Carson Hocevar stole the spotlight again at Grant Park 165 in Chicago, though likely not in the way he wanted. The Spire Motorsports rookie sparked one of the wildest pileups in the narrowest circuit on the calendar. The downtown circuit has since ignited scathing reactions from the drivers caught in the chaos.
Notably, NASCAR veteran Kevin Harvick wasn’t holding back. Harvick ripped into Hocevar’s mistake, saying it was a textbook example of rookie recklessness, and he couldn’t let it go unchallenged.
10-car pileup brings criticism for Hocevar
The trouble kicked off lightning fast, just four laps in, as Hocevar clipped the inside wall exiting turn 10. His wheel snapped, the car jerked sideways, and it came to rest, blocking the track at one of its highest points. Cue the domino effect. Seven other cars ran into the bottleneck. Austin Dillon was among the first trapped. He couldn’t avoid the spinning Chevy and T-boned it, instantly ending his race, and many others followed suit, including Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suárez, Riley Herbst, Todd Gilliland, and Will Brown.
On his Happy Hour podcast, Kevin Harvick critiqued the pileup; he dismantled Hocevar’s execution step-by-step, emphasizing how dangerous the aftermath was. He goes on to say, “I mean, this created a huge traffic jam. And it’s just so easy to do exactly what Hocevar does right here: he hits the inside wall, and when you hit that inside wall at the apex of the corner, it just shoots the car straight, takes the steering out from underneath you. You see, the result right here in the narrowest part of the racetrack. A lot of guys just weren’t getting the message that there was a stack-up, and they just kept piling in.”
That collision unleashed one of the most memorable radio moments of the season. Dillon, radioing in post-impact, didn’t mince words: “Carson Hocevar is the biggest d—— in the entire sport. Everybody knows it, buddy. He wiped out into 10 and just wiped out of the field.” As for Keselowski, he cut through the wreckage mess with raw honesty, holed suspension, and no chance to fight back. Hocevar, meanwhile, was left with a 35th-place finish and a trail of wreckage.
It is no secret that Carson Hocevar has been labeled as the Intimidator for his aggressive and fierce driving style on the track. He earned the nickname from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the DJD podcast after a string of aggressive on-track moves that brought back echoes of Dale Sr.—fast, fearless, and unbothered by criticism. This wasn’t just empty praise; it came from Hocevar’s controversial bump on Ricky Stenhouse Junior at Nashville, a move Junior admitted could’ve been avoided but one that perfectly captured the No. 77’s bold, win-at-all-costs mentality.
He clashed with veterans like Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney and even received a pushback from Ross Chastain, adding fuel to his growing reputation. Despite causing a massive pileup in Chicago, Carson didn’t shy away; he owned the mistake. On his team radio, he admitted, “Just got too close to the barrier,” and later added, “I think the left front suspension is torn completely off of it,” showing awareness of how his overzealous entry into Turn 10 triggered the chaos that collected at least seven other cars.
Harvick, though, further added, “You’ve got to remember, each one of those barriers weighs about 10,000 pounds. You see how easily the barrier moved—that tells you how hard and heavy these cars are. When you clip that inside wall with the right side of the car like that, it’ll shoot you straight into the outside wall. Some of those corners had the barrier up against the curb, so it had no give. If you hit it even a little, it really shoots you out.”
So even the slightest contact acts like hitting a solid concrete edge; it bounces the car violently and leaves the driver with no room to recover or correct the steering. This can be really dangerous for the driver.
Harvick commends the Spire Motorsport driver’s speed but also admits that he could be a track hazard. He goes on to say, “Hocevar is on the verge of disaster, every lap running that fast. Definitely some frustrations mounting on those radios. It’s hot. A lot of guys haven’t caught a break. Dillon was running well in a good position, and then all of a sudden, somebody else’s mistake takes you out. You hear the frustration that a lot of drivers have toward Hocevar, and at this point, he’s guilty just by association. You’re driving the 77 car, so you’re ‘the d——-.’”
After the horrific lap four melee, Hocevar turned things down with the more measured reflection. While Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick slammed him as reckless, others like Denny Hamlin offered context. Hamlin observed that Carson’s speed wasn’t malicious; it was a pace misjudgment at speed, compounded by street course-like unforgiving curb-adjacent walls. Hocevar hasn’t publicly defended his move, suggesting that he is aware that he has pushed one too many boundaries but sees room to grow. However, Carson wasn’t the only thing on Harvick’s mind. The Hall of Famer was bothered by something way bigger.
Kevin Harvick replies to the viral Chicago breakup letter
This time, he aimed his frustration directly at the media, specifically Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Greenberg, for his dismissive take on the NASCAR Chicago Street race. Harvick felt the columnist hadn’t bothered to engage with a sport before passing judgment.
In his scathing breakup column titled Dear NASCAR: End of the road in Chicago can’t come fast enough, Greenberg sarcastically blames NASCAR for invading Chicago’s core, forcing street closures, cancelling free local traditions like Taste of Chicago, and delivering a disrupted Fourth of July weekend. He mocked the event as a relationship that needs to end, saying, “It’s not you, NASCAR. It’s us… We’re just not feeling fireworks.” He argued that the race brought traffic headaches and alienated locals who prefer traditional Chicago sports. “You say drafting, we think Colston Loveland. You say banking, we think Ricketts. You say ovals, we think White Sox box score.”
“Some of these slapstick, like this guy from the Sun-Times, this is Steve Greenberg guy, that wrote the crappy story this morning… he wants to just show up and talk bad. He doesn’t want to come out and find out about the sport,” said Harvick, clearly exasperated. He emphasized that the criticism wasn’t the issue; it was Greenberg’s lack of effort to understand the appeal and nuance of what NASCAR was trying to do with the street race.
For Harvick, Greenberg’s column assembles an automatic dismissal of a broader issue, dismissive journalism that keeps the homework. He pointed out that Greenberg had made no apparent effort to speak with teams, drivers, or fans before penning this article, making his perspective feel hollow and lazy. This wasn’t just about defending NASCAR. It was about defending its evolution. Harvick saw the Chicago Street race as a bold experiment, worthy of fair coverage and genuine curiosity. And when that was replaced by a drive-by opinion piece, Harvick didn’t hesitate to clap back on national TV.
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