It’s safe to say that Carson Hocevar shouldn’t expect a Christmas card from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. this year, not after Sunday’s clearly avoidable incident in the NASCAR Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway.
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Stenhouse (17th place at the time) and Hocevar (18th) were battling for position heading into Turn 3 when, instead of going lower and giving Stenhouse room, Hocevar’s car stayed straight on the line it was on, making contact with Stenhouse and sending him into the outside retaining wall.
Looking at a replay of the incident, it appeared clear that Hocevar had plenty of room to dip downward, but for whatever reason, he stayed straight and wound up hitting Stenhouse. Although Stenhouse was not injured, his place in the Cup standings suffered greatly.
The Hyak Motorsports driver came into the event in 13th place — and 10 points above the provisional playoff cut-off — but finished dead last in the 39-car field. He leaves Nashville disappointed, now 18th in the standings and four points out of the provisional playoff cut-off. Ironically, Hocevar is right above Stenhouse in 17th in the standings, two points below the cut-off.
When interviewed by NASCAR On Prime afterward, Stenhouse didn’t mince words.
“A lap or two before, he [Hocevar] tried to dive in there from about 10 car lengths back and then that time, I just opened my entry a little bit and he over-charged the corner and drilled us in the rear bumper,” Stenhouse said. “I’d say it’s not out of the norm from him, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that at that point of the race. It’s just a bummer for us.”
Hocevar may want to watch his back, as Stenhouse ended his Prime interview issuing what appeared to be a veiled threat of sorts. “Bummed our day ended like that,” Stenhouse said before adding, “Definitely will have something to do about it at one point.”
