November 25, 2024 • 32 mins
Carson Hocevar is the new NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year, and the offseason hasn’t yet slowed things down for him because of the award. Hocevar joins the show to discuss what he’s been up to since Phoenix; what he gets out of being at the shop regularly; what winning Rookie of the Year means to him; the difference in his expectations versus those around him; the growth process throughout the year; the races that stand out or Hocevar is most proud of; quickly taking to the Next Gen car; the idea of sim work and how much he does; what the stats don’t show about the season; things that need to be improved for next year; what did or didn’t surprise him about full-time Cup Series racing; reflecting on a fast five years in NASCAR.
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall. Our guest today is Carson Hoosavar of Spire
Motorsports in the number seventy seventeen. Carson is fresh off
of being crowned the twenty twenty four NASCAR Cup Series
Rookie the Year, and I headed over to the race
shop recently to sit down with him and dissect and
discuss his season and everything that went into not only
winning the award but being a full time Cup Series driver.
(00:30):
Carson had twenty three top twenty finishes, six top ten finishes,
and his overall average finish was eighteen point three and
he completed nearly ninety eight percent of the laps, so
a really solid rookie season for Carson. He won the
award over Josh Barry and Zane Smith. Josh Barry actually,
for a story I'm working on for racer dot Com
sung Carson's praises of what a good job he did
(00:51):
he and his team to win that award. So we're
digging into it today with Carson Josovar and looking back
and some really good insight from the rookie on what
it takes and how he has felt pine the wheel
this year. I hope you enjoy it. Let's jump to
the conversation. Here's Carson Hosavar on the Racing Writers Podcast.
(01:13):
All right, Carson, we're a couple of days now into
the first week of the off season. So what have
these first couple of days been, Like.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I mean, busy for me, you know, doing all these interviews, right,
you know, you win something, they want to talk to you,
which is always great, but more anything, just doing meetings here.
You obviously everybody's gonna want to spend time with their
families around the holidays and Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything, so
you don't really stop working until around then. And then
(01:41):
that's when you get a few weeks off for your
guys and for how many new people we have employed
and crew chiefs and engineers and technical directors and other
roles I don't even know, but just people I raced
against or raced with coming into the building. So it's
meeting them or re meeting them and seeing them with
spier logos now instead of the teams you're racing against.
(02:03):
Is fun. But yeah, it's it's good for me to
be here and watch all that. I like to be
here to do that. So just watching them, you know,
look at our cars for the first time, right, you know,
with Travis and Rodney and everybody looking at our cars
what they were racing against, and seeing things that they
like or dislike, and trying to implement ideas that you know,
(02:26):
when we really get going here, they can implement that
new ideas and how we can build our race cars better.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's interesting you say about how much you enjoy being here.
I've heard that about you. You like spending a lot
of time at the race shop. And when I was
here a couple of months ago talking to Doug, he
said the same thing, that you almost live in his
office sometimes trying to ask about stories or just racing things.
What is it about being at the race shop that
is important to you or that you get out of
spending so much time here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I mean, I don't have a lot of friends, so
I just saw my friends are in this building. You know,
I'm just kidding. No, I just enjoy enjoy racing and
the only thing I like to do. Yeah, I don't
like to I don't like to go out and go
really do things that aren't racing. So yeah, when I'm
here I'm around racing, you're talking racing, you're talking race cars,
(03:11):
or you're talking with the people you like doing things
with and storytelling and whatnot, like Doug and everybody, and
you know, Rodney and Travis. It's you know, it's fun
for me to come here and give them hard time
and then laugh and joke with the guys that you
you know, you're here more than your family basically are.
They're here more than with us than they are their
(03:32):
families most of the time throughout the year. So it's
fun for me to to come here, and you know,
during the off season, it's still fun because you know,
you're not there's no pressure or anything. It's not you know,
you're not rush. You're not having to travel like everybody's.
It's like the you know, when you have you're done
with schoolwork, and they you still have to be at
school for the day, so you're just kind of just
watching movies and pizza parties and whatnot. So that's kind
(03:56):
of what the off season feels like. You're just you're
still in school with all your you know, same four
walls and all the same people. It's just you don't
have to do any real work or anything. It's just
kind of just looking around, talking and brainstorming.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, the interviews, as you mentioned, is because you are
officially the Cup Series Rookie of the Year for twenty
twenty four. Let me start by asking before we dig
into more about the season of just what that means
to you now that you've been hearing it the last
couple of days and it's official and the graphics are
out there, what does that mean to you? Is it
sunk in of what the accomplishment? How big is it
for you?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, obviously it's a big deal. It's the only thing
we really thought we could win this year. Yeah, I
mean we didn't. Maybe it's spires still right, you know,
it wasn't expecting a win and wasn't expecting to make
the playoffs this early. You know, eventually we'd like to,
but realistically, the best thing for us to have won
(04:50):
or have a shot to win, was Rookie of the Year.
So yeah, we thought we had a really good shot
to do that, and we're able to get the best
Spire points finished. I think that for me me personally,
I don't want to say it meant more, but it
meant a lot for me to do that. My goal
was last year after Bristol. It was my third ever
(05:10):
Cup race, when we ran fifth, Like I mean, everybody
said I was probably a run twenty fifth. Like all
my people around me right like they were trying to,
you know, say like, hey, if you run twenty fifth
in this Cup car, you're be in a good spot.
And then we fished fifth in like stage two and
ran like fifth all day, have a loose We on
fished eleventh, So I was probably running out a little
bit of like a high of like not really supposed
(05:32):
to do that, your third ever Cup start in a
car that was like thirty six and owner's points. So
for me, I was like doing research. I remember sitting
in the office of MMI and I'm looking at points
finishes for you know, like Larsen and all these guys,
and I'm like, I'm gonna fish twentieth in points, that's
my goal, and they just like wide eyed me and
(05:53):
told me the same deal they always told me, like, no,
it's not gonna happen. It's really difficult. It's a lot
harder than you think. And then yeah, you're there's twenty first,
but or twentieth and overall points, I can't really predict
somebody running thirty second in points beating you in points
with the win with the playoffs. But that meant a
lot to me to win Rookie the Year and you
(06:14):
know be twentieth twenty first in points. Is that was
you know, be able to hit our goal right away?
I think was the biggest thing for me, to be
able to have a goal and execute on it and
achieve it.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
It sounds like there's a mix between your expectations and
your goals and folks around you trying to keep you
maybe realistic to what they think the standard should be.
It sounds like those don't always mix. But that's that's
not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, I remember last year, you know, I mean I
must speak for spier Jeff or TJ or anybody that
you know what they thought of me or how I
worked into their loop pro the year. But I remember
my cousin, you know, Dave four Steck with Premiere, asked
what he expected, you know, what what TJ expected from us?
