A week after a heated exchange with veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and a fine from his team for posting a controversial social media take on the Mexico City race weekend, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar faced the media Saturday morning at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and conceded he could have handled things a little better in both instances.
“Yes,” he conceded, he fully expects Stenhouse to exact revenge after a dust-up the two had on track in Mexico — the second time Stenhouse has been miffed at the 22-year-old in a race. And “yes,” Hocevar said, posting a negative review online before actually getting a chance to experience Mexico, was also wrong. Both things are a learning experience.
Hocevar, who drives the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, said he had not yet spoken with Stenhouse since the trip to Mexico, but doubted, at this point, there was anything he could say that would make a difference to the veteran as they came to Pocono for Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 (2 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I feel like we have a good relationship or had one,” Hocevar said. “I was just running behind him, just kind of logging laps and just locked up in a very dumb spot. And it was just so dumb, really. Just a mistake that didn’t need to happen and didn’t want it to happen.
“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. So, it sucks. It sucks for me because he’s the only NASCAR driver that owns a sprint car team, and I love sprint cars. So, it sucks because I want to go talk to him about sprint cars. So, yeah, hopefully everything can be set, but I know that the scorecard has me ahead right now, unfortunately.”
As for the social media post, initially uncomplimentary of his early Mexico experience, Hocevar was fined $50,000 by his Spire Motorsports team. He explained that his words were written before really having an opportunity to explore Mexico City.
“The issue wasn’t for the team having their kind of frustrations that I’m giving my opinion and putting it out there — it’s just the fact that, you know, my opinion wasn’t my opinion,” Hocevar said. “It was just based off everything else, you know, that I’ve heard or seen, right? I didn’t go do my own homework and voice my own opinion. I didn’t give it a shot. I didn’t give it a chance. I didn’t go walk around. I didn’t go see it.
“When I did then hindsight’s 20/20, then I have my own opinion. But I’ve already put it out there. So, I think that was the biggest thing was like — I wasn’t doing what I pride myself of doing. I was just having my own opinion, putting it out there and being me. I just didn’t give it a fair shot, so I think that’s where it all stems from.”
DENNY HAMLIN BACK AT TRACK
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, a three-race winner this season, missed last week’s race in Mexico City so he could be home with his family for the birth of his first son, Jameson Drew. Hamlin revealed it was a tough labor for his wife Jordan and was glad he could be there for her — and their two daughters.
His son’s name was thoughtful and purposeful — Jameson is “James’ son” and James is Hamlin’s first name. And Drew gives him JD initials — a nod to both the late JD Gibbs, a cherished friend of Hamlin and the person credited with hiring him at JGR. JD are also the initials of James Dean, the car owner earlier in Hamlin’s career providing his big opportunity to be seen — and eventually hired — to a major NASCAR operation.
“He’s been great, slept through the night the last three nights in a row. …he’s behaving good early,” Hamlin said with a smile of his son.
Hamlin said he watched the Mexico City race from home last weekend and was very impressed with the Amazon Prime broadcast and the extended time the network uses. But he’s ready to race at Pocono — where his seven wins is most all-time. He finished runner-up (2024) and scored that seventh win (2023) in the last two visits.
“Just a track that no matter what the car we drive or the tires we have on or the aero package, none of that really matters,” said Hamlin, who earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Pocono, sweeping both races — from pole position no less — in his 2006 rookie season.
“You still make speed at this race track the same way no matter what car you’re driving.
“It’s been one of the few tracks that I haven’t had to change my approach to it, depending on the car I’m driving. So, I think that’s why the success has been sustained.”
SVG PLAYOFF BOUND
With his win in the inaugural Mexico City race last weekend, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen has punched his first career ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet won last week by more than 16-seconds, the largest margin of victory in a NASCAR Cup Serie race since 2009.
The 36-year-old New Zealander — a three-time Australian Supercars Series champion — insisted that having that “ticket” into the Playoffs would not really change the way he goes about competing this year — his first time running a full season.
Although he famously became the first driver in NASCAR history to win in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Chicago in 2023 — the Mexico City win was only his second top-10 of this season.
“I don’t think it really has (changed his mindset),” Van Gisbergen said of the victory. “It was always our goal to win. There’s probably less pressure on road courses now. We can play with our strategy if we want to try and get playoff points now and stuff like that.
“But yeah, probably less pressure. We can enjoy the road courses a bit more. But yeah, the ovals, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing; keep our head down, keep improving every week, and try and keep getting good results. We’ve been frustrated with top-20s the last couple of weeks, which is a huge improvement for us for how we started. Our potential is getting a lot better, and hopefully we keep getting close to that back-end of the top-10. That would be good.”
CAN’T MISS PROGRAMMING ON AMAZON
This may be the last NASCAR Cup Series race of the Amazon Prime broadcasts, but the network still features some compelling must-see NASCAR storylines in the four-part “Earnhardt” documentary and, similarly the single-episode “American Thunder,” which chronicles NASCAR’s Garage 56 project from inception to race debut in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Earnhardt docu-series on Prime Video has received a hugely positive response and features some never-before-seen video and certainly some compelling interviews with those that knew the late seven-time champion best. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt are featured prominently and their stories about their dad heart-felt and captivating.
The “American Thunder: From NASCAR to LeMans” documentary is also intriguing, whether you are a race fan or not. It chronicles the remarkable project from idea to post-race celebration. Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, Formula One champ Jenson Button and sports car legend Mike Rockenfeller shared the seat of the No. 24 Chevrolet.
And so many of NASCAR’s heavy-hitters from series executives Jim France and Steve O’Donnell to the Hendrick team’s Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon to a former NASCAR-to-Le Mans competitor Hershel McGriff are all featured in this behind-the-scenes look at the massive effort it took to develop the car, make the huge-logistical lift in travelling to the small French town of Le Mans and ultimately the drama of the actual race and what the involvement meant to all involved.
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media
