During the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke on the expectations placed on young Cup Series drivers early in his career, using Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar as an example of one driver he thinks is “worth waiting for.”
During a discussion on Carson Hocevar’s Saturday Night at Kansas Speedway, a race in which the 22-year-old drove his Chevrolet Silverado to a win while flipping off second-place driver Layne Riggs, co-host of the Dale Jr. Download spotter TJ Majors said that Hocevar “needs to be finishing these races off” at the Cup Series level.
Majors was referring to solid runs this season by the driver of the Spire Motorsports No. 77 that have fallen apart late in the race. Majors said that he needs to see Hocevar grow from these races, as he claims the young driver has “made a lot of mistakes.”
However, host and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr had a different perspective on the matter, telling Majors that growth will come with age.
“I don’t have a whole lot of confidence that that’s gonna happen anytime soon,” Earnhardt said. “I think that it will. But I’m telling you, man, we expect way too much out of these guys. We put them in Cup cars at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old.”
Earnhardt says that there is a fair share of young drivers who excel at the Cup Series level. However, he sees those drivers as an anomaly. “There’ll be the anomaly that comes in, kicks ass,” Earnhardt said. “It makes no sense, but they’re just badass.”
Earnhardt claims that those drivers’ success “has a lot to do with just how mature they are in terms of judgment and decision-making.” But most of the time, these young prospects quickly fail to meet expectations at the Cup Series level, with him saying, “But most people are 22-year-old 22-year-olds, right? And they’re gonna f*** up.”
To the former two-time Daytona 500 Champion, Hocevar is the type of driver who will find his footing at some point. “If you can be patient with a guy like Hocevar, the 26-year-old Hocevar will be the driver that you want him to be,” Earnhardt said. “But you gotta be patient with that. Wait for him to get there.”
Earnhardt uses Joey Logano’s stint with Joe Gibbs Racing from 2009 to 2012 as a great example. The young driver was tabbed to replace Tony Stewart behind the wheel of the No. 20 but failed to put up solid numbers, aside from two wins.
This led JGR to replace Logano for 2013, opting for Matt Kenseth. Logano went to Team Penske for that season, where he has since won 36 races, three championships, and a Daytona 500. As Earnhardt puts it, “If the right people didn’t have the idea to give him [Logano] a second chance, he’s not a three-time champion.”
Earnhardt claims this period was the rise of younger and younger drivers in NASCAR’s top division, and he has a few wise words for those doubting Hocevar just one full-time season into his Cup Series career.
“The sport was getting younger and younger, going younger and younger, ‘get these guys in these cars as soon as you can get them in there.’ And they ain’t ready for it. A lot of them aren’t. Some. There’s the anomalies. But, Hocevar is worth waiting for, and most of ’em are.”
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