NASCAR insiders react to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threatening Carson Hocevar, likelihood of ass beating

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. issued a warning to Carson Hocevar after Sunday’s race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. Stenhouse, dumped by Hocevar on Lap 90 of 100, told the Spire Motorsports driver, “I’m going to beat your ass.”

Stenhouse had enough pent-up frustration with Hocevar from their previous incident at Nashville Superspeedway that he could have started throwing haymakers right there on pit road. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic said on Sunday’s “The Teardown” podcast that Stenhouse made the right decision by holding back.

“Smart move to not get yourself arrested in Mexico. And find yourself in a Mexico prison while everyone else in the industry leaves. You don’t know the laws here [Mexico],” Gluck said.

But as we learned at last year’s All-Star Race, if Stenhouse says he’s going to do something, he’s going to follow through. Kyle Busch found that out at North Wilkesboro Speedway. It might be Hocevar’s turn to be on the receiving end of Stenhouse’s right hand. Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic will be on high alert when both arrive back in Charlotte.

“Is this now meet me at the Charlotte airport if you’re Ricky Stenhouse Jr.? I feel like we should be there tomorrow or whenever these planes land to see how this goes,” Bianchi said. “Or, in my opinion, if you’re Ricky Stenhouse Jr., you go home, find your camouflage shorts that you had on for the Kyle Busch incident a year ago, and I’m wearing those into Pocono on Saturday morning. And just letting everybody know, ‘I mean business.’ When Ricky puts on those shorts, fists are flying.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Carson Hocevar back at odds after Mexico City incident

The two had a run-in on the track two weeks ago at Nashville. They later spoke, and Stenhouse 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 is now 21st in the points standings, one point below Hocevar. Gluck believes we will see Stenhouse follow through on his threat.

“Here’s the problem for Carson — they had their incident and then it seemed to have gotten to where at Michigan last week, Ricky was like, ‘Hey, it does no good for us to get into a back-and-forth. I’m still trying to get into the playoffs, he’s still trying to get into the playoffs. If he does it again, we’re going to have a problem. But, for now, we’re going to be alright.’ It seemed like Ricky backed off,” Gluck said. “Now, I don’t think Ricky is going to like being put in this position where it looks like he’s all bark, no bite.

“He waited there [at North Wilkesboro] for Kyle Busch. In his mind, he’s going to say, ‘Well, now, if I don’t follow through — I said I’ll listen to him, and it doesn’t do us any good — but now he did it again and he’s [Stenhouse] been captured on audio.’ … Even though Carson is way taller and Ricky is going to have to get some reach there.”