Carson Hocevar controversial in career-best day at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — Carson Hocevar generated his best career finish and the most controversy driving his No. 77 car in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta.

The record books will list Hocevar and his No. 77 car as the second-place finisher but had things gone differently, he may have taken his first trip to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Coming into Sunday, NASCAR officials had taken heat for inconsistent caution calls on the final lap. On the final lap of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race the night before, officials didn’t throw the caution for a wreck on the backstretch going into turn three.

In the driver’s meeting Sunday, NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer admitted they should’ve thrown the caution.

Fast forward a few hours and an incident broke out in nearly the same spot as the night before. Hocevar had split the lead duo of Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, setting up for another three-wide finish…

…when NASCAR stuck to their word and threw the caution.

In the end, Hocevar posted a second-place finish and 41 points — each Cup career-high marks for him.

Hocevar ran up front, finishing ninth and seventh in the stages, netting him stage points — and enemies.

After stage one, Kyle Busch went on a long radio rant about the 22-year-old driver, saying he didn’t care if he wrecked the whole field to wreck him.

Busch cooled down and never spoke to Hocevar after the race but several other drivers did.

Ross Chastain talked to Hocevar about his moves during overtime that dropped him out of contention to win. Then Ryan Blaney took his turn to talk about Hocevar’s push that sent him spinning with 27 laps to go.

Blaney, known for his radio outbursts, was much cooler in-person than on the mic.

Hocevar now has two top-five finishes in the Cup Series. His first one was a third-place finish last fall at the Watkins Glen road course.

Hocevar and his newfound rivals head to another road course — Circuit of the Americas — for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. The green flag is set to fly Sunday, March 2, just after 3:30 p.m. ET.