(07:05):
And he's like, man, I expect us to be really fast,
but reck a lot of race cars. And I was
like looked at, like, man, what do you think I'm
gonna do here, like, but he looked at it like,
you know, it's it's any rookie. Most rookies regular race
cars that are fast because you just make mistakes and
you push things and you expect rookie mistakes. And for me,
(07:25):
I was like, well, hude, I don't. I ran like
ten Cup races and I only wrecked like once, Like
I think I'm gonna be okay. I ran because I
ran anywhere from fifth to thirty fifth. I'm like, the
only places I hadn't learned how to race and Cup
was within the top four. I was like, I feel like,
if you know how to run fifth, you're eventually going
to learn how to run the next few spots. So
for me, I feel like the expectations I've I was
(07:47):
always super hard on myself, Like I kind of expected
to run anywhere from like fifteen to twentieth, like the
first every time I drove in a Cup car, Like
I mean, I remember at Gateway, I had other Cup
guys giving me advice of how I'm going to get
out of the way when I get lapped, Like I
got brought to somebody's motor home and got told what
to do when I get lapped and I was running
(08:08):
sixteenth like a few spots behind them, So like for me,
I was I was like, man like, everybody's overlook at
me a lot, which I think works well for me,
like gives me a very low floor and for me,
like I always felt like I was playing with house
money in a cup car because nobody expected anything except me.
So if I did do well, I was going to
(08:31):
really surprise a lot of people. I felt like, before.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We continue to dig more into the season, I wanted
to ask about just the maturation process because there's been
highs and lows this year, right, and there's been challenges
that come with being a full time driver, and there's
other people's expectations. There's incidents that happen on the racetrack. How, Carson,
do you feel like you've grown from February to November
of the good days, the bad days, mistakes, you know,
(08:55):
you've made just everything that comes with again being a rookie,
the good and the bad. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think it's more learning the cup field and then
learning me. I felt like I was, you know, the
first time I got in a cup car, it wasn't
like a oh my gosh, this is so long. I
can't believe I got to figure out how to run
five hundred miles. For me, I've always felt like I
would be in the truck races and be like, this
is it, this is over, It's already like we're like
(09:21):
every time we got to stage two, I'm like, I
feel like I barely broke a sweat. Like I wanted
really long races because I felt like I would do
better in them. So that part always felt kind of
comfortable or sort of what I was always striving to want.
But I think from February to Phoenix, it was you know,
learning of you know, I feel like I started letting
a lot more people go throughout the year. I mean
(09:44):
it was like almost every week I have somebody mad
at me for how I raced them. And by the
end of the year, like I had those same guys,
you know, starting to give me spots. You know. I
remember like one guy was really like struggle with how
I was racing with him, like or was really frustrated,
and I took that and realized, like, this guy's really good.
(10:08):
He wins races, and you know, you know, I realized, like,
all right, I'm gonna give him some leeway and room
and hope I get this back and later and he
remembers it, and sure enough, by the end of the year,
you know, he was in the playoffs and let me go.
He pointed me by and let me go, and I'm like, sweet,
at least he honored his deal, Like maybe maybe this
stuff was work because I always I don't know, I
(10:28):
always thought people would lie, like I don't know, like
at least that's what I would think, like, hey, man,
like your stuff's like let me go, like and I'll
I'll let you go when it comes back. And I'm like, well,
that's just the biggest lie every race car driver like, yeah,
well you're like we're a little faster than you right now.
We'll just just keep letting us go and then you know,
(10:50):
when you get faster, we'll let you We'll let you
go back by it later in the year. And I'm like, okay, whatever.
And for me, I'm like, they're probably thinking my cars
are never going to get faster than theirs and Inspire
seventy seven, right, and so it's it's been learning that.
And you know, Jeff Dickerson even reminded me is like,
you know, we were racing Reddick for like ten laps
(11:10):
really really tight, and you know he had enough trust
in me, like I mean, it's his championship, Like he
had enough faith in me to run an inch off
my door and I wasn't gonna get loose and get
into him or crash or spin and do anything. So
I feel like I have the trust level of when
I'm racing side by side of majority of the field,
(11:31):
or at least I'm wanting to work at it. It's
a lot of fun to learn from these guys and
race with them. I want them to not like racing
me a little bit because it means I'm doing a
good job and I'm fast. But I don't want them
hating racing me because they're scared I'm gonna crash them
or something. And I feel like I've started to go
back towards that end of that of just like they
(11:53):
have plenty of comfortableness with my car control, it's just
you know, them being comfortable with my decision making is
the thing that you know, I probably have to still
continue to develop. Is you know, most race car drivers
that still win races, you know, still do just their
moments are sometimes rare than mine.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, what are the races that come to mind that
you're really proud of this year or you felt really
good you and the team just it felt like you'd
put complete races together because you had top twenties, you
had some top tens in there. You guys ran very
well throughout the course of the year qualifying, You had
your ups and downs. So really for a rookie season,
it seems like you guys did a little bit of everything.
(12:34):
What are the races though, that come to mind that
stand out because you're most proud of or you felt
really good about.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Homestead is probably the most want proud of this first
time I spire cars ever gotten stage points in both
stages and then fished top ten in the race. Stale
and you know there was a lot of the race
where there was seven of the top eight were playoff
cars and then there was me so and you know
we're not a key part or right like, so, you know,
(13:01):
when you're in the playoffs, all those unlimited resources you
start you start finding out how unlimited those are. Right, Manufacturers, teams, everybody,
I'm sure you know, starts doing favors and you know,
with you know, just trying, you know, there's there there
becomes no budget almost, I'm sure right, you know, final A,
it's last chance shot to Phoenix. It's whatever you need,
(13:22):
you know, from the manufacturer, from the team to you know,
the owners, every every you know, crew chiefs, everybody you know,
it's whatever we can do, you know as much sometime
like whatever you need. And for us it was business
as usual and we still had this speed as of
those guys. If you TV made a mistake and put
our name in yellow, I don't know if anybody would
have bad an eye for how we're running. So that
(13:44):
was probably the most proud of you know, Richmond, I
think was big because we were really really bad in
the spring. We ran like twenty fifth and like my
other two teammates I think they think they had were
thirty fifth and thirty six, like they were both like last,
and luckily we qualified good enough, otherwise we would have
been right there back with them. Like I didn't bleed
(14:05):
all the way to last, but I was really close.
So as a whole, as you know, three car team,
we were like the slowest car there and for the
fall we were the seventy seven bunch. At least we're
you know, really good. We drove up to like eighth
and ran top ten all day. So be able to
go from how bad we were in the spring to
just circle back and have a really good day in
(14:27):
the fall was big for us to just show the
growth of our deal.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
What about this car do you feel the most comfortable with?
Because this car, I mean it's been around for three
seasons now, I mean there's still drivers that feel like
they haven't figured it out or they're still trying to
change their driving style with this car. But for you,
I haven't heard much of the same complaints. It seems
like you're comfortable, you've adapted to it. I'm sure it
(14:53):
comes with its challenges, right, But is there a reason
why you feel like this car has been not quote
unquote easy, but you've taken to it since since you
since you got in it last year you took to it.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel like I have
like a specific driving style, which I think helps, Like
I feel like I can I don't want to say
I feel like I can drive anything, but like I
just feel like it's a race car, you know. I
remember I drove a dirt Late Model for the first time,
and I instantly felt comfortable in that. And when I
drove a truck, I felt comfortable in that. And when
(15:25):
I drove an argur car, I felt comfortable on a
late model and you know, a cup car now even
a Spinity car, like I drove a you know, autobahn
like Indye car for a sponsor of mind that he had,
and I felt comfortable in that after like two runs.
