When speaking with Ryan Blaney on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin explored why Carson Hocevar agitates the rest of the garage, and it goes beyond his aggressive driving style.
He noted how nonchalant attitude after most of these incidents, and how Hocevar quickly put a 6% discount for six hours on his merch after wrecking Brad Keselowski at Darlington, and then a 12% discount for 12 hours after wrecking Blaney at Bristol.
“I think that’s where a little bit of the disconnect between what the drivers feel and what the fans feel about Carson Hocevar,” explained Hamlin. “Again, I’m not a Carson Hocevar hater whatsoever. I think that he’s doing a lot of good things for the sport. But I think that disconnect comes from as drivers — I don’t handle — and I’m only going to speak for myself here — I don’t handle the disrespect very well.
“It’s the off track stuff of like, hey another 6% off or another 12% off. To me, that would bug me. If that was me and he runs an 11% discount after he just crashed me, that would bother me as much as the on-track, and the on-track really hurts because I put so much work and effort into this. I don’t want someone out there just being nonchalant playing a game at my expense.
“And that’s where I could potentially get really off the rails, if it were to happen to me, because as drivers, we all live in our own personal team cocoon … when you feel like someone makes an egregious mistake or an egregious take out of you, it’s an indictment of your weekend.”
Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports
Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images
He went on to say how much pressure there is to perform, and when you have another driver “publicly not taking it as serious,” that becomes an issue.
Hamlin noted that the off-track attitude is what’s really inflaming tensions between Hocevar and the rest of the garage.
“I’m out here to try to win and this is all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was a kid,” continued Hamlin. “So that’s where to me, it eats at me a little bit because it’s all I’ve ever done and wanted to do and wanted to accomplish. And so I can see where Brad could get really upset and whoever else that had had those incidents.
“To me personally, I feel like if a driver has done you wrong on the racetrack, then takes it to the next level and is mildly disrespectful off the track, that’s where things really can escalate. And I think that’s where the field has a different opinion of Carson as the fans. I think that Carson goes above and beyond for the fans aspect of it. But again, the competitor aspect — I think the disrespect is just a little bit too much. And that’s just my opinion of it.”
Hocevar in private vs. public
Carson Hocevar with fans, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Jeff Curry / Getty Images
Interestingly, Hamlin said that there’s also a disconnect between Hocevar’s words in public interviews and how he carries himself in private. He has said that he has no friends in the garage and presents ‘don’t give a s*** attitude,’ but Hamlin has had conversations with Hocevar that say otherwise.
“I don’t know how much of that is real, because I’ve had conversations with Carson, and he’s been very receptive. Or at least he’s been receptive to my face, in the sense of like, okay I hear you.’ He’s never pushed back and said, ‘I don’t care about what you think.’ I don’t know how much of that is just playing the role. It would be very hard for me to envision any young person, like in basketball, why would I listen to what Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson have to say. I don’t care what they say. No one would ever say that. If you’re a young guy, you’re always looking to soak in information. I think he does,l he just doesn’t do it publicly.”
In the first part of the podcast, Blaney gave a detailed account of the fight and his thoughts on it, which you can watch below or read about HERE.
Watch: From on-track to fight, this is what happened between Blaney and Hocevar
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