NASCAR 2026: Dale Earnhardt Jr. argues Cup Series 'needs' controversial Carson Hocevar

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has revealed he doesn't want Carson Hocevar to change, and argued that the sport needs him.

Hocevar has driven the No. 77 Chevrolet full-time at Spire Motorsports since the beginning of the 2024 season, but it's fair to say that the 23-year-old has ruffled some feathers in that time.

Ryan Blaney labeled Hocevar a 'moron' after an incident at Atlanta last year, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threatened to beat him up post-race in Mexico City.

Hocevar has had a fast start to 2025, leading the Daytona 500 at the white flag, and once again being in contention late on at Atlanta the following weekend.

However, in Atlanta, he came in for plenty of criticism for an overly optimistic move on Christopher Bell, and once again found himself as a point of discussion following COTA, where Cole Custer deliberately ran him off the track and Hocevar subsequently wrecked.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr: NASCAR needs Carson Hocevar

Speaking on his Dale Jr. Download podcast following the latest incident, Earnhardt Jr made his stance on Hocevar very clear.

“I don't want him to change. I don't want Hocevar to change,” Earnhardt Jr. explained.

His podcast co-host TJ Majors replied: “If you were out there driving and he was ending your race, you wouldn't like it.”

“I know but,” Earnhardt Jr. continued. “I want our cars, I want to win every race we enter. I do. I want JRM to win every damn race they enter, and I want all our guys to finish first, second, third, and fourth, and fifth. Above all that, I want this sport to be bigger than any other sport.

“I want it to be watched by tens of millions of people every week, and that's where we need Hocevar. We need people like Hocevar.

“We need people like Connor Zilisch, we need people like Ross Chastain, we need people like Denny Hamlin. We need all these very great, awesome, different personalities, and we need to be celebrating that.”

Hocevar texts revealed

Earnhardt Jr. continued, revealing that he sometimes texts Hocevar with encouragement when he and others are criticizing him.

“I have to text Carson all the time. I text Hocevar, and I say, hey, we're going to be critical, we're going to talk about you. Your job is to buckle up and race, and do your best.

“The noise is going to be noisy. It's when they're not talking about you is when you need to be worried, if you're invisible out there.

“If nobody's worried about you, concerned about you, pulling for you, caring about your performance, then you're in trouble.”

Hocevar heads to Phoenix 10th in the Cup Series standings with 82 points on the board.