So like I was driving on the right side of
the car or like in the center and you know
(15:46):
this little formula wheel and open wheel and laying down,
and I mean within two runs, I was sliding in
and driving like it was a felt you know, close
to a cup car ish. So I don't know, I've
always like, I feel like the car. I definitely feel
comfortable and obviously with you know, the same time and
everything I've gotten before getting in it for the first time.
(16:07):
But really I don't. I think it's just another race car.
Like I feel like I'm just able to get in
anything and be comfortable and doesn't mean I'm gonna be
fast or the best in it. Like I've drove a
dirt midget and I'm not built for it. I feel
like that's why I'm slow. I'm way too tall. But like,
I've drove a lot of different things and I think
(16:28):
that's helped me a lot. And I think if I
could drive a lot more things throughout the year, I
think it would to make me even better. Yeah, I'm
envious of Larcen's schedule, but our dirt late mall sitting
in the shop. Me and Jeff have said it's it's
supposed to be our toy to learn how to get
my hands dirty, a little bit of how to build
a race car. But also too that you know, he's
(16:49):
full agreeance that you know, anything I can drive will
just make me be able to be better.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
How much SIM time do you get and what are
the bene fits you feel you take from it? Because
there's drivers that have so many varying opinions of how
they feel about the SIM So for you, how much
time do you get here at Spire as a Spier driver,
and then what's the most do you take away from it?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You feel like, well, we get like a day two
a week to work on it, which is like an
hour or two per session, you know, between the two
or three drivers we have. But I think it's for me.
I could probably run without it and not be any slower,
but I think our cars would be Like I think
our setups and our engineers and crew chief Luke Lambert
(17:35):
and everybody like you know, we're able to you know,
Chevrolet does a really good job with their simulator, and
my engineers and everybody does a really good job translating
it to the racetrack. And I think our cars are
have gotten better specifically because of the sim But for me,
if they banned the sim I feel like I feel
like people other drivers might slow down where I would
not go the same or I wouldn't. I don't think
(17:56):
there would be much of a difference for me, so
I look at it more as you know, it helps
them more than me, which still helps me in our
whole group.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What do the stats, Carson not show about this team
and what you guys did this year? Because it's easy
to look at paper and look at the top twenties,
the top tens and how you guys performed in practice
and qualifying. What don't the stats show people about what
you all did this year?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't know. There's a lot of races that we
lost spots like it could have been one hundred point
different of a season for sure, you know, like fortieth
at Daytona, we got wrecked, running ninth at Atlanta, got wrecked
running six at Chicago, blew attire running six, that are
eighth at Kansas, dropped the jack undergreen running seven, or
(18:42):
running six at Kansas again Nashville, running eighth. On the
last lap, Brisco ran out fuel in front of me.
I ran right in the back of him. Lost like
ten spots. I mean, there's just so many. I mean
left the right front off at Darlington and went from
running eighteenth to crashing and running thirtieth. So difference is
like every every team has those things, but for us,
(19:03):
like if you know, those were all besides they tone obviously,
but like those are all like tend to go green
white checker incidents. And we were, you know, in a
good spot to finish all those spots, and there was Yeah,
then then we're ahead of our cr bunch were caught
up to you know, they getting closer to the one
(19:23):
and twenty three in points, and teams spend a lot
of money to gain like two spots and points, and
we were able to theoretically gain thirteen and with the
opportunity to more of you know, like like we're really close.
We finished nineteenth in regular season points, but then a
bunch of people start passing us because the playoffs, like
(19:45):
the want We were right with the ninety nine, the fourteen,
the two in points and they obviously once they won
that was we can't pass them, and then the twenty
one to one and then he passed us. So yeah,
I mean, we could have been anywhere from i'eenth to
nineteen twentieth in points if it's just a regular points
(20:05):
year and that's without getting stage points. I think next year,
like that would be the difference for us is that's
the only place we're not good at, and that's the
difference makers. I feel like we're the best car that
doesn't get stage points consistently right now, Like we were
the best finishing car, which is why if you look
at the points, it's like like everybody's really close, and
(20:25):
then like there's like a one hundred point gap and
there's me, and there's like another like one hundred point gap,
and there's the rest of feld. I was kind of
on my own island for like the last four or
five weeks because I was like, I can't pass anybody.
Nobody can pass me, Like I'm on my own island,
and I think that was mainly because we didn't have
any really horrible finishes like right in a row, but
we didn't get any stage points either.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Let's continue along that same path, so stage points. It
sounds like we'll be on the list for next year
of things that can be improved. What are the races
or other things that will stick out from this year
that did not go well or something you know, you
you as a driver, as the team, we all need
to focus on because we didn't perform to standard or
races that and race tracks, maybe that will come to mind.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, well, I mean stage points obviously are gonna be
the biggest thing for us. I mean there's just you know,
it's ten to twenty points a weekend available and you
just I mean you can't. You can't make those up.
I mean, you could have a thirty point swing day
if you were to, you know, get really fish top
five and fish top five of those stages. I mean,
you could gain thirty forty points on a bunch of
(21:30):
people right away. But no, I don't know if there's
a single track that we're like not good at and
we're talking to you know, a new technical director down
there and he's like, where y'all good at and we
just kind of named a bunch of places. He's like, man,
it's not really like single like type of track. It's
just a lot of random places. And when we weren't
(21:51):
really good, it was kind of random too, Like it's
not like we are really good on the road courses.
We need to figure out how to do the intermediates
or the short tracks. Like it's like, oh, we're good
at this short track. We weren't good at this one,
but then the spring we were good, and fall we weren't.
Like it just kind of hot and cold a little bit,
but are hot and cold? I think was the biggest
thing was like we're cold. It was like high teens
(22:12):
and we were hot. It was high single digits, like
it never last half of the year. Wasn't like we
unloaded and we're like, oh, we're gonna run twenty fifth today.
We're always in the teens of some kind, which I
think is going to be strong if we can just
keep that consistently. Just when we have our good days,
we need to get stage points with it to help
offset the bad days.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Is there anything about cup racing that surprised you or
didn't surprise you going through a full season. Now, got
you had the starts last year, right, but you come
in your own team, now would spy? Are you settle
in here? You run a full season, only have the
two week break during the Olympics. Is there anything that
stood out or didn't surprise you about full time Cup
racing this year?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I don't know. I never was really like surprised. I
guess the biggest thing is I was surprised the similarities
of my you know, my truck key year. You know,
I kind of went in nobody had any expectations. I
had trucks I was never really heard of. I was
a lot of my trucks were blank, you know during
COVID time and practice. But a lot of the similarities.
(23:13):
Like I had two you know teammates ID, you know,
Ryan Trex, who was kind of new to full time,
and then Moffatt obviously you know, veteran and whatnot. And
halfway through Moffatt got let go and TRUEX is kind
of struggling. So like all of a sudden, by halfway
through the year, I had a creature swap and like
I was now leading all the meetings like I was
(23:33):
the one leading the directions of our trucks, and I
was the one now making the playoffs, and I was
the one running the best Like like it became like
halfway through of just like hey, let's just try to
finish races to like all right, now you're our flagship guy.
