Bristol Motor Speedway (Bristol, Tenn.) — The Hurricane apparently also knows how to throw a punch.
Carson Hocevar belted Ryan Blaney when Blaney grabbed a hold of him after the race on Saturday night at Bristol, with Hocevar getting in two punches to Blaney.
“I saw him and I was like, ‘OK, he’s moving pretty fast for a convo and then he grabbed me,” Hocevar told me and other reporters after the race.
“And I was like, I’m not going to wait. I’ve seen enough of these. I’m just going to start swinging and see what happens.”
Carson Hocevar (L) and Ryan Blaney got into an altercation after the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Blaney didn’t get a punch in. He got knocked to the ground and surrounded by Hocevar’s crew after Hocevar’s third-place finish.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever hit anybody, so that’s a cool story. At least that’s going to be a Bristol [moment], of all places,” Hocevar said. “I don’t know if he tripped on somebody or got a decent one in. I don’t know what a good one feels like.”
The Team Penske driver felt Hocevar flat-out wrecked him on Lap 458 when they battled for second.
Blaney passed Hocevar and slide in front of Hocevar up by the wall, and Hocevar dove to go underneath him. Blaney continued to try to take Hocevar’s line away and Hocevar turned him.
Blaney finished 33rd.
“Something is going to happen,” Blaney told me and other reporters outside the infield medical center and before confronting Hocevar.
Hocevar knew why Blaney was mad.
“I understand why he’s upset,” Hocevar said. “That’s probably his championship, so I understand 100 percent. I’d probably be mad, too. Whether it was his mistake, my mistake, my fault or not — I’d be pretty pissed if I was him.”
Blaney said he has not had a problem with Hocevar — who has had several run-ins with drivers — for more than a year, but that “it’s getting old.”
“I just felt like he didn’t lift,” Blaney said. “I left him plenty of room for a lap before that. I didn’t chop him. I didn’t run him into the fence or nothing like I easily could have.
“I protected the bottom, and he just decided he wanted to be there and didn’t lift and wrecked me.”
Hocevar said he didn’t feel he did anything egregious.
“I kind of crossed him over there, and I felt like I was at least at his left rear, and it looked like he just kept coming down,” Hocevar said. “I was on the brakes pretty hard, and he obviously spun, and it resulted in that. I was just trying to stop my bleeding.”
NASCAR, as it normally does, will review the fight and determine if any penalties are warranted.
Typically, those decisions come on Tuesdays. NASCAR usually allows drivers to fight but does not want crew members to get involved.
Spire Motorsports team owner Jeff Dickerson said he didn’t think the league would penalize Hocevar. He pointed to the fans lining the fence to cheer for Hocevar and hoping he would acknowledge them afterward.
“We’re just surprised he can fight,” Dickerson told me about his driver. “What’s he going to get penalized for? I think the drivers can fight.”
Dickerson and Blaney know each other well.
“I was kind of surprised. It’s Bristol, hard racing,” Dickerson said. “I don’t want to see Blaney mad. I love him. … That’s a bit out of character for Ryan. I don’t know what to say.
“It’s a shame he walled all the way over there and Carson caught him good with about two or three straight rights.”
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