“I’ve seen enough of these. I’m just going to start swinging and see what happens.”
— Carson Hocevar

It’s Bristol, baby! Bristol Motor Speedway never fails to deliver excitement. Sometimes it’s for the on-track racing. Still, at other times, it’s for the off-track reactions to on-track activity. (This is especially true for the night race.) This past weekend produced a racing product that had plenty of exciting moments from both sides of the pit road wall. Ryan Blaney passed Carson Hocevar rather cleanly, but then in a very un-Blaney type behavior he went to aero block Carson Hocevar.

Carson Hocevar let Blaney sit there with his left rear corner panel right on the right front side of the 77’s nose. From my perspective, that decision to passive-aggressively taunt Hocevar on track is what led to the 12 car spinning. Blaney was fast enough to drive off. He chose not to. In the end, Blaney got a DNF out of it. I’m not the only one who has this opinion. Kevin Harvick agrees.

Ultimately, Ryan Blaney would storm his way over to Hocevar during the post-race. Honestly, “storm” is an understatement. Ryan Blaney marched over there like Hulk Hogan on steroids, grabbed Hocevar in a violent manner, and the driver of the 77 Spire Chevy defended himself. He got Blaney rather well with two punches. One of which made perfect contact with Blaney’s left eye. Honestly, I’d be surprised if that didn’t leave Ryan Blaney with a huge black eye. (Even if some Blaney fans will still claim any picture of such to be “AI”.)

Ryan Blaney’s (Big) Mistake(s)

On Track: Unnecessary Block

There is a ton of back and forth on NASCARX or NASCAR Twitter whichever you prefer to call it. Obviously, the back and forth is all about Carson Hocevar. I think that once everyone gets past the initial “oh look Hocevar wrecked someone again” assumptions and actually look at the incident then they will reach the same conclusion as Harvick, Hocevar’s fans, and myself have made. The on-track incident was nothing egregrious, at least not on Hocevar’s part.

First of all, Ryan Blaney was the faster car. He should have been happy to get passed Hocevar on the outside. Then he should have stayed in his lane and completed the pass entering the next turn. Instead, Blaney, in a rather foolish manner, parked his left rear on the right front nose of the 77 car. It looked like either a late block or some kind of reverse side draft. Second, Blaney was given plenty of time to change course. I know a second or so doesn’t seem like much, but at the speeds these drivers are used to driving, a lot can happen in a second. Yet, Blaney chose to keep his 12 Ford Mustang right on the nose of the 77. I assume he hoped he would lift. He didn’t.

Next time, just complete the pass. The high line had momentum all night. The Chase isn’t the time to be being this petty and passive aggressive. Ryan Blaney got what he deserved, because it’s what he was asking for. Did he really expect Hocevar to sit there and take it? (Based on his postrace planning, it seems like he might have actually.)

Carson Hocevar

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Postrace Hulk Hoganry

This brings us to Blaney’s last mistake. Lastly, Blaney made the third mistake of marching over to Carson Hocevar postrace. Blaney clearly thought he was in the right. Yet, he was so clearly in the wrong. He then violently grabbed Hocevar who did what Ross Chastain did to Noah Gragson in similar circumstances. Blaney earned just as bad a result as did Gragson. In the end, Ryan Blaney looked like a violent bully who thought he could push Hocevar into lifting.

Sadly, he didn’t even need to do it. Unlike some other NASCAR journalists, analysts, and scholars I don’t think that Blaney thought he was clear or didn’t think he could complete the pass without blocking the crossover. I think he was just being a passive-aggresive little bully on track. Furthermore, I think he only marched over there to save face when his first attempt at bullying failed. Fortunately for us all, his second attempt failed too.

After all, Blaney’s failed attempts at vigilente justice has given us so much hilarious content to cover. Honestly, I believe the postrace stuff was the bigger mistake. You can’t put up with another driver’s antics, complain about it, spin yourself out off their nose, and THEN decide to go over and “handle” it. I mean imagine if Ryan Blaney’s attempts at bringing so-called justice to Hocevar were successful. We’d be looking at him today like he was some sort of delusional narcissitic sociopath. Anyone who wrecks themselves and then blames the person off of whose car they spun would be seen in the same light.

Carson Hocevar

FoxSports.com — Getty Images

Carson Hocevar: Great for NASCAR

Back in the day, blocking at all was considered a wreckable offense. Heck, it wasn’t even that back in the day. I remember a race in the late 2010s in which Logano held off a MUCH faster Harvick by using nothing but aeroblocking. Maybe it was 2020. I remember it was either Las Vegas or Kansas, but Harvick stated that he would have spun him if he would have gotten to him. Harvick’s generation of driver, well most of them, see blocking in stock car racing to be bad etiquette.

In the video of Harvick’s podcast included in this article, it is even mentioned that the blocking would have never become so prevelant in NASCAR had more people responded to it the way Carson Hocevar did at Bristol. Never lift. If a driver is worried you’re not going to lift, then they aren’t going to throw these wild blocks. It worked for decades that way. If this move gets us away from all the blocking, then that in itself makes Carson Hocevar great for NASCAR.

Carson Hocevar may be young and brash, but there are very few drivers out there in the field with personality these days. Rather, I should say, there are very few drivers these days willing to show their personalities. Hocevar is changing that.

In many ways, he’s already almost the most old school driver out there.

Carson Hocevar

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