I want to say that happened here at Spire, right,
but like, you know, was kind of struggled out of
the gate with you know, the semi one and new
(23:55):
car and you know the track house thing, you know,
I mean there was a lot of different It was
kind of going against them to not go out of
the gate good. You know, me and Luke already had
a relationship and already had experienced so you know, we
I feel like we were gonna come out of the
gate better than them, you know on paper if you
kind of really looked at it from a wide scope.
(24:16):
But you know, Court kind of struggled and obviously that
changed and swapped and you know, similar deal. By halfway
through the year, we were I want to say the flagship,
but like we're running the best of our bunch. That
I was now you know, kind of dictating the direction
of our cars or they were taking a lot more.
I want to say I was making more of a change,
(24:38):
but like my feedback was very important. Now it was
a lot more important and a lot more respected per
se or valued or whatever when we're gonna call it.
And so honestly it was it felt really similar to
my truck rookie year of just you know, just how
things swapped very very quickly for me, of just how
well we ran, and you know, all of a sudden
(24:59):
it was like, oh, shoot, okay, like we have something here,
Let's work on it and make sure we'd finish the
year really strong. And you know, it's kind of the
same deal here at Spire.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I want to end on reviewing something or pulling something
from earlier this year. You'd posted on x or Twitter
that it was five years ago that you had driven
a NASCAR vehicle for the first time. Here you are now,
first full Cup season down, You competed for a truck
series last year, had had a full year there now
(25:28):
Cup rookie. Is it surreal? What's the feeling of thinking
about these five years and everything you've done now to
this point.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I wish I could go back and relive it a
little bit. So I appreciate it a little bit more
just because it was all It all happened so fast,
it was all blur a little bit. Like I have
a lot of core memories that are like I'm a
very visual learner. I remember, like I remember like little
things like I get reminded like ones. I think of
one thing like that I'm reminded of, and I can
(25:58):
picture where I was and what I had the like
a snapshot of it. But I can only remember the
snapshots like that I somehow got. It's like looking through
a camera in my brain, Like I can't remember what happened,
but I remember what it looked like, and you know,
I remember like little details of everything, And yeah, I
(26:18):
mean it's super it's crazy to think about. I mean,
there are a lot of days that I didn't know
if I was gonna run a It wasn't sure if
I was running a truck or didn't know if I
was gonna run it again. Now that I ran one
and all right, well I'm running a second race. I
don't know if that's gonna happen. And you know I was,
I mean I was probably a day away from maybe
(26:42):
trying to run a few races with Jordan Anderson's team.
Uh and then Nice called like like that was how
Like if he called a day later, then we signed
something with Jordan. I mean, probably wouldn't have done it
in the same deal, like Nie, you know, Cody, you
fall deciding to make that call, and you know, I
the second my dad called me saying that Nice Motorsports
(27:04):
called I, I said, oh, that's cool, and you know,
it's the first time race team's ever really called me
that has NASCAR on their thing, and like that's cool,
like but yeah, yeah, I can't afford it, you know,
Oh well but that's cool. Like that was literally my thought,
Like I was really just ready to hate, Like I
was all about hanging up, Like I was like, oh
that's cool. I appreciate it, but I can't afford it.
(27:27):
But it's cool. They're like no, no, like they want
to do whatever we can to put you in a
racecar a few times and I was like, oh, well,
why are you staring a pune with me? Like how
do I get to North Carolina? And that was a
difference maker, Like that was the whole thing. And then
all of a sudden it was just went from you know,
never missed the playoffs with Nice finally won some races
(27:50):
and made a Final Four appearance and went from you know,
last year I had a few Xfinity races planned, but
like that was like it and it just happened to
work out really well with the sponsor I had that
Nie sold took up the sponsor real estate that I
had tried to put together for trucks, and I was like, well,
I have this sponsor, but I don't have nowhere to
(28:13):
put it. So went to Spire. I was like, hey,
can you I'd like to run six Sea races to
help me just get some more experience, but mainly like
I'd like to win a truck championship. I'd like to
fill out my ear more because I think I need
to race more. With the way the truck schedule is,
you get a month offish. Like that was the whole
thought process. It wasn't to get a cup seed. It
was like, hey, I want to win a truck championship
(28:34):
and this is how I think I could help myself
is driving more races on NASCAR and not going to
run a late model or doing anything. It's it's like
I want to keep doing pit stops and doing things
and obviously eventually if I could get to Sfanity, that
was going to help me too. And you know, obviously
what happened at Charlotte to allow me to drive a
(28:56):
cup car once, I was like, yeah, I'd always thought
i'd if I ever got the opportunity to drive a
cup car, I could take advantage of it. And I
think I could get myself at least back into a
cup car after one race. And yeah, luckily it all happened.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
It went from I remember trying to sign and trying
to negotiate an extension for a truck ride with no
expedity offers, no cup offers, never talked to a cup
owner before in my life too. Within a week or
two of Gateway having a cup offer, so pretty surreal, then, yeah,
it happened really fast, and it's been fun for my
(29:33):
family and I right, like it's been fun to be
a hired race car driver the last two or three years.
That's been fun and less stressful for my family, right
and for us of trying to find every ounce of
dollars we can do to go racing. It's it's obviously expensive,
but luckily I had owners that would cover a lot
(29:54):
of it. And I could just find a little bit
I could help them. And then when I was racing
for a niece, it was just about racing, not about money,
you know, halfway through our tenure, and that became a
lot of fun, less stressful for sure. And then you
obviously on Sundays. It's a lot nicer for my family
because my dad owns a little jewelry store and he's
(30:16):
opened on Sunday. So he's gone to more races this
year than he's ever came in my whole racing career
in one year, so that's been a lot of fun.
The only race he's ever shut down the store and
came to was Phoenix last year when we had a
shot to win a championship, which he wasn't gonna come
because he thought it was bad luck. He thought he
was bad luck. So we win the championship. So but
(30:37):
luckily he was there at Watkins Glen when we almost won,
so that finally I could stop saying he was bad luck, right,
or he could stop saying he was bad luck.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So a lot has happened in five years. Congratulations Carson
on winning Rookie of the Year this year. I'm sure
a busy off season ahead and then lost to prepare
for for next season. But I appreciate the time as always,
and once again, congratulations on having that next year. Your
name now rookie the year in the Cup Series.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, it'd be good to hear that inchros until hopefully
we win and then they can say Cup Series winner.
