Spire Motorsports star Carson Hocevar says that he is enjoying emerging as one of the faces of NASCAR after a breakthrough year so far in the Cup Series.

Hocevar took his first Cup Series victory this year at Talladega, and his personality has seen his popularity both in and outside of NASCAR continue to grow.

Earlier this year, he represented the sport at the Met Gala, for example, and last month, TIME named him as one of their 100 most influential people in sport, declaring that the Spire Motorsports star 'could very well be the next face of NASCAR'.

This week, Hocevar even brushed shoulders with the likes of LeBron James and Prince Harry at the TIME 100 Sports Gala in New York, pictured with both ahead of this weekend's event at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

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Carson Hocevar humbled to be emerging as one of faces of NASCAR

“It’s been super cool for me," Hocevar explained when asked how he feels about emerging as one of the faces of the sport and the TIME 100 nod.

"I think Denny [Hamlin] and Michael [Jordan] were in it, as well. But, you know, being the solo [NASCAR driver] in it, I guess, is super fun for me.

"Obviously, I want to win more, but I think it’s been proven a lot within the sport that you can win multiple races in a row and that doesn’t make you outside the NASCAR bubble, right? If our viewership was based off the racing production, we’d have 10 million live viewers for Atlanta every single time, I think.

"Ultimately, it’s just getting people to care who’s in the cars. You can have the greatest finish of all time, but if you don’t care who’s involved in the finish, you might as well go watch iRacing, AI Racing, an animation, any kind of motorsport.

"It’s been super humbling for me to have a lot of people ultimately care about who’s in my car.”

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