Last weekend’s Craftsman Truck Series stop at Nashville Superspeedway brought renewed attention to Denny Hamlin’s young driver, who burst onto the scene in 2023 and quickly earned a reputation for precision and consistency. Nearly 18 months earlier, he entered the Truck championship finale at Phoenix Raceway as the points leader, only to have his title hopes upended when a rival made contact and ultimately cost him the championship. And the rival’s reputation as NASCAR’s lightning rod isn’t accidental—it’s forged through a series of explosive on-track clashes that have drawn fury from veterans and fines from officials alike.

After all, who can forget the Stenhouse Showdown (Nashville 2025), where on Lap 106, Carson Hocevar dove deep into Turn 3, making contact with Stenhouse’s left rear and sending the 2023 Daytona 500 winner into the wall. Another one is Kyle Busch’s expletive-fueled threat. After a Stage 1 clash at Atlanta, Busch vowed over the radio to “wreck that f—— d—bag,” echoing sentiments from multiple drivers. As Hamlin’s star Corey Heim rolled off the grid in Tennessee, that Phoenix collision still loomed large.

Confronting the Phoenix Finale Fallout

In the season finale of the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Phoenix Raceway (November 3, 2023), the championship boiled down to a two-truck showdown: Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim versus Niece Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar. With 30 laps remaining, Hocevar made contact with Heim in Turn 2, spinning the points leader and all but handing the title to his rival. “The 2023 championship in the Trucks, just with Carson (Hocevar) and the whole mess there. It was just a big rollercoaster of emotions and the public perception,” Heim explained in a post-Nashville interview on June 3, 2025.

That Friday night at Phoenix, Heim led 47 laps and seemed poised to claim his first Truck Series championship. Video replay shows Hocevar’s No. 42 Chevrolet making slight contact with Heim’s No. 11 in Turn 2 on Lap 120 of 150, sending Heim spinning. Spotters immediately relayed, “We’re spun, we’re spun!” He finished 18th, ultimately losing the championship hopes. While that was no less than heartbreak, what followed was worse.

Corey admitted, “For the most part, I’ve been a really clean driver. I don’t really cause a lot of crap, but being under that microscope with 30 to go in a truck race and everything happening the way it did, it put me in a bad light. I had to handle that because I pride myself on racing the way I want to race, so seeing people come crashing down on me for retaliating was tough.” Heim’s record was virtually unblemished.

In his 2022 Truck Series rookie campaign—running a partial schedule for Kyle Busch Motorsports—he secured two victories (Atlanta, Gateway) and earned Rookie of the Year honors. But we all know how the world of motorsport gets, and during the tail end of Stage 2, frustrated and feeling robbed, Heim retaliated by deliberately spinning Hocevar under caution, an action that cost Heim 25 points, a $25,000 fine, and widespread criticism.

Post-season, he spent several months away from the spotlight. “The good part of it was I had the whole offseason to just get over it,” he reflected. “It wasn’t like I had to go racing next week with that mindset. But from a broad perspective, I feel like it was a warranted thing, but I had to just understand I was under a microscope, and it got blown out of proportion a little bit from my standpoint.”

That Phoenix episode left Heim wrestling with intense public scrutiny. He had to then work through a reputation setback—one that lingered even as he rallied to finish second in the 2024 Truck standings. Only after focusing on interviews, sponsor appearances, and fan events in the 2024–2025 offseason did Heim manage to re-establish trust among peers, sponsors, and fans. However, was it the same case with Carson Hocevar as well?

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Carson Hocevar’s 2025 trajectory

Since that Phoenix clash, Carson Hocevar has continued to stir debate. In 2024, he made the jump to the NASCAR Cup Series as Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 driver, finishing 21st in the final standings yet earning Rookie of the Year honors, becoming the third Michigan native to achieve this honor.

On June 1, 2025, Hocevar returned to Nashville Superspeedway for the annual Cup race (the Cracker Barrel 400) and finished second. This is particularly impressive given that he started the race 26th and finished all 300 laps. “Carson’s pace was strong,” noted Racing-Reference. Meanwhile, in Trucks, Hocevar managed to win the Heart of Health Care 200 at the Kansas Speedway.

However, his on-track aggression remains polarizing: opponents praise his raw speed but criticize instances of overzealous blocking. If we look at the early 2025 season, then during a race at Watkins Glen, he was involved in incidents with drivers such as Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Blaney. But the 22-year-old has his own way of dealing with it. He said, “I know some folks still question my style, but I’m focused on winning races. I’ll let the results speak.”

As Hocevar balances a dual-series schedule, running full time in the Cup Series while filling a part-time role at the Truck Series, his growth will be closely observed. Do you think he can avoid controversies moving forward? Let us know in the comments.