Carson Hocevar cherishes every opportunity to return to his home track in Berlin Raceway.
Although his commitments to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series keeping him occupied for most of the year, the history and vibrant atmosphere of Berlin always bring Hocevar back to the facility whenever he has time on his hands.
With an off weekend for the Truck Series coinciding with Berlin’s season-opening Icebreaker on Saturday, Hocevar is eagerly looking forward to climbing back into a Super Late Model and reliving some of his fondest memories from the beginning of his career.
“I’m excited to come back home and race in front of my family and the hometown crowd,” Hocevar said. “I won’t be staying in a hotel room or in a camper because I get to go home right after the race. It will be nice to get re-acclimated to Berlin and prepare for the Money in the Bank [150] and the [Battle at Berlin] 251.”
FLORACING: Catch the IceBreaker live on Saturday night
Hocevar’s success in Berlin’s Super Late Model division was almost immediate. He picked up his first career victory in the full-bodied stock car when he was just 13 before claiming a track championship the following year in 2017.
The person Hocevar credits for his early efficiency at Berlin is former Truck Series champion Johnny Benson Jr., who ran four full-time seasons at the track and managed to claim an Outlaw Late Model championship in 1989 before making the jump to NASCAR in the mid-1990s.
Benson was approached by Hocevar’s dad Scott about mentoring his son and possibly purchasing his in-house Outlaw Late Model. While Benson did not sell the car to Scott, he agreed to have Hocevar take laps in it at Hickory Motor Speedway when he was 11.
It only took a handful of tests before Hocevar was closely mirroring Benson’s lap times at Hickory. Benson was impressed with the car control Hocevar was displaying and wanted to maintain an influence as Hocevar developed his skills at Berlin.
Benson knew Berlin itself would be a great teacher for Hocevar to figure out his driving style due to the lack of grip and abrasive nature of the facility.
“Berlin is in my top five of the hardest tracks I’ve ever run at,” Benson said. “Anybody can drive there, but being competitive there is very hard. I wanted to teach him at one of the hardest tracks instead of an easy one, but I told [Carson] that his days of winning every single race were probably done once he started racing at Berlin.”
Benson has seen plenty of drivers put together a great setup for one race at Berlin only for the next event to backfire for them despite not making any changes from the previous week, which is why he has stressed to Hocevar the importance of being patiently aggressive at Berlin.
There are many lessons from Benson’s tutelage that Hocevar still carries with him, but the one that is always on his mind every time he visits Berlin is to always be up on the wheel so none of the other drivers can gain an advantage over him.
“There’s a lot of tire wear at Berlin,” Hocevar said. “It’s a very technical, rhythm-based track, and there’s never a point where you get going straight and just relax. You’re setting yourself up early down the straightaways for how you enter and exit the corners. If you get complacent at Berlin, you’ll give up half a tenth.”
The advice from Benson has been in Hocevar’s mind with each trip to Berlin. Along with his track championship, Hocevar’s accomplishments at Berlin also include two consecutive victories in the prestigious Money in the Bank 150, which he obtained in 2020 and 2021.
Hocevar dominated in both of those victories by leading a combined 265 of 300 laps against many talented Super Late Model drivers such as Stephen Nasse, local veteran Boris Jurkovic and former Snowball Derby winner Travis Braden.
Although the Icebreaker is smaller in scale compared to the Money in the Bank 150 and the Battle at Berlin 251, Hocevar still anticipates plenty of challenges on Saturday evening when it comes to managing equipment during the short sprint.
“With these races, the time of day and time of year is so important,” Hocevar said. “It’s been very cold in Michigan, so [Berlin] is going to have a lot more grip for the Icebreaker. The race is only 75 laps, so it will be a little bit more forgiving with tire wear, but you still have to hit on the setup right away since you won’t have a pit stop to fall back on.”
RACING REFERENCE: Hocevar’s career NASCAR stats
Hocevar is optimistic that a victory in front of Berlin’s crowd on Saturday night will help him continue the momentum from narrowly missing his first career Truck Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway last week.
Despite coming up one spot short to defending champion Ben Rhodes, Hocevar’s second-place run matched his career-best finish in the Truck Series he obtained at Charlotte Motor Speedway last year and served to further validate the idea that his experience at Berlin is helping him with his progression.
Benson was pulling for Hocevar to hold off Rhodes in the closing laps, but he knows the patience and versatility behind the wheel will lead to that breakthrough victory soon.
“Once he gets that first win [in the Truck Series] and gets more experience, [Carson] will continue to do well,” Benson said. “He did a great job at Bristol this past weekend, and he’s figured out how to get to the finish. The hardest part about racing is finishing out the end, but Carson has gained respect from a lot of people, and he should be proud of himself.”
Hocevar is not sure if his career trajectory would be the same without the countless hours of repetition and dedication it took to thoroughly understand Berlin and become one of the most successful drivers in the facility’s recent history.
With all three crown jewel events at Berlin on Hoecvar’s calendar this year, he feels confident about adding a few successful chapters to his history at Berlin while simultaneously gaining knowledge that he can apply to NASCAR’s top three divisions.
“Any of these races are hard to win,” Hocevar said. “Competition even at the local level is becoming very difficult because everyone’s equipment is so similar, but it’s big anytime to win a race at Berlin with how hard the place is to keep up with and how good the locals are. We just have to hit the setup and not over adjust.”
Regardless of how the Icebreaker turns out for Hocevar, he said Saturday night is simply about enjoying the moment at a track that helped shaped his career in motorsports today.
A track that Hocevar is more than happy to call home.