Tommy Baldwin reacts to Zane Smith crew chief confronting Carson Hocevar after Iowa

Ryan Bergenty, crew chief for Zane Smith and the No. 38 team, confronted Carson Hocevar on pit road after Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway. Bergenty was ticked off at Hocevar, who wrecked Smith on Lap 229.

“Hey, when are you going to learn to f*cking drive, dude?” Bergenty said. “I mean you wiped us the f*ck out.”

It was the latest on-track and subsequent post-race incident involving Hocevar, who’s gained a reputation around the garage for being an aggressive — perhaps overaggressive — wheelman. Tommy Baldwin, Rick Ware Racing’s competition director, has called out Hocevar multiple times this season for his conduct on the racetrack. He did so again on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear” podcast.

“Look, it’s getting to the point where everyone’s getting aggravated at the 77,” Baldwin said. “It might not be happening to them yet but when it does, they’re double aggravated because he’s doing it to everybody. Man, he had a really good car again yesterday and he finished well. But he hurt some people’s feelings again on the way.”

Hocevar seemed unbothered that Smith and his team were upset with him. Hocevar posted on Instagram after the race, and his song choice for the post was “IDGAF” by Drake, which translates to “I don’t give a f*ck.” The post also included a picture of a ticket counter with the message to “please take a number.” Of course, Hocevar was making reference to the growing list of drivers who have a problem with him.

Tommy Baldwin concerned about Carson Hocevar’s NASCAR future

Hocevar has been down this road several times in his brief NASCAR career. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was angry with him at Nashville and later Mexico City, while both Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain confronted him at Atlanta.

What gets lost sometimes is Hocevar is very talented. Baldwin acknowledged his racing prowess, but has concerns about his long-term future in the sport.

“He’s got a lot of talent — there’s no question about it,” Baldwin said. “I’m gonna explain to the audience there’s a lot of other people coming up that also have a lot of talent and knows how to race better than him. He needs to be careful because things happen quickly in our sport. Businesspeople [and] sponsors get tired of it. I’m telling you, as much as everyone wants to think about the situation with Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, I don’t care what anybody says, they got tired of it. They got tired of the stuff and as good as he was, and how great of a racecar driver he is and as many wins as he’s had, they just get tired of it.

“It’s gonna get to a point that there’s gonna be an opportunity where they’ll go, ‘Oh my God, that guy is available? Do we really wanna deal with this bullshit anymore?’ It might not happen this week, might not happen next week, but it might happen and it’s gonna give someone an easy out to make a better decision for their business because of it. Mark my word.”