we can get to Phoenix. Right? And whatever you know, this part or this piece or this extra DIL time or this whatever. So for us to, you know, basically go in their business as usual and and compete that high, or compete that well, I think is is super crucial for us and super, rewarding of, you know, we looked like a final eight car.

If you plugged us into the final eight, it would look like, man, how how how did they get there? You know, they're just taking they're just taking up a spot. You know, why why why in the world are they there? If TB accidentally, you know, made our name yellow of playoff banner, you would be like, yeah. That makes sense.

You know? Yeah.

Kinda in the mix. You're kinda in between all the all the final eight guys.

So you mentioned, so, Jordan's team won Homestead. Right? Michael Jordan. Basketball. Great.

Actually, so I texted, pictures to my kids of Michael Jordan early in the year, the first race he won.

At Talladega.

And yeah. Talladega. And they're like, who is that? And I'm like, come on. It's Michael Jordan.

You know who Michael Jordan is, I assume. Yeah? Basketball. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Very good. So obviously, you gained their trust. He probably knows who you like like, any thoughts on Michael Jordan and, you know, does he know who you are and did you get a chance to say hi to him or anything? I mean, he's arguably one of the most famous I guess he's a controversial owner because he's got, stuff going on with NASCAR.

But I've never I've never met him, like, face to face. Like, hello. I'm so and so. Yeah. I would imagine he knows me only for the sake that I'm sure he saw me at some point and wondered who I was because I'm almost his height.

Yeah.

Yeah. Was when he was height. Yeah.

That that's like like early in the year, I was like, somebody my dad was like, maybe Michael knows who you are. I was like, if if so, he's he is asked, who is that? Like, why Yeah. Why is my driver, like, so like, because Reddick's super short.

Short. Yeah.

So I'm sure at some point, he's like, who is that? Like, why why can't my driver be a little taller?

You're the tallest driver in, cup series. Yeah?

I believe so. Yeah.

Yeah. That is cool. Well, hey. I wanna share something with you. We just got these in.

We've been waiting for these all year.

How's it say? I see it behind you.

The die cast cars are in. So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes. We have a a limited number of these available through motorsports. If you're in town, in the next few weeks, we'd love to have you come by and sign a bunch of these. Yeah.

That'd be great. It'd be great for fans. Also, I think we can get them, through your parents' shop as well, here in Portage, Michigan, but it's also available through Ziegler Motorsports. I'll put a link out. But it is what a great way to commemorate your 1st year in the cup series, but then also, to celebrate rookie of the year status.

What does it mean as as we wrap up for you to have, driven a car with the Ziggler logo on it? Ziggler, a group that's in your hometown. You grew up in Portage, Michigan, Kalamazoo based Ziggler Auto Group. What does it mean to you to have driven the 77?

Well, it means a lot. You know, the I've seen the Ziegler name as a kid, going off, you know, driving past motorsports, you know, a 1000 times right here. That big facility right behind the motorsports, you know, their big parking lot. I forget the name of the deal. But when I was racing

Oh, the wing center. The wing center.

Yeah. Medlink.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe When you're

behind there or something. Yeah. Yeah. But right behind there's a big, huge parking lot. Well, that's where I would get picked up to go racing.

So That's cool. It was the biggest parking lot where the hauler our hauler growing up when I race late models would be coming from Holland. We'd be coming down from, you know, Grand Rapids. And rather than us go north to come back south, they were just like, alright, we're gonna drive and I'll just pick you up because my neighborhood can't fit us, you know, a big huge trailer. Yeah.

Holler. So we pick that parking lot to get picked up. So there's so many times we'd go and then we go test. You know, when I was 13, I had a handful of buddies during COVID time that worked at motorsports or would buy parts at motorsports and then go test at the dirt bike track out back.

Okay. We gotta tell this story because we can tell it now. The season's over. Right? There was an embargo of sorts.

So we had you out, right before the MIS race, and we did a press conference. You had a meet and greet. It was a heck of a lot of fun. We had fans down the down the road waiting in line to meet you and sign get your autograph. After that, you went out to motorsports and took a side by side out with Aaron Ziegler.

Tell us what happened there because I don't think we've announced this. There's some pictures maybe out there.

Yeah. Well, first, I watched Aaron take a jump and I was judging off his speed. I was like, alright. Well, you know, Aaron's I'm sure he's gonna work up into this a little bit. And I'm following him and we're going pretty fast.

I've never taken a K and M over a jump, and I'm like, man, we're going a little fast. And luckily, I gave myself just a little bit of space. And right before I went to jump, I remembered who I was riding behind. I was like, wait. Hold on.

I think it might have if I think Aaron Ziegler is gonna work up into anything, I don't know Aaron Ziegler. Yeah. So he fires the thing up and it clears a lot more air than I would have expected. So I'm glad I had that realization and realized and lifted and kinda putted over a jump and everything. Well, then, you know, after a while, I kinda let him go and he was going way faster than I was.

I just took the turns fast. I did not want anything really what to do with the jumps and

Yeah. It's a dirt track. Some big jumps though. Big jumps.

