Denny Hamlin warned Carson Hocevar about taunting drivers off-track after tangling with them on-track. While the driver of the No. 11 acknowledged Hocevar’s rising popularity and his positive influence on the sport, he believes it is crossing a line with his fellow competitors.
The comments stemmed from a controversial end to the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After contact between Hocevar and Ryan Blaney that sent the latter crashing out of second place, the two traded blows on pit road following the race.
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In the wake of the chaos, Hocevar took a jab at Blaney by advertising a 12 percent discount on his merchandise website.
Hamlin on Hocevar’s off-track taunting: ‘That would bug me’
On a recent episode of his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Hamlin had Blaney on as a special guest to reflect on the Bristol melee.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was upfront in saying he is not a Hocevar “hater” and recognizes the great things he is doing for NASCAR. Yet, the 45-year-old said he does not take disrespect well and would be offended by a similar jab Hocevar gave Blaney after the Bristol race.
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“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 the 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, ‘OK, well hey, another six percent off or another 12 percent off.’ To me, that would bug me,” he said.
In the Chase opener at Darlington, Hocevar got into an on-track incident with Brad Keselowski and later promoted a six percent discount on his merchandise website. If a similar situation happened to Hamlin, it is not something he would take kindly.
“To me, that would bug me. If that was me and he would run an 11 percent after he just crashed me, that would bother me as much as the on-track. Now, 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,” he said.
Hamlin believes off-track taunts is where ‘things can really escalate’
Every week, Hamlin said the mission is always to collaborate with your race team and do everything in your power to go execute on race day.
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So when someone makes an “egregious” mistake and crashes someone out of a race, Hamlin said it defines all the hard work the driver and team put into the weekend.
“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 of like, ‘Man, we’re all in. We’re going to get this done.’ When you feel like someone makes an egregious mistake or an egregious takeout of you, it’s an indictment of your weekend,” Hamlin said.
When someone like Hocevar commits these mistakes, then piles on with off-track insults, Hamlin believes that is where things can get dicey.
“If a driver you feel like 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. … I think Carson goes above and beyond for the fans aspect of it, but again, the competitor aspect of it, I think the disrespect is just a little bit too much and that’s just my opinion of it,” he said.
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Hamlin finished eighth in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race. The 64-time Cup Series winner lost the points lead to Kyle Larson and ranks second in the standings, one point behind the new points leader heading into Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
