Denny Hamlin offers hot take on controversial NASCAR rival

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin offered a hot take on controversial Cup Series rival Carson Hocevar following Sunday's race.

Hamlin came out on top in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway after a late battle with William Byron, taking his third victory of the season.

However, with 19 laps to go, Hocevar had been leading the race and looking good for his first-ever win in the Cup Series, only for a blown tire to ruin his day. The No. 77 eventually came home in 29th position.

It was the second consecutive race that Hocevar came agonisingly close to tasting his first victory in NASCAR's elite series, having finished second to Ryan Blaney at Nashville a week prior.

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Denny Hamlin says Carson Hocevar can be elite

As close as Hocevar came to winning at Nashville, however, he also caused controversy on the way to that second-place finish after wrecking Ricky Stenhouse Jr earlier in the race.

The 22-year-old has a history of rubbing up some of his rivals the wrong way with his aggressive driving style and carefree attitude, and often divides opinion.

One thing Hamlin is sure of, though, is that Hocevar is a future race winner and has the raw talent to be an elite Cup Series driver.

“You can’t run as fast as he’s [Hocevar] running, being up front as much as he’s up front, without eventually winning," Hamlin told the media at Michigan.

"I know that panic can sometimes set in. It’s like, ‘Ah, we lost this opportunity,’ but he’s with a team that’s on the rise. He is on the rise, and so, it’s just a matter of time.”

Hamlin continued: “I certainly give him his fair share of s**t on Mondays on my podcast, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect his talent. Absolutely, just a superstar when it comes to actual raw talent,"

"When he figures out how to harness that and pick and choose the moments where he’s aggressive, he’s going to put it all together and just be the next whoever. There’s five to six elite drivers in this field, he can be one of those five or six very easily when he puts it all together.

"He's got all the tools to do it. He's got all the pieces of the puzzle right in front of him. He has all the pieces. He's not missing anything. It's just when he figures out the riddle of how to put it together, he's going to be a future star."

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