Carson Hocevar expecting payback from Ricky Stenhouse Jr: 'This is the world I've made'

Carson Hocevar isn’t naive. He recognizes that payback is coming from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after all he’s put the veteran wheelman through over the past couple of weeks.

The Spire Motorsports driver told The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck that “he knows payback is coming, and he knows it’s fair. The scorecard is 2-0. He’s been a fan for a long time and he knows how this it all works — whether that’s tomorrow or six months from now.”

Hocevar capped off his statement with a poignant quote. He’s not shying away from the fact that he created this issue: “You live in the world you make for yourself, and this is the world I’ve made,” he stated, via Gluck.

At least Hocevar knows it’s all fair on the track. Even if he’s received his fair-share of flack, when Stenhouse Jr. does return the favor, it won’t come as a surprise for the No. 77 wheelman.

The duo’s rivalry began when they had a run-in two weeks ago at Nashville. They later spoke, and Stenhouse Jr. said he didn’t want to create a rivalry while both are racing to get into the postseason field. But then Hocevar sent Stenhouse for a spin while a lap down at Mexico City. 

Stenhouse Jr. is now 21st in the points standings, his season completely upended as he sits one point below Hocevar. While he’s since admitted that he’s calmed down a bit since their heated altercation south of the border, Stenhouse Jr. might have a chance of heart when the time comes on the track.

“I’ve calmed down a little bit. My wife talks me off the ledge sometimes,” Stenhouse said Friday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “She does a good job of that. But it doesn’t change the fact that you get spun out for no reason. Felt like it cost us at least seven spots. We didn’t wreck like at Nashville, but we put ourselves in a spot. We got spun a couple times in that race. And just kept trying to fight back and get our track position. Felt like on that long run there at the end — there was still three or four spots right there in front of us that we could get and we ended up giving up another four or five spots.

“Just frustrating, obviously, when you got someone a lap down that had ran into you a couple weeks before that. Our talk after Nashville — he said, ‘Hey, I’m going to run you a lot different,’ which hey, at Mexico City, he waved me by. I was like, ‘Alright, things are looking up.’ And then, he missed his marks and came from pretty far back and ran into us. Again, I know he wasn’t racing us. But it’s really frustrating for my team and our partners and myself to get spun at a stage like that where there was nothing to be raced for.”

It remains to be seen when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will exact his revenge. Carson Hocevar knows it’s coming, but it is a dish best served cold. The longer the veteran makes the young wheelman wait, the better it’ll be.

— On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this article.