Or it just rained and there's a lot of mud. Yeah. A

lot

of mud. There's a lot of grooves and everything. So Yep. I I had 4 wheel drive and being a race car driver, I was like, well, I want I started figuring out how to get 2 wheel drive into it so I could slide it all the way around. Yeah.

I was sliding every corner like a, you know, a dirt late model or street stock or, you know, even when a cup cars used to be on dirt, you know, just sliding it, you know, turning right to go left type of deal and just sliding and drifting the whole corner. And eventually, I caught a rut and went over and threw the corner and put it on my lid. It was the only corner with luckily no cameras around. So but we had to go for on it. But Yeah.

There was no there was no cheering section, I should say, that watched me flip this thing. Yeah. So I everybody started kinda wondering, alright. Well, where am I at? Because I'm going back by and sure enough, here I am walking, waving.

Like, hey. Like, can you help me flip this thing back over? Luckily, we had a gopher on it, so it was funny. But luckily, there wasn't a cheering section of everybody in front that, you know, that would have been like, oh, okay. Well, that luck like, I didn't luckily, I I didn't scare anybody.

Right? Because I think if it went over, everybody would've, you know, been nervous or anything

like that. Because the last thing you want

By the time you realized I flipped over, they were seeing me walking perfectly fine. So it was a it was about perfect. If I was gonna flip 1, it was perfect. I think Aaron had more fun that I did flip it.

He did. He did. Yeah.

Then we got to take pictures on it and everything and flip it back over. So yeah. I mean, everything's good. Everything is is not worth doing if it doesn't come with a good story. So

I gotta tell you, it was so much fun because I was standing with a bunch of the camera folks and kind of our group that was kinda towards the entrance, and we recognized that he hadn't come back, can't come back. So we all went running over, saw it flipped over before we saw you, and we're like, oh, no. We had this thought in our head that we, you know, we've got this great cup driver who just got injured right the day before MIS, but it's a tribute to you that you just do things all out and that's with, I think, any athlete, any competitor in business, it's very similar. You know, you're committed to the result and you wanna win, and there's just something about, that desire to win that breeds that success. And so we you know, on behalf of the Ziegler Auto Group and the entire podcast audience, congrats to you for rookie of the year this 1st year and the success that will come.

You know, we'll make, an official announcement on social, shortly, but, you know, Ziegler is gonna continue to, sponsor you this next year. So we're excited to have you back and to have those Ziegler, logo back on the car, this next year and just to see you succeed and continue to win. And and actually as a closing, before I ask you to any message for anybody in the Kalamazoo area, what hopes do you have for this coming year? You know, you you achieved that rookie of the year which had to be a big goal. What do you expect in year 2?

Yeah. I'd like to make the playoffs. That would be the Yeah. That would be the biggest thing for sure. Whether it be point our way in or get one win or or whatever.

But, I think that's the I mean, realistically, right, that my goal was to get top 20 in points and, win rookie year. Because if you were top 20 in points, you're really not that far away from a playoff run. Yeah. I mean, you're talking 4 or 5 spots and you make the playoffs. So so for us, I think if we can be 15th, 16th points, it opens us up.

Right? If, you know, consistently your 15th, 16th best guy in points, it all depends on who wins behind you if they knock you back out of the playoffs or not. Yeah. It'll probably take a win to normally does. But, you know, ultimately, if we can just control our own fate at least and put ourselves in around 15th, 16th in points, puts yourself in that spot.

And if you're running that good, you know, eventually you're gonna get the opportunity to win a race or back into 1 or whatever case may happen. Eventually, you're gonna get one stroke of good luck and opportunity. It just depends if you're able to take it and grasp it and hold on to it and say thank you and execute on it. And, yeah, I think that team's capable of doing that.

That's awesome. Well, any, any closing comments? Anything you wanna say to the folks in Kalamazoo, Portage, your hometown, or to our audience?

Not a whole lot. Just appreciate them and the support of Ziggo Auto Group and, what they do from the community and all the employees, men and women at team Ziglar. It's been a lot of fun to continue to meet and looking forward to the Christmas party being in Kalamazoo and not Chicago. I I love Chicago. I've got but,

Casey's home.

Selfishly, I'm pumped that I get to have the Christmas party and then go home to Yeah. My childhood home and not a hotel. But also, Chicago was a little windy. I've gotten accustomed to the North Carolina weather probably a little bit too much. Yeah.

You're soft. Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody in the off season. I'll definitely be home, and, you know, see everybody in the men and women, customers, clients, employees, everybody at team Ziegler. It's been a lot of fun and hoping to see them in a racetrack if I don't get to see them in the off season.

Well, Carson, so far, thank you again. Congratulations, rookie of the year. Team Ziegler and our audience, if you want a die cast 77, autograph, you can go to the link in the show notes and, check that out. Again, we appreciate having you, and, good luck. Carson Hossfar in the off season.

Thank you. Thanks, sir. A big thanks to Carson Hostvar for contributing to this week's podcast. Until next week, how are you driving vision today?