Fiery racing incidents in high-stakes situations aren’t new in NASCAR, and Carson Hocevar has found himself involved in them quite a few times this season. At Bristol last Saturday, things reached a boiling point when he made contact with Ryan Blaney, ending the Team Penske driver’s race. The two then engaged in an all-out brawl. However, according to Denny Hamlin, that’s not what has landed Hocevar in hot water. It’s what he does after he leaves the track that’s the issue.
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Hocevar’s website stated that fans could get a 12% discount on his merchandise for 12 hours after the Blaney incident. It was a dig at the Ford star, with Hocevar directly using Blaney’s number to market his own merchandise. Hamlin thinks this crosses a line.
“I think that’s where there’s a little bit of a disconnect between what the drivers feel and what the fans feel about Carson Hocevar. And again, I’m not a Carson Hocevar hater. I think he’s doing a lot of good things for the sport. But I think the disconnect comes from, as drivers, I don’t handle disrespect very well,” the Joe Gibbs Racing star said on his Actions Detrimental podcast.
Hamlin says this because Hocevar appears to be making a habit of it. Just two weeks ago in Darlington, he spun RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski out of the race. Hours later, his website announced an extra 6% off purchases, on top of the already-promised 23%, for six hours. Once again, it was a jab at the former Cup Series champion, who interestingly promised retaliation after getting out of his car.
Hamlin’s statement comes as a warning, as drivers may not take the disrespect too well. Keselowski has already painted a target on Hocevar’s back, and Hamlin hinted that if Hocevar ever did something similar with his No. 11 after crashing him out of a race, there would be consequences.
The JGR veteran, who dropped to second in the Chase standings after an eighth-place finish in Bristol on Saturday, recognizes that fans love Hocevar’s antics. After all, he’s the driver with the most merchandise sold, despite clearly not being the best driver this year. Fans appreciate the drama, entertainment, and personality he brings to the sport. But Hamlin feels that what fans fail to realize is that the drivers who fall on the wrong end of Hocevar’s antics lose a lot.
“When you feel like someone makes a mistake or takes you out, it’s an indictment of what we’re doing. As drivers, we just don’t like what’s going on because we’re putting so much effort and so much pressure on ourselves to perform really well,” he admitted.
Neither Hamlin, Blaney, nor Keselowski wants to be a “game” for Hocevar to play as he grows more popular among fans. They are Cup Series veterans looking for a serious approach both on the track and in the garage as they chase their NASCAR dreams. Hocevar, as talented as he is, has other priorities in mind.
The 23-year-old described his incident with Blaney as “cool.” It was his first fight, and he appeared to give off the impression that he was proud to finally be involved in one. Blaney didn’t see it that way. Instead, on the podcast with Hamlin, he said he regretted the way he carried himself and didn’t want to be a bad role model for young fans.
“I try to set a good example for kids who are watching. Their parents who are allowing these kids to watch races,” Blaney said. “I look back on those things, and I definitely regret the way I acted. That’s really unlike me, but I was just frustrated.”
He also humbly admitted in the same podcast that his initial plan was not to exchange punches, but to just ‘grab and yell’ at the No. 77 Spire Motorsports driver. Hocevar, meanwhile, had said right after the brawl that he punched first to simply defend himself.
Blaney seemed calm about the situation in his conversation with Hamlin. But what the No. 11 driver said about Hocevar could prove true in the future. If Hocevar continues to have on-track incidents and uses them to throw shade at his opponents through activities off the track, there could be more fights in the future. And Hocevar may not come out on top in every one of them.