Carson Hocevar has gained a certain kind of infamy in the NASCAR community. Some fans love him, others most certainly do not. In a sport like NASCAR, some drivers are the heroes and others play the heel. The late Kyle Busch knew this all too well, and he embraced the role with gusto. So the question on everyone’s mind is, will Hocevar be the new villain?

The thing with Hocevar is, love him or hate him, you just can’t ignore him. Back in the early 2000s, this perfectly described Kyle Busch. NASCAR needed someone like Busch or Hocevar. Despite their polarizing nature, many fans still love them. With that said, did NASCAR help out Hocevar in his rise up the popularity rankings?

“Yeah, I mean. I’d be lying if I was like, ‘Yeah they’re sitting here behind the scenes and we got a storyboard. We’re WWE-ing this up and everything,” Hocevar said in his X clip released by NASCAR reporter Claire B Lang.

Lang had asked Hocevar the same question that had been posed to Kyle Busch: about NASCAR helping the driver navigate the ‘bad guy’ role.

“They’re pulling me in directions and helping me out that way.’ I would say, I feel like NASCAR’s been a benefit for me. Having myself in commercials or in ads, sending out the 15 vs 1 release, I guess. All the NASCAR reps and media members, and everything. That’s their job, to obviously make superstars,” Carson Hocevar further told Claire Lang.

According to the #77 driver, there are times when a sport’s higher-ups don’t like it when an athlete starts becoming bigger than the sport. As an example, when someone says Formula One, the first name that comes to mind is Michael Schumacher.

In tennis, the first name that will likely pop into anyone’s head is Roger Federer. Athletes like them have excelled at such a level that they transcend the sport.

With that said, Carson Hocevar noted that NASCAR has done well to harness drivers’ popularity. To that end, he placed a lot of faith in NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell.

The Spire Motorsports driver believes that O’Donnell knows how to create and build up NASCAR superstars. The primary aim is to have a NASCAR driver be recognisable by casuals. Only then will it help boost the sport, because the driver can draw in the fans towards the sport.

The driver showered a lot of praise on Steve O’Donnell

As it happens, Carson Hocevar has been in regular contact with O’Donnell. Apparently, he quite liked the #77 driver’s viral Talladega celebrations. Needless to say, that was enough to put him in Hocevar’s good graces. It reached thepoint that the driver would often pitch ideas for O’Donnell’s approval.

“He understands the game he’s in, and the balance he’s got to play,” Hocevar said in the same interview. “Of making it beneficial, the best, financially. Impossible task for all the teams and drivers to be happy. At the same time, figure out how to make the fans enjoy it. Make the casual fans enjoy it, without alienating the passionate fans that want it this specific way.”

What the driver acknowledged was that O’Donnell was in a tough spot. However, his concerns are surprisingly in line with the fans’ complaints. Of course, NASCAR always wants to improve itself, and it is a consumer business at the end of the day. According to Carson Hocevar, there are times when constructive criticism can be viewed as people just being negative.

The Spire Motorsports star insisted that Steve O’Donnell is a really smart man. In the sense that he is full of really good ideas or is open to contributions from others.

Another application of his genius is by him having the ability to put people in key positions, and O’Donnell will listen to everybody’s ideas and use the best ones. With any luck, this could help NASCAR out in the long run.