Carson Hocevar infuriates ex-teammate who wants to | Sports News

Perhaps essentially the most divisive driver within the NASCAR Cup Series discipline, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar has managed to alienate himself from many of his opponents during his first two seasons, seemingly together with his teammates.

This season alone, the 22-year-old has been labeled a “moron” by Ryan Blaney, NASCAR’s “biggest dumb—” by Austin Dillon, and been threatened by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

Another rival that Hocevar has seemingly gotten on the unsuitable aspect of over the past two years is now-former Spire teammate and present Front Row Motorsports star, Zane Smith, who has admitted he’d like to “punch him in the face” following their latest conflict at Iowa Speedway on lap 230. Smith would go on to end thirty sixth, whereas Hocevar crossed the road in eighth.

The 26-year-old’s feedback got here during an look on the ‘Stacking Pennies’ podcast, hosted by Hocevar’s former teammate, Corey LaJoie, simply days after each Smith and Hocevar completed within the high 10 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Reflecting on their collision at Iowa, which noticed Hocevar get unfastened and spin Smith into the barrier, the FRM driver defined: “No, I didn’t talk to him. And it’s just you’re not going to get anything from it. Like, I don’t really know how else you can explain that. You want to go up to him and punch him in the face, but that’s $75,000, and that’s not very cool.”

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With this in thoughts, Smith has determined that he merely plans to give Hocevar a style of his own drugs, explaining: “What it’s come down to me is like I just treat him how he would treat me. And it’s just how it goes. And until that changes, I’m not going to change.”

LaJoie clearly knew precisely the place Smith was coming from when reflecting on his time as Hocevar’s teammate in 2024. “I could appreciate how fast he drives in a circle,” he mentioned. “He’s exceptional with manipulation and dirty air. 

“He can make the car do things that I could watch, like I need to get better at that. And the way he drives the [simulator] with how, I mean, he’s an iRacing kid at heart. So, like he’d pick up on the cues really quickly, and he pushed me to become a better race car driver and work on some of my weaknesses. 

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“When it comes to team building and all the things, not the guy who I’d pick to lead my team. Luckily for him, they’ve got (crew chief) Luke Lambert, who is one of the all-time, in my opinion, one of the great managers, he’s great for Carson if you listen to his radio, and Tyler Green is the best spotter on the roof. 

“They have put him in a really good system, and it’s paying some dividends. Also, overly frustrating when you have a beef with him because he literally doesn’t give a s— about anything.”

Disinterested in forming friendships within the game, as Hocevar has beforehand mentioned with Dale Earnhardt Jr., his devil-may-care perspective may come back to hang-out him down the road, in accordance to the Hall of Famer. Earnhardt believes that when it comes to Hocevar, “everything’s fine until he runs into one of Rick [Hendrick’s] cars or something like that, and he has to go into the office and talk to Rick Hendrick.”

He added: “It might not be Rick, but it’ll be a person like Rick that when he has to go in and have that conversation, that will have an effect. That might not fix it all, but that will have an effect on the decision-making behind the wheel.

“I’m entertained by Hocevar till it turns into my downside. I feel it’s all high-quality till he does one thing that irks Hendrick. Or any person that’s instantly above his chain of command.”

Fast ahead to the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, and having clearly not paid consideration to Earnhardt’s advice, Hocevar lashed out at Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott after being spun by the No. 9, yelling over his crew radio: “F— him. I don’t care who he drives for.”