Carson Hocevar welcomes 'talk' with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after wreck at Nashville

For the second time this season, Carson Hocevar finished P2 in the NASCAR Cup Series. This time at Nashville behind Ryan Blaney. The Spire Motorsports driver is starting to really put it all together in his second season in the top tier of the sport.

Ryan Blaney had the clean air and track position. Tonight at Nashville, without a late restart, it just wasn’t going to be in Carson Hocevar’s hands. He was able to make up ground until he ran into the same traffic that Blaney was racing through.

Earlier in the race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Hocevar got into each other. Stenhouse ended up in the wall and out of the race. He blamed Hocevar directly and said that he was going to for sure have a conversation with the young driver. It likely won’t be a fun conversation.

 “I kind of got a run and felt like I was kinda there,” Hocevar told the media on pit road. “That like, I felt like I was there enough, right, to get a call inside and have him kind of just run the middle. Honestly, probably could have cleared me. So, that’s just what I expected him to do, and he didn’t. And by the time I checked up, I almost spun too.

“So, yeah, if he wants to talk, I’ll be glad to talk. I feel like it’s just a product of this, unfortunately. Just everybody just kind of tries to get there. I think there were a bunch of people that got shipped that either didn’t wreck or did get wrecked.”

Carson Hocevar took it further. He thought that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. could have cut him a break.

“At the same time I feel like maybe I could have got caught a break too with how big of a run I had,” Hocevar continued. “So, I think it goes both ways, or could go both ways, and that’s what we’ll talk about.”

Carson Hocevar angers Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Yeah…Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is not going to like those comments. They definitely aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on this issue, and they probably won’t after a conversation, either.

While Carson Hocevar thinks that he could have gotten a break, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went home early. He was out of this race early on in Stage 2, and it has cost him a ton of positions in points.

Stenhouse was 13th heading into the race tonight. He is now 18th in points … two points behind Hocevar. Imagine that. Stenhouse was not happy with how things played out.

“It’s a bummer for our team. Felt we executed really, really well at a high level this year to put us into position to point in. To now be out of the race and not get a chance to work on the car, it’s a real bummer,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said after leaving the care center.

These two drivers are not going to be exchanging Christmas cards this year. We will see if it ends up coming back to bite Carson Hocevar further down the road.

During the NASCAR season, there are many moments when drivers end up next to one another. If this ends up ruining a future race for Hocevar, will he change his attitude? Will he change the way he races?