Carson Hocevar expects payback, admits “this is the world I’ve made”

Carson Hocevar was once again in the middle of controversy in Mexico City. The fast, but highly aggressive driver was involved in a few incidents including another run-in with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 Chevrolet.

To make the situation worse, Hocevar was a lap down when he spun Stenhouse out. After the race, Stenhouse confronted Hocevar and said “I’m gonna beat your ass” when they return to the United States. The two drivers have not interacted since then.

No conversations

“No, unfortunately,” said Hocevar when asked if the two have talked this week. “I’m not sure what I could what I would say, right? You know, there’s nothing that really would change it, right? We’ve already had that conversation.

“I feel like we have a good relationship or, you know, had one. I was just running behind him, just kind of logging laps and, you know, just locked up in a very dumb spot. And it was just so dumb, really. Just a mistake that didn’t need to happen and didn’t want it to happen. But there’s nothing that I could do or say. You know, I can’t buy him a Hallmark card and, you know, really make things better. So, it sucks. It sucks for me because he’s the only NASCAR driver that owns a sprint car team, and I love sprint cars. So it sucks because I want to go talk to him about sprint cars. So, yeah, hopefully everything can be set, but I know that the scorecard has me ahead right now, unfortunately.”

It’s not open hunting season

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Hocevar does expect Stenhouse to get him back. After wrecking the No. 47 at Nashville, the two drivers talked things out, but it’s clear that there’s no mending things through a simple conversation anymore. Hocevar qualified third for the Cup race at Pocono while Stenhouse will start 30th.

“The scorecard has it that I’m getting something from the 47 [Stenhouse] at some point, right? And I think my team and everybody kind of knows that. But at the same time, it’s ideally just the 47, right? It’s not an open hunting season on the 77 [Hocevar] because of these incidents. You know, it’s kind of oscillated to, you know, when the 47 has a moment that he wants to take at us or take a shot. It’s just like — OK, you know, that’s probably fair.

“But with everybody else, my team has reassured me that this isn’t open hunting season.  We are going to race like we’ve raced, let’s just not create more enemies that we start getting shots back at us. But, you know, we’re still just going to go race, be aggressive and defend ourselves when we need to. But this is kind of, unfortunately, now a ‘two to nothing’ scorecard. I’ve been a fan of the sport for a long time. You know the game; you’ve seen it and everything. But we just go race.”

Accepting whatever happens

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images

Hocevar has no idea when payback is coming, or if Stenhouse will even use his car to settle the score…or his fists. But either way, the Spire Motorsports driver said he’s going to accept whatever happens.

“It could be tomorrow or it could be six months from now,” said Hocevar. “It would be very hypocritical for me to then lose my mind and be frustrated. I’ve been a fan for a very long time. You’ve seen these stories before. It’s not, by no means, the first time. So, hopefully, for my sake, it doesn’t happen and we can race, and if I need to, you know, we can point it by whatever. But I know how frustrated I was that I brought this back up because I thought we were good. And I let him go because I was a lap down or whatever, and I was just riding behind him and then I locked up. You live in the world you make for yourself, and this is the world I’ve made.”

The Stenhouse situation isn’t the only dark cloud over Hocevar, who also faced internal penalties this week from his team, Spire Motorsports. He called Mexico a “s***hole” in some comments on Twitch, resulting in a $50,000 and mandatory sensitivity training. Reacting to those comments, he said in a Saturday press conference that his comments were “based off everything else, you know, that I’ve heard or seen, right? I didn’t go do my own homework and voice my own opinion.

“I didn’t give it a shot. I didn’t give it a chance. I didn’t go walk around. I didn’t go see it. When I did, you know, then hindsight’s 20/20, then I have my own opinion. But I’ve already put it out there. So I think that was the biggest thing was like — I wasn’t doing what I pride myself of doing. I was just having my own opinion, putting it out there and being me. You know, I just didn’t give it a fair shot, so I think that’s where it all stems from.”

Photos from Pocono – Practice & Qualifying