Carson Hocevar pulls no punches in his unfiltered take on NASCAR’s COTA lapse: “If they could be sure to get everyone that memo, that would be great”

Carson Hocevar recently criticized NASCAR for its inconsistency in policing track limits during Sunday's (February 2) race at COTA. The Spire Motorsports driver commented on an X post by NASCAR Insider Jeff Gluck and blasted NASCAR for not giving drivers the proper memo that they were allowed to cut corners into Turn 6 of the center esses.

On Sunday, several drivers were seemingly confused about which of the corners on the 2.4-mile track (3.4 miles for F1) were being policed by NASCAR for track limit violations. The chatter started on social media when early race leader Shane van Gisbergen started cutting Turn 6 massively. NASCAR has been trying for a long time to work out a method of enforcing track limits at road courses.

However, it turned out that neither the drivers nor the teams had any clue about which corners they could lean on more heavily and which they couldn't. When Jeff Gluck posted a poll on X asking the fans if COTA was a good race or not, Carson Hocevar commented by saying that it would have been nice if everyone had been told before the fact that they could cut corners into turn 6.

"Hi Jeff, I missed the memo that we could just go ahead and cut corners. next time if they could be sure to get everyone that memo. That would be great. Especially since we have to work on Sunday. Thanks," he wrote.

The initial messaging from NASCAR was that the center esses would be monitored for track violations with cameras, but there was no clarity on which exact corners that entailed. After SVG started massively cutting turn 6, Kyle Busch asked his team to confirm if he could do the same. After speaking with NASCAR officials, Busch's team got back to him and reported that only turns 3, 4, and 5 were being policed.

However, a report by the New York Times suggests that this information was never specifically given to drivers in the drivers' meeting ahead of the race.

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Carson Hocevar talks about the positive talks after criticism in Atlanta

Carson Hocevar didn’t make many friends on-track as he raced to a second-place finish in Atlanta. He drew criticism from Ryan Blaney, his iRacing mentor Ross Chastain, and Kyle Busch for making some aggressive moves. Blaney and Chastain were seen having a private word with Hocevar after the race.

However, ahead of the race in COTA, Carson Hocevar mentioned that apart from Blaney and Chastain, every other conversation he’s had regarding his race in Atlanta was positive. He explained that while everyone else criticized him, one of the sport's most respected figures, Mark Martin, only tried to encourage him.

When asked what Mark Martin told him exactly, Carson Hocevar shared (2:30 onwards):

“Just do our own thing and go race. He has a really good relationship with Luke Lambert, just wanted to tell Luke and reassure him to let me go race and be myself and just go there for the #77 car and sometimes be a little more selfish.”

Hocevar was eyeing another top-five finish in COTA, having started the race from the second row, but could only manage a P13 result.