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Denny Hamlin calls Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 'Wrecky' while breaking down Carson Hocevar incident

Stephen Samraby: Steve Samra06/03/25SamraSource
Ricky Stenhouse
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The beef between Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was one of the more juicy storylines following this past weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. Denny Hamlin had to touch on the matter during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

While examining what transpired between the two wheelmen, Hamlin had a hilarious Freudian slip. He called Ricky Stenhouse Jr. “Wrecky” — as in the veteran wheelman’s not-so-subtle nickname, “Wrecky Spinhouse.”

Hamlin tried to catch the words as they came out of his mouth, but all he could do is laugh: “I thought [Hocevar] had a great race. I didn’t see that he wrecked Wrecky — I said that wrong. I said it wrong. It’s not what I meant. It’s not what I meant,” Hamlin smiled. “I didn’t see that he wrecked Ricky. It’s just — they go together.”

Check out the video of the moment below. It’s certainly one of the more memorable and hilarious instances on Hamlin’s podcast. He truly didn’t mean to say it, it seems, but we’re happy he didn’t decide to cut it from this week’s episode.

While Hamlin is having some fun with the situation, Hocevar may feel Stenhouse’s wrath in the near future. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver predicted Stenhouse will retaliate in short order: “We can sit here and talk about it at all, but it’s up to the drivers to self police it. I’m very, very confident that Ricky will self police this one,” Hamlin added.

All told, it isn’t hard to see why Stenhouse was a bit ticked off with Hocevar, and he’s far from the first driver to feel that way. Later in the evening, Hocevar had a chance to apologize for making contact with the veteran, and he instead insisted Stenhouse could’ve cut him a break on the track.

“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,” Hocevar told the media.

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

Alas, Denny Hamlin is thinking Wrecky Spinhouse will turn Carson Hocevar into Carson Wreckovar. Carson Raceover? We’re still workshopping a couple of names. Regardless, it’ll be pure entertainment when these two drivers are near each other on the track moving forward.