Following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said he has no problem with Carson Hocevar’s unique celebration.
It took Carson Hocevar 91 NASCAR Cup Series starts to find victory lane, and the celebration that followed his win at Talladega didn’t disappoint.
Hocevar, who stands at 6 feet 4 inches tall, managed to wedge himself out of the window of his No. 77, looking at the grandstands while also working the throttle on his car.
To end his ride around the front stretch, Hocevar slammed his car into the outside wall headfirst before letting loose on a burnout.
Of course, while this was clearly something Hocevar had planned during his multi-year journey to victory lane, many fans and even FOX Sports commentators pointed out how tricky the celebration was to get right.
Even Mike Joy, FOX’s lead play-by-play broadcaster, said what was on the minds of a lot of the NASCAR community, that, by Monday, there will probably be a rule against such celebrations.
But, it seems this won’t be the case, as, after Hocevar apologized to newly minted NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell in his post-race press conference, NASCAR’s top dog had no problem with Hocevar’s distinctive moment of NASCAR history.
While explaining how he achieved this setup, Hocevar looked to O’Donnell in the media room and said, “sorry Steve,” to which the executive looked back at Hocevar and said, “I’m good with it.”
Rounding out this comedic exchange, Hocevar gave O’Donnell his endorsement as the new leader of the sport, saying, “I told him a while ago he should have just become CEO a long time ago. It worked out really well for me in this change.”
While Hocevar’s celebration will be remembered for years to come, and, as of Monday morning, is likely ongoing, it did have some pushback from the NASCAR community.
Most complaints either criticized it as unprofessional or even unsafe.
Still, for a long-time fan of the sport to bring home a win at Talladega, most of the NASCAR fanbase can’t blame the former Rookie of the Year for doing something out of the box.
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