But it's good to hear when I'm announced.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And once again my appreciation of Carsion for coming on
the podcast, sitting down and having me over at the
race shop. I thought it was a really good conversation,
very insightful, especially how open he was, so I appreciate
that very much. If you enjoyed the conversation, please leave
a rating and review. Hopefully you are subscribed. Hit the
follow button. You can follow me on social media go
to the show description of this episode. Your best bet
to find me on a social media platform that you
(31:38):
prefer is to go to my link tree account and
they are all listed there. Everything from Facebook, Twitter, x Instagram,
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I appreciate you clicking, listening and giving me feedback and
looking forward to the podcast every week. On that note,
I just appreciate the support. As I said, we've had
a great year. This right now is our last episode
of the twenty twenty four season, but we will be
(32:00):
back soon, strong and rolling right along into twenty twenty
five with brand new episodes and great conversations right here
on the Racing Writers Podcast
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall. Our guest today is Carson Hoosavar of Spire
Motorsports in the number seventy seventeen. Carson is fresh off
of being crowned the twenty twenty four NASCAR Cup Series
Rookie the Year, and I headed over to the race
shop recently to sit down with him and dissect and
discuss his season and everything that went into not only
winning the award but being a full time Cup Series driver.
(00:30):
Carson had twenty three top twenty finishes, six top ten finishes,
and his overall average finish was eighteen point three and
he completed nearly ninety eight percent of the laps, so
a really solid rookie season for Carson. He won the
award over Josh Barry and Zane Smith. Josh Barry actually,
for a story I'm working on for racer dot Com
sung Carson's praises of what a good job he did
(00:51):
he and his team to win that award. So we're
digging into it today with Carson Josovar and looking back
and some really good insight from the rookie on what
it takes and how he has felt pine the wheel
this year. I hope you enjoy it. Let's jump to
the conversation. Here's Carson Hosavar on the Racing Writers Podcast.
(01:13):
All right, Carson, we're a couple of days now into
the first week of the off season. So what have
these first couple of days been, Like.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I mean, busy for me, you know, doing all these interviews, right,
you know, you win something, they want to talk to you,
which is always great, but more anything, just doing meetings here.
You obviously everybody's gonna want to spend time with their
families around the holidays and Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything, so
you don't really stop working until around then. And then
(01:41):
that's when you get a few weeks off for your
guys and for how many new people we have employed
and crew chiefs and engineers and technical directors and other
roles I don't even know, but just people I raced
against or raced with coming into the building. So it's
meeting them or re meeting them and seeing them with
spier logos now instead of the teams you're racing against.
(02:03):
Is fun. But yeah, it's it's good for me to
be here and watch all that. I like to be
here to do that. So just watching them, you know,
look at our cars for the first time, right, you know,
with Travis and Rodney and everybody looking at our cars
what they were racing against, and seeing things that they
like or dislike, and trying to implement ideas that you know,
(02:26):
when we really get going here, they can implement that
new ideas and how we can build our race cars better.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's interesting you say about how much you enjoy being here.
I've heard that about you. You like spending a lot
of time at the race shop. And when I was
here a couple of months ago talking to Doug, he
said the same thing, that you almost live in his
office sometimes trying to ask about stories or just racing things.
What is it about being at the race shop that
is important to you or that you get out of
spending so much time here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I mean, I don't have a lot of friends, so
I just saw my friends are in this building. You know,
I'm just kidding. No, I just enjoy enjoy racing and
the only thing I like to do. Yeah, I don't
like to I don't like to go out and go
really do things that aren't racing. So yeah, when I'm
here I'm around racing, you're talking racing, you're talking race cars,
(03:11):
or you're talking with the people you like doing things
with and storytelling and whatnot, like Doug and everybody, and
you know, Rodney and Travis. It's you know, it's fun
for me to come here and give them hard time
and then laugh and joke with the guys that you
you know, you're here more than your family basically are.
They're here more than with us than they are their
(03:32):
families most of the time throughout the year. So it's
fun for me to to come here, and you know,
during the off season, it's still fun because you know,
you're not there's no pressure or anything. It's not you know,
you're not rush. You're not having to travel like everybody's.
It's like the you know, when you have you're done
with schoolwork, and they you still have to be at
school for the day, so you're just kind of just
watching movies and pizza parties and whatnot. So that's kind
(03:56):
of what the off season feels like. You're just you're
still in school with all your you know, same four
walls and all the same people. It's just you don't
have to do any real work or anything. It's just
kind of just looking around, talking and brainstorming.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, the interviews, as you mentioned, is because you are
officially the Cup Series Rookie of the Year for twenty
twenty four. Let me start by asking before we dig
into more about the season of just what that means
to you now that you've been hearing it the last
couple of days and it's official and the graphics are
out there, what does that mean to you? Is it
sunk in of what the accomplishment? How big is it
for you?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, obviously it's a big deal. It's the only thing
we really thought we could win this year. Yeah, I
mean we didn't. Maybe it's spires still right, you know,
it wasn't expecting a win and wasn't expecting to make
the playoffs this early. You know, eventually we'd like to,
but realistically, the best thing for us to have won
(04:50):
or have a shot to win, was Rookie of the Year.
So yeah, we thought we had a really good shot
to do that, and we're able to get the best
Spire points finished. I think that for me me personally,
I don't want to say it meant more, but it
meant a lot for me to do that. My goal
was last year after Bristol. It was my third ever
(05:10):
Cup race, when we ran fifth, Like I mean, everybody
said I was probably a run twenty fifth. Like all
my people around me right like they were trying to,
you know, say like, hey, if you run twenty fifth
in this Cup car, you're be in a good spot.
And then we fished fifth in like stage two and
ran like fifth all day, have a loose We on
fished eleventh, So I was probably running out a little
bit of like a high of like not really supposed
(05:32):
to do that, your third ever Cup start in a
car that was like thirty six and owner's points. So
for me, I was like doing research. I remember sitting
in the office of MMI and I'm looking at points
finishes for you know, like Larsen and all these guys,
and I'm like, I'm gonna fish twentieth in points, that's
my goal, and they just like wide eyed me and
(05:53):
told me the same deal they always told me, like, no,
it's not gonna happen. It's really difficult. It's a lot
harder than you think. And then yeah, you're there's twenty first,
but or twentieth and overall points, I can't really predict
somebody running thirty second in points beating you in points
with the win with the playoffs. But that meant a
lot to me to win Rookie the Year and you
(06:14):
know be twentieth twenty first in points. Is that was
you know, be able to hit our goal right away?
I think was the biggest thing for me, to be
able to have a goal and execute on it and
achieve it.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
It sounds like there's a mix between your expectations and
your goals and folks around you trying to keep you
maybe realistic to what they think the standard should be.
It sounds like those don't always mix. But that's that's
not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, I remember last year, you know, I mean I
must speak for spier Jeff or TJ or anybody that
you know what they thought of me or how I
worked into their loop pro the year. But I remember
my cousin, you know, Dave four Steck with Premiere, asked
what he expected, you know, what what TJ expected from us?
(07:05):
And he's like, man, I expect us to be really fast,
but reck a lot of race cars. And I was
like looked at, like, man, what do you think I'm
gonna do here, like, but he looked at it like,
you know, it's it's any rookie. Most rookies regular race
cars that are fast because you just make mistakes and
you push things and you expect rookie mistakes. And for me,
(07:25):
I was like, well, hude, I don't. I ran like
ten Cup races and I only wrecked like once, Like
I think I'm gonna be okay. I ran because I
ran anywhere from fifth to thirty fifth. I'm like, the
only places I hadn't learned how to race and Cup
was within the top four. I was like, I feel like,
if you know how to run fifth, you're eventually going
to learn how to run the next few spots. So
for me, I feel like the expectations I've I was
(07:47):
always super hard on myself, Like I kind of expected
to run anywhere from like fifteen to twentieth, like the
first every time I drove in a Cup car, Like
I mean, I remember at Gateway, I had other Cup
guys giving me advice of how I'm going to get
out of the way when I get lapped, Like I
got brought to somebody's motor home and got told what
to do when I get lapped and I was running
(08:08):
sixteenth like a few spots behind them, So like for me,
I was I was like, man like, everybody's overlook at
me a lot, which I think works well for me,
like gives me a very low floor and for me,
like I always felt like I was playing with house
money in a cup car because nobody expected anything except me.
