Carson Hocevar has become NASCAR's version of Fast & Furious
LONG POND, Pa. — Carson Hocevar understands his past clouds the present and likely impacts his future.
But he won't back down his aggression.
He's fast and — makes competitors — furious.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the latest driver to be upset with Hocevar after two incidents in the past three races. Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece and Ryan Blaney also have been critical of Hocevar after run-ins this season.
'When you're constantly making aggressive moves like we're doing, it's balancing that fine line,' Hocevar said ahead of today's Cup race at Pocono. 'You make a thousand moves a day. Just unfortunately, what people remember isn't always the good ones. You always remember the negative ones. So that's just trying to limit the negative ones a lot more.'
Blaney managed to avoid such drama when he came into the Cup Series. How did he do it?
'I'm not wrecking people all the time,' he said.
Blaney said his philosophy was simple.
'The best thing I think you can do to somebody to really show your dominance on the racetrack is pass them clean,' he said. 'It's pretty easy to just run through somebody and go on your merry way.'
Dustin Long,
Hocevar, who starts today's race third, gained a reputation for such incidents in the Truck Series and now in the Cup Series. His indiscretions also included wrecking Harrison Burton under caution at Nashville, an incident that earned Hocevar a $50,000 fine from NASCAR.
Hocevar understands Stenhouse owes him after wrecking Stenhouse at Nashville and making contact with him last week at Mexico.
Moments after Hocevar parked his car on pit road after the Mexico race, Stenhouse went to the driver's side, reached in with his left hand and yelled at Hocevar. Stenhouse punctuated his comments by telling Hocevar: 'I'm going to beat your ass when we get back into the States.'
They talked after the Nashville incident but not after the latest issue.
'Just a mistake that didn't need to happen and didn't want it to happen,' Hocevar said of the Mexico contact with Stenhouse. 'But there's nothing that I could do or say. You know, I can't buy him a Hallmark card and really make things better.'
Don't expect anything to happen on the track this weekend or next weekend at Atlanta due to the high speeds. While admitting that he's 'tired of talking about the kid,' Stenhouse did note Saturday that Hocevar 'probably will be looking over his shoulder for a long time.'
Hocevar said he still has to defend his ground with the rest of the field.
'My team has reassured me that this isn't open hunting season (on me),' he said. '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.'
Preece was upset with Hocevar in early May for an incident that wrecked Preece at Texas. He later said Hocevar's actions would mean more than his words.
How is Hocevar doing now?
'I think he's fighting himself right now, unfortunately,' Preece told NBC Sports. 'I'll give him a little bit of credit. When I'm around him, he's not forcing me outside of the lane or putting me in the wall. So there's been a change of character when he comes to racing me. I think for him, he's going to have to figure out a way (of) how to do that with 35 other people.
'As a race car driver, you want to see him do well. But when you see moments like that, it just makes you wonder. He hasn't done anything as of recent to me. He's slowing gaining respect back.'
That process will take time for the rest of the garage because Hocevar knows the reputation he has.
'I think I've already made that image before I got in this garage,' he said. 'I think it's just trying to balance one thing of owning it and trying to change the narrative while still being like, yeah, I get it. Like I'm aware of this and knowing that.'
But he also says people need to understand something about him.
'I think there's a bigger thing or maybe the perception that you make these mistakes, and for me, like that I don't care … like, I'm just like, oh, cool,' said Hocevar, who has two runner-up finishes this season. ' … But I'm very hard on myself. When I qualified second, I'm just cussing myself out, basically. So when I do something really dumb or hit somebody, people just don't see that because you just go to your hotel room and bang your head against the wall, basically.
'But, you know, just because I do something in the heat of the moment or maybe, you do it two or three times, doesn't mean I'm not hard on myself for those mistakes because they are mistakes.'
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