Throughout its 78-year history, NASCAR has been known for many colorful nicknames.

Among the most memorable are: The Intimidator (Dale Earnhardt), The King (Richard Petty), Jaws (Darrell Waltrip), Wonderboy (Jeff Gordon), Fireball (Edward Roberts), Swervin’ (Ernie Irvan), Iceman (Terry Labonte), Gentleman (Ned Jarrett), Rowdy (Kyle Busch), Smoke (Tony Stewart), Sliced Bread (Joey Logano), Front Row Joe (Joe Nemechek), Silver Fox (David Pearson), Awesome Bill From Dawsonville (Bill Elliott), The Gentle Giant (Buddy Baker) and The Mayor (Jeff Burton).

Now, say hello to “The Hurricane”

As of Sunday, you can add another vibrant and splashy nickname to that list, one you’re likely to hear numerous times over the next 15-to-20 seasons: that of “Hurricane,” a.k.a. Carson Hocevar, who earned his first career NASCAR Cup victory.

Hurricane Hocevar becomes the 13 driver in Cup history to earn his first career Cup win at arguably the most difficult racetrack on the NASCAR circuit, the fastest and largest of all, Talladega Superspeedway. But remember, unlike the last 11 seasons when NASCAR touted “if you win, you’re in” (the playoffs), Hocevar is not guaranteed an automatic playoff berth this season with Sunday’s win.

Even when it looked as if Hocevar, the 23-year-old pride and joy of Portage, Michigan, might lose for the 91 time in his career in the closing laps due to his relative inexperience on superspeedways like ‘Dega, he stayed the course, keeping his closest challengers at bay to finish first, ahead of cohorts such as Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, and Zane Smith.

It helped that there was a four-car, last-lap wreck on the frontstretch that took four other contenders out of the potential finishing mix: Ryan Preece, Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell, and Shane van Gisbergen.

What a celebratory victory lap!

Hocevar not only won it his way, but he also kept it going after taking the checkered flag – trying to figure out several times how to drive the car around the 2.66-mile track while hanging outside the driver’s side window.

It was a move that will likely be remembered in NASCAR lore like Alan Kulwicki’s “Polish Victory Lap” in 1988 – taking a bow, so to speak, by celebrating with a backward clockwise lap around the site of his first of five career Cup wins, Phoenix International Raceway.

Sunday’s celebration was a long time coming for Hocevar – and even a longer time in planning – although he didn’t exactly have a picture-perfect landing to his celebration: he “stopped” the car by going head-on into the wall at about 5 mph, something that is sure to catch NASCAR’s attention (more on that at the end of this column).

“I’ve had this thought for a while,” Hocevar said of his celebration, adding that he dedicated the win to his grandfather. “I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I don’t care if it took 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure it out how to do it. It took me a while.

“I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it in any better way.”

Now in his third full-time season for Spire Motorsports, Hocevar not only gave Spire its second career Cup, but it was also only his sixth career top-five finish. His two previous best finishes were runner-up showings at Atlanta and Nashville, both coming last season.

While he’s to be complimented on his win, there are some lessons he needs to learn

Alas, while Hocevar is to be commended for his first of what will likely be many wins in his career, there are a few points that need to be made.

First, FOX Sports’ play-by-play lead Mike Joy anointed Hocevar as NASCAR’s “newest superstar.” I disagree. Hocevar will need a lot more wins before he enters the superstar category. As of now, he’s nothing more than a first-time winner – and he needs to remember that instead of letting his ego get in his own way.

Second, in his third season, Hocevar has had several run-ins with fellow drivers. In most cases, he refused to accept blame for his mistakes – if indeed he caused a crash or incident. Hopefully, his win will teach him a bit about humility and good sportsmanship. While Joy and others on the FOX broadcast likened Hocevar to a young Dale Earnhardt, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’d consider him, right now, as maybe an Erik Jones or Michael McDowell, at best.

And if Hocevar believes his press clippings, particularly those who agree he’s the next coming of The Intimidator – again, as Joy claimed – he is going to quickly become persona non grata among his fellow drivers, which obviously will lead to even further conflict and problems between him and his competitors, as well as fans.

The last thing Hocevar wants or needs is to be looked at as the bad guy of NASCAR Cup, or maybe the second coming of Kyle Busch in the early years of his own notorious career. And speaking of looking like the bad guy, please, please, please, get rid of that stupid-looking black cowboy hat. Sure, there are farmers in Michigan, but not many cowboys – and just because he races a car that has 700 horsepower, it does NOT make Hocevar a cowboy.

Another bit of advice I’d offer to the young Cup pilot: knock off some of the AI stuff that he’s done in the past – in the name of humor, which wound up being anything but funny. Perhaps the best example was last fall, when he facetiously created an Artificial Intelligence “news story” that was as fake as a four-dollar bill.

The video was about Hocevar supposedly buying a Chili’s restaurant (Chili’s is his longtime sponsor) in his hometown, which was on the verge of being closed and bulldozed to make way for a new shopping center.

Hocevar then added several AI elements, including a fresh paint job with new interior and exterior, new logos, a new menu heavy with racing-related offerings, and perhaps the biggest faux pas of all: he planned on hiring singer Sabrina Carpenter as his greeter (like she’d take the pay cut, right?).

A number of media members – particularly those in and around the Portage area – fell for Hocevar’s “joke,” much to his amusement. Those kinds of things can come back and haunt someone, so hopefully he’ll forego any additional “jokes”.

Becomes the 13th driver to earn first career Cup win at Talladega

As I said earlier, Hocevar becomes the 13 driver to earn his first career Cup win at Talladega since it first opened in 1969, joining Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers, Ken Schrader, Phil Parsons, Davey Allison, Bobby Hillin Jr., Ron Bouchard, Lennie Pond, Dick Brooks, Richard Brickhouse – seven of whom saw that victory stand as both the first and final win of their Cup careers.

Because of his frequent propensity to post on social media, Hocevar predicted his confidence in himself and his team before Sunday’s race.

“I posted on Instagram, I didn’t really care, (that) we were going to win and we won,” he semi-bragged. “I’m just so thankful. I knew we were going to win. I really did.”

But as I said earlier, don’t be surprised if NASCAR sends out a new rule memo on Monday: No more celebratory laps around a racetrack while hanging half-out the door. I mean, seriously, what would have happened if he slipped and fell out and the car wound up crashing into someone on the track or pit road?

If The Intimidator wasn’t allowed to do it, The Hurricane shouldn’t be able to do it.