Carson Hocevar is once again the center of NASCAR attention, and once again he is causing Cup Series chaos in 2026.

The 23-year-old Spire Motorsports phenom has twice been close to claiming spectacular wins at both the Daytona 500 and then at Atlanta on Sunday. Both times those victory hopes evaporated with on-track contact.

While Daytona saw Hocevar win widespread praise for another highly promising drive despite his late wreck, Atlanta brought only postrace acrimony.

The drama happened when what our own Chris Deeley described as ‘a boneheaded move at the first overtime restart’ - diving for a gap between Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell that never truly existed - made Hocevar the bad boy again.

Unsurprisingly ‘Hurricane’ was the biggest topic of conversation after the race in Georgia, and nothing has changed since.

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Denny Hamlin on Hocevar controversy

One of the loudest voices is Cup Series great Denny Hamlin, who gave a considered response on the topic during his ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast on Monday.

Hamlin though provided a more brutal take on Hocevar when responding to a fan on social media on Tuesday.

The fan responded to Denny’s podcast words with: “Same old story, old dog doesn’t like puppy. Puppy isn’t bogged down with baggage. The sport changed last evening whether you like it or not. NASCAR was sued, part of the suit was a return to old school racing. Now you’re not happy?”

Hamlin was not having that, and he clapped back with an analogy which appears pretty on the nose right now.

Carson is not housetrained, yet

Denny explained: “Puppies are great, but if they shit in your bed you gonna just lay in it? Or teach the puppy where to properly take a dump?”

So there you have it, Hocevar is a puppy that everybody loves, full of infectious enthusiasm. But as of now, not particularly housetrained and likely to wreck shop/s*** the bed.

If Daytona (and that Truck Series race in Atlanta) had showed some of the best of the ‘Hurricane’, Atlanta brought out the rough edges that still need to be smoothed.

He may well be the future of the sport one day, evidently not just yet.

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