So if I did do well, I was going to
(08:31):
really surprise a lot of people. I felt like, before.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We continue to dig more into the season, I wanted
to ask about just the maturation process because there's been
highs and lows this year, right, and there's been challenges
that come with being a full time driver, and there's
other people's expectations. There's incidents that happen on the racetrack. How, Carson,
do you feel like you've grown from February to November
of the good days, the bad days, mistakes, you know,
(08:55):
you've made just everything that comes with again being a rookie,
the good and the bad. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think it's more learning the cup field and then
learning me. I felt like I was, you know, the
first time I got in a cup car, it wasn't
like a oh my gosh, this is so long. I
can't believe I got to figure out how to run
five hundred miles. For me, I've always felt like I
would be in the truck races and be like, this
is it, this is over, It's already like we're like
(09:21):
every time we got to stage two, I'm like, I
feel like I barely broke a sweat. Like I wanted
really long races because I felt like I would do
better in them. So that part always felt kind of
comfortable or sort of what I was always striving to want.
But I think from February to Phoenix, it was you know,
learning of you know, I feel like I started letting
a lot more people go throughout the year. I mean
(09:44):
it was like almost every week I have somebody mad
at me for how I raced them. And by the
end of the year, like I had those same guys,
you know, starting to give me spots. You know. I
remember like one guy was really like struggle with how
I was racing with him, like or was really frustrated,
and I took that and realized, like, this guy's really good.
(10:08):
He wins races, and you know, you know, I realized, like,
all right, I'm gonna give him some leeway and room
and hope I get this back and later and he
remembers it, and sure enough, by the end of the year,
you know, he was in the playoffs and let me go.
He pointed me by and let me go, and I'm like, sweet,
at least he honored his deal, Like maybe maybe this
stuff was work because I always I don't know, I
(10:28):
always thought people would lie, like I don't know, like
at least that's what I would think, like, hey, man,
like your stuff's like let me go, like and I'll
I'll let you go when it comes back. And I'm like, well,
that's just the biggest lie every race car driver like, yeah,
well you're like we're a little faster than you right now.
We'll just just keep letting us go and then you know,
(10:50):
when you get faster, we'll let you We'll let you
go back by it later in the year. And I'm like, okay, whatever.
And for me, I'm like, they're probably thinking my cars
are never going to get faster than theirs and Inspire
seventy seven, right, and so it's it's been learning that.
And you know, Jeff Dickerson even reminded me is like,
you know, we were racing Reddick for like ten laps
(11:10):
really really tight, and you know he had enough trust
in me, like I mean, it's his championship, Like he
had enough faith in me to run an inch off
my door and I wasn't gonna get loose and get
into him or crash or spin and do anything. So
I feel like I have the trust level of when
I'm racing side by side of majority of the field,
(11:31):
or at least I'm wanting to work at it. It's
a lot of fun to learn from these guys and
race with them. I want them to not like racing
me a little bit because it means I'm doing a
good job and I'm fast. But I don't want them
hating racing me because they're scared I'm gonna crash them
or something. And I feel like I've started to go
back towards that end of that of just like they
(11:53):
have plenty of comfortableness with my car control, it's just
you know, them being comfortable with my decision making is
the thing that you know, I probably have to still
continue to develop. Is you know, most race car drivers
that still win races, you know, still do just their
moments are sometimes rare than mine.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, what are the races that come to mind that
you're really proud of this year or you felt really
good you and the team just it felt like you'd
put complete races together because you had top twenties, you
had some top tens in there. You guys ran very
well throughout the course of the year qualifying, You had
your ups and downs. So really for a rookie season,
it seems like you guys did a little bit of everything.
(12:34):
What are the races though, that come to mind that
stand out because you're most proud of or you felt
really good about.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Homestead is probably the most want proud of this first
time I spire cars ever gotten stage points in both
stages and then fished top ten in the race. Stale
and you know there was a lot of the race
where there was seven of the top eight were playoff
cars and then there was me so and you know
we're not a key part or right like, so, you know,
(13:01):
when you're in the playoffs, all those unlimited resources you
start you start finding out how unlimited those are. Right, Manufacturers, teams, everybody,
I'm sure you know, starts doing favors and you know,
with you know, just trying, you know, there's there there
becomes no budget almost, I'm sure right, you know, final A,
it's last chance shot to Phoenix. It's whatever you need,
(13:22):
you know, from the manufacturer, from the team to you know,
the owners, every every you know, crew chiefs, everybody you know,
it's whatever we can do, you know as much sometime
like whatever you need. And for us it was business
as usual and we still had this speed as of
those guys. If you TV made a mistake and put
our name in yellow, I don't know if anybody would
have bad an eye for how we're running. So that
(13:44):
was probably the most proud of you know, Richmond, I
think was big because we were really really bad in
the spring. We ran like twenty fifth and like my
other two teammates I think they think they had were
thirty fifth and thirty six, like they were both like last,
and luckily we qualified good enough, otherwise we would have
been right there back with them. Like I didn't bleed
(14:05):
all the way to last, but I was really close.
So as a whole, as you know, three car team,
we were like the slowest car there and for the
fall we were the seventy seven bunch. At least we're
you know, really good. We drove up to like eighth
and ran top ten all day. So be able to
go from how bad we were in the spring to
just circle back and have a really good day in
(14:27):
the fall was big for us to just show the
growth of our deal.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
What about this car do you feel the most comfortable with?
Because this car, I mean it's been around for three
seasons now, I mean there's still drivers that feel like
they haven't figured it out or they're still trying to
change their driving style with this car. But for you,
I haven't heard much of the same complaints. It seems
like you're comfortable, you've adapted to it. I'm sure it
(14:53):
comes with its challenges, right, But is there a reason
why you feel like this car has been not quote
unquote easy, but you've taken to it since since you
since you got in it last year you took to it.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel like I have
like a specific driving style, which I think helps, Like
I feel like I can I don't want to say
I feel like I can drive anything, but like I
just feel like it's a race car, you know. I
remember I drove a dirt Late Model for the first time,
and I instantly felt comfortable in that. And when I
drove a truck, I felt comfortable in that. And when
(15:25):
I drove an argur car, I felt comfortable on a
late model and you know, a cup car now even
a Spinity car, like I drove a you know, autobahn
like Indye car for a sponsor of mind that he had,
and I felt comfortable in that after like two runs.
