Carson Hocevar's unfiltered personality has quickly made him one of NASCAR's rising stars and a fan favorite.
And while his racing tactics may not endear him to other drivers (and those drivers' fans), the 23-year-old's passion for racing is not disputed.
Hocevar is an avid iRacing user who also does his fair share of late-model racing at short tracks around the country when allowed by his busy NASCAR schedule that includes the full-time Cup slate as well as a part-time Truck Series itinerary.
In that context lies Hocevar's thoughts on July 28 on NASCAR's current status as a TV product while watching the 2000 Talladega fall race, notable for being Dale Earnhardt's final Cup Series victory 26 years ago.
"It’s insane we as a sport produce the product
we give to fans and wonder why fans have lost interest," Hocevar wrote on social media. "This race is beautiful. The sights, the sounds, the cars, the production, the commentators.
"It’s clear as day why the sport is where it’s at and not where it once was. The entertainment value of this race is so much better and so visually more appealing. Casual fans just wanna be entertained. They don’t care about aero, engine packages, downforce, drag, tire wear. They truly don’t care. They just wanna be visually entertained and feel like they’re not wasting their time watching something that’s not prestigious."
Hocevar's thoughts become more biting later in the post.
"We’re on the ventilator and asleep at the wheel of what the real problems are," he continued. "Back in the day you can see the innovation year to year of the broadcast quality and them trying to always improve. Now it’s just cutting stuff to improve the bottom line and wondering why people lose interest or are no longer impressed."
Hocevar's comments came a couple days after a dull Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where lead changes were limited to pit cycles and a pair of restarts in front of an unsightly crowd filling about 30% of track capacity.
How NASCAR TV broadcasts have changed
NASCAR's schedule has always featured multiple television partners, and that continues into 2026 with FOX, Amazon Prime, TNT and USA Network/NBC.
A partner since 2001, FOX's production has undoubtedly dropped in quality over the last decade. Production errors have popped up, including bad camera cuts and unexplained key moments late in races. FOX's Mike Joy noted during a SiriusXM interview earlier this year that some production staff works remotely away from the track, though announcers, pit reporters and camera operators remain on site for Cup races.
And while TNT and Amazon Prime's broadcasts have brought some fresh tweaks to broadcasts via usage of graphics, data and more, there are still fewer special camera angles in cars and around the track than 20 years ago.
One pro: HBO Max features in-car cameras inside each Cup Series vehicle. Even in-car cameras have changed since the sport's heyday, where team sponsors would be plastered all across the car in view of the in-car camera. Now, those in-car viewpoints are akin to a dash camera.
As for the other national series, both the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series on CW Network and the Truck Series on FOX and FS1 feature schedules where announcers call some races remotely from NASCAR's production studio. O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ratings have risen over the last couple seasons while available over the air.
Cup ratings are virtually the same compared to 2025. And both years are significantly lower than a decade ago, which were significantly lower than 10 years before that.
Existentially, the question for NASCAR Cup Series racing is this: Are production values down because TV ratings are down, or are ratings being hurt by more rigid production?
It's clear what Hocevar thinks: Both the racing quality and the broadcast quality must improve.
"There’s nothing new," Hocevar wrote at the end of his social media post. "Eventually they’ve seen it all or it’s a shell of what it once was and there’s no point of tuning in."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Carson Hocevar rants about NASCAR racing product, broadcasts: 'We’re on the ventilator'