So like I was driving on the right side of
the car or like in the center and you know
(15:46):
this little formula wheel and open wheel and laying down,
and I mean within two runs, I was sliding in
and driving like it was a felt you know, close
to a cup car ish. So I don't know, I've
always like, I feel like the car. I definitely feel
comfortable and obviously with you know, the same time and
everything I've gotten before getting in it for the first time.
(16:07):
But really I don't. I think it's just another race car.
Like I feel like I'm just able to get in
anything and be comfortable and doesn't mean I'm gonna be
fast or the best in it. Like I've drove a
dirt midget and I'm not built for it. I feel
like that's why I'm slow. I'm way too tall. But like,
I've drove a lot of different things and I think
(16:28):
that's helped me a lot. And I think if I
could drive a lot more things throughout the year, I
think it would to make me even better. Yeah, I'm
envious of Larcen's schedule, but our dirt late mall sitting
in the shop. Me and Jeff have said it's it's
supposed to be our toy to learn how to get
my hands dirty, a little bit of how to build
a race car. But also too that you know, he's
(16:49):
full agreeance that you know, anything I can drive will
just make me be able to be better.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
How much SIM time do you get and what are
the bene fits you feel you take from it? Because
there's drivers that have so many varying opinions of how
they feel about the SIM So for you, how much
time do you get here at Spire as a Spier driver,
and then what's the most do you take away from it?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You feel like, well, we get like a day two
a week to work on it, which is like an
hour or two per session, you know, between the two
or three drivers we have. But I think it's for me.
I could probably run without it and not be any slower,
but I think our cars would be Like I think
our setups and our engineers and crew chief Luke Lambert
(17:35):
and everybody like you know, we're able to you know,
Chevrolet does a really good job with their simulator, and
my engineers and everybody does a really good job translating
it to the racetrack. And I think our cars are
have gotten better specifically because of the sim But for me,
if they banned the sim I feel like I feel
like people other drivers might slow down where I would
not go the same or I wouldn't. I don't think
(17:56):
there would be much of a difference for me, so
I look at it more as you know, it helps
them more than me, which still helps me in our
whole group.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What do the stats, Carson not show about this team
and what you guys did this year? Because it's easy
to look at paper and look at the top twenties,
the top tens and how you guys performed in practice
and qualifying. What don't the stats show people about what
you all did this year?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't know. There's a lot of races that we
lost spots like it could have been one hundred point
different of a season for sure, you know, like fortieth
at Daytona, we got wrecked, running ninth at Atlanta, got wrecked
running six at Chicago, blew attire running six, that are
eighth at Kansas, dropped the jack undergreen running seven, or
(18:42):
running six at Kansas again Nashville, running eighth. On the
last lap, Brisco ran out fuel in front of me.
I ran right in the back of him. Lost like
ten spots. I mean, there's just so many. I mean
left the right front off at Darlington and went from
running eighteenth to crashing and running thirtieth. So difference is
like every every team has those things, but for us,
(19:03):
like if you know, those were all besides they tone obviously,
but like those are all like tend to go green
white checker incidents. And we were, you know, in a
good spot to finish all those spots, and there was Yeah,
then then we're ahead of our cr bunch were caught
up to you know, they getting closer to the one
(19:23):
and twenty three in points, and teams spend a lot
of money to gain like two spots and points, and
we were able to theoretically gain thirteen and with the
opportunity to more of you know, like like we're really close.
We finished nineteenth in regular season points, but then a
bunch of people start passing us because the playoffs, like
(19:45):
the want We were right with the ninety nine, the fourteen,
the two in points and they obviously once they won
that was we can't pass them, and then the twenty
one to one and then he passed us. So yeah,
I mean, we could have been anywhere from i'eenth to
nineteen twentieth in points if it's just a regular points
(20:05):
year and that's without getting stage points. I think next year,
like that would be the difference for us is that's
the only place we're not good at, and that's the
difference makers. I feel like we're the best car that
doesn't get stage points consistently right now, Like we were
the best finishing car, which is why if you look
at the points, it's like like everybody's really close, and
(20:25):
then like there's like a one hundred point gap and
there's me, and there's like another like one hundred point gap,
and there's the rest of feld. I was kind of
on my own island for like the last four or
five weeks because I was like, I can't pass anybody.
Nobody can pass me, Like I'm on my own island,
and I think that was mainly because we didn't have
any really horrible finishes like right in a row, but
we didn't get any stage points either.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Let's continue along that same path, so stage points. It
sounds like we'll be on the list for next year
of things that can be improved. What are the races
or other things that will stick out from this year
that did not go well or something you know, you
you as a driver, as the team, we all need
to focus on because we didn't perform to standard or
races that and race tracks, maybe that will come to mind.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, well, I mean stage points obviously are gonna be
the biggest thing for us. I mean there's just you know,
it's ten to twenty points a weekend available and you
just I mean you can't. You can't make those up.
I mean, you could have a thirty point swing day
if you were to, you know, get really fish top
five and fish top five of those stages. I mean,
you could gain thirty forty points on a bunch of
(21:30):
people right away. But no, I don't know if there's
a single track that we're like not good at and
we're talking to you know, a new technical director down
there and he's like, where y'all good at and we
just kind of named a bunch of places. He's like, man,
it's not really like single like type of track. It's
just a lot of random places. And when we weren't
(21:51):
really good, it was kind of random too, Like it's
not like we are really good on the road courses.
We need to figure out how to do the intermediates
or the short tracks. Like it's like, oh, we're good
at this short track. We weren't good at this one,
but then the spring we were good, and fall we weren't.
Like it just kind of hot and cold a little bit,
but are hot and cold? I think was the biggest
thing was like we're cold. It was like high teens
(22:12):
and we were hot. It was high single digits, like
it never last half of the year. Wasn't like we
unloaded and we're like, oh, we're gonna run twenty fifth today.
We're always in the teens of some kind, which I
think is going to be strong if we can just
keep that consistently. Just when we have our good days,
we need to get stage points with it to help
offset the bad days.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Is there anything about cup racing that surprised you or
didn't surprise you going through a full season. Now, got
you had the starts last year, right, but you come
in your own team, now would spy? Are you settle
in here? You run a full season, only have the
two week break during the Olympics. Is there anything that
stood out or didn't surprise you about full time Cup
racing this year?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I don't know. I never was really like surprised. I
guess the biggest thing is I was surprised the similarities
of my you know, my truck key year. You know,
I kind of went in nobody had any expectations. I
had trucks I was never really heard of. I was
a lot of my trucks were blank, you know during
COVID time and practice. But a lot of the similarities.
(23:13):
Like I had two you know teammates ID, you know,
Ryan Trex, who was kind of new to full time,
and then Moffatt obviously you know, veteran and whatnot. And
halfway through Moffatt got let go and TRUEX is kind
of struggling. So like all of a sudden, by halfway
through the year, I had a creature swap and like
I was now leading all the meetings like I was
(23:33):
the one leading the directions of our trucks, and I
was the one now making the playoffs, and I was
the one running the best Like like it became like
halfway through of just like hey, let's just try to
finish races to like all right, now you're our flagship guy.
I want to say that happened here at Spire, right,
but like, you know, was kind of struggled out of
the gate with you know, the semi one and new
(23:55):
car and you know the track house thing, you know,
I mean there was a lot of different It was
kind of going against them to not go out of
the gate good. You know, me and Luke already had
a relationship and already had experienced so you know, we
I feel like we were gonna come out of the
gate better than them, you know on paper if you
kind of really looked at it from a wide scope.
(24:16):
But you know, Court kind of struggled and obviously that
changed and swapped and you know, similar deal. By halfway
through the year, we were I want to say the flagship,
but like we're running the best of our bunch. That
I was now you know, kind of dictating the direction
of our cars or they were taking a lot more.
I want to say I was making more of a change,
(24:38):
but like my feedback was very important. Now it was
a lot more important and a lot more respected per
se or valued or whatever when we're gonna call it.
And so honestly it was it felt really similar to
my truck rookie year of just you know, just how
things swapped very very quickly for me, of just how
well we ran, and you know, all of a sudden
(24:59):
it was like, oh, shoot, okay, like we have something here,
Let's work on it and make sure we'd finish the
year really strong. And you know, it's kind of the
same deal here at Spire.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I want to end on reviewing something or pulling something
from earlier this year. You'd posted on x or Twitter
that it was five years ago that you had driven
a NASCAR vehicle for the first time. Here you are now,
first full Cup season down, You competed for a truck
series last year, had had a full year there now
(25:28):
Cup rookie. Is it surreal? What's the feeling of thinking
about these five years and everything you've done now to
this point.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I wish I could go back and relive it a
little bit. So I appreciate it a little bit more
just because it was all It all happened so fast,
it was all blur a little bit. Like I have
a lot of core memories that are like I'm a
very visual learner. I remember, like I remember like little
things like I get reminded like ones. I think of
one thing like that I'm reminded of, and I can
(25:58):
picture where I was and what I had the like
a snapshot of it. But I can only remember the
snapshots like that I somehow got. It's like looking through
a camera in my brain, Like I can't remember what happened,
but I remember what it looked like, and you know,
I remember like little details of everything, And yeah, I
(26:18):
mean it's super it's crazy to think about. I mean,
there are a lot of days that I didn't know
if I was gonna run a It wasn't sure if
I was running a truck or didn't know if I
was gonna run it again. Now that I ran one
and all right, well I'm running a second race. I
don't know if that's gonna happen. And you know I was,
I mean I was probably a day away from maybe
(26:42):
trying to run a few races with Jordan Anderson's team.
Uh and then Nice called like like that was how
Like if he called a day later, then we signed
something with Jordan. I mean, probably wouldn't have done it
in the same deal, like Nie, you know, Cody, you
fall deciding to make that call, and you know, I
the second my dad called me saying that Nice Motorsports
(27:04):
called I, I said, oh, that's cool, and you know,
it's the first time race team's ever really called me
that has NASCAR on their thing, and like that's cool,
like but yeah, yeah, I can't afford it, you know,
Oh well but that's cool. Like that was literally my thought,
Like I was really just ready to hate, Like I
was all about hanging up, Like I was like, oh
that's cool. I appreciate it, but I can't afford it.
(27:27):
But it's cool. They're like no, no, like they want
to do whatever we can to put you in a
racecar a few times and I was like, oh, well,
why are you staring a pune with me? Like how
do I get to North Carolina? And that was a
difference maker, Like that was the whole thing. And then
all of a sudden it was just went from you know,
never missed the playoffs with Nice finally won some races
(27:50):
and made a Final Four appearance and went from you know,
last year I had a few Xfinity races planned, but
like that was like it and it just happened to
work out really well with the sponsor I had that
Nie sold took up the sponsor real estate that I
had tried to put together for trucks, and I was like, well,
I have this sponsor, but I don't have nowhere to
(28:13):
put it. So went to Spire. I was like, hey,
can you I'd like to run six Sea races to
help me just get some more experience, but mainly like
I'd like to win a truck championship. I'd like to
fill out my ear more because I think I need
to race more. With the way the truck schedule is,
you get a month offish. Like that was the whole
thought process. It wasn't to get a cup seed. It
was like, hey, I want to win a truck championship
(28:34):
and this is how I think I could help myself
is driving more races on NASCAR and not going to
run a late model or doing anything. It's it's like
I want to keep doing pit stops and doing things
and obviously eventually if I could get to Sfanity, that
was going to help me too. And you know, obviously
what happened at Charlotte to allow me to drive a
(28:56):
cup car once, I was like, yeah, I'd always thought
i'd if I ever got the opportunity to drive a
cup car, I could take advantage of it. And I
think I could get myself at least back into a
cup car after one race. And yeah, luckily it all happened.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
It went from I remember trying to sign and trying
to negotiate an extension for a truck ride with no
expedity offers, no cup offers, never talked to a cup
owner before in my life too. Within a week or
two of Gateway having a cup offer, so pretty surreal, then, yeah,
it happened really fast, and it's been fun for my
(29:33):
family and I right, like it's been fun to be
a hired race car driver the last two or three years.
That's been fun and less stressful for my family, right
and for us of trying to find every ounce of
dollars we can do to go racing. It's it's obviously expensive,
but luckily I had owners that would cover a lot
(29:54):
of it. And I could just find a little bit
I could help them. And then when I was racing
for a niece, it was just about racing, not about money,
you know, halfway through our tenure, and that became a
lot of fun, less stressful for sure. And then you
obviously on Sundays. It's a lot nicer for my family
because my dad owns a little jewelry store and he's
(30:16):
opened on Sunday. So he's gone to more races this
year than he's ever came in my whole racing career
in one year, so that's been a lot of fun.
The only race he's ever shut down the store and
came to was Phoenix last year when we had a
shot to win a championship, which he wasn't gonna come
because he thought it was bad luck. He thought he
was bad luck. So we win the championship. So but
(30:37):
luckily he was there at Watkins Glen when we almost won,
so that finally I could stop saying he was bad luck, right,
or he could stop saying he was bad luck.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So a lot has happened in five years. Congratulations Carson
on winning Rookie of the Year this year. I'm sure
a busy off season ahead and then lost to prepare
for for next season. But I appreciate the time as always,
and once again, congratulations on having that next year. Your
name now rookie the year in the Cup Series.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, it'd be good to hear that inchros until hopefully
we win and then they can say Cup Series winner.
But it's good to hear when I'm announced.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And once again my appreciation of Carsion for coming on
the podcast, sitting down and having me over at the
race shop. I thought it was a really good conversation,
very insightful, especially how open he was, so I appreciate
that very much. If you enjoyed the conversation, please leave
a rating and review. Hopefully you are subscribed. Hit the
follow button. You can follow me on social media go
to the show description of this episode. Your best bet
to find me on a social media platform that you
(31:38):
prefer is to go to my link tree account and
they are all listed there. Everything from Facebook, Twitter, x Instagram,
any platform that you enjoy I am likely on and
I appreciate you clicking, listening and giving me feedback and
looking forward to the podcast every week. On that note,
I just appreciate the support. As I said, we've had
a great year. This right now is our last episode
of the twenty twenty four season, but we will be
(32:00):
back soon, strong and rolling right along into twenty twenty
five with brand new episodes and great conversations right here
on the Racing Writers Podcast
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