Carson Hocevar appears to have eased the emerging tension between himself and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following their run-in in the middle stage of the Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday.
Racing around the top-10, Stenhouse was sent into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 106, knocking him out of the race and out of a provisional playoff spot. Hocevar went on to match a career-best runner-up by the end of the night.
Stenhouse said immediately after being released from infield care that he was frustrated with Hocevar, and planned to talk to him about what happened, but not immediately because ‘that costs too much.’ That, of course, is a reference to Stenhouse getting fined $75,000.
By Tuesday, Stenhouse told the Motor Stardom Show that he still hadn’t heard from Hocevar.
“Obviously, I’ve been in this sport a long time. If you make a mistake like that, you generally pick up the phone as quick as you can, especially if you feel bad about it. I mean, if you don’t, you just roll on with it. No, I’ve not gotten a call from him,” Stenhouse explained. “I’ve talked to his [car] owner. Jeff Dickerson and I are super tight. Yeah, no, I haven’t gotten a call from him, so, to my point, he doesn’t really care about it. Which, you know, is fine. If that’s the ground he wants to stand on, that’s completely fine, but it definitely will be something I won’t forget. You know, if I don’t hear from him by the weekend, I’ll probably confront him, and we’ll figure it out.”
By Wednesday, Hocevar told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that they had shared texts.
“We texted a little bit back and forth and I think we’ll still talk,” Hocevar told hosts Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds. “You see each other 38 weekends a year. Eventually, you’re going to run into each other. Not literally, hopefully, but run into each other in person. I think it’s better if you’re going to have that talk or conversation, to do it before you get to the track and everyone gets into race mode. Yeah, he wanted to have that conversation, so I just texted him to reach out or whatever. We’ll probably have that talk and see where it goes.”
By Thursday, Stenhouse said they landed in a good place, in his own conversation on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. They have since spoken on the phone.
“I know what happened, but it’s part of racing, too, at the same time,” Stenhouse said. “After Carson called me this week, I definitely see what he was thinking that he could get to the inside of me before we turned down into the corner. [The] problem was, he didn’t. “He said that he had committed to thinking he was going to, and unfortunately, just misjudged it and ran right into the back of us. You know, Carson and I haven’t had any issues before, and so, I appreciate him reaching out and just explaining what his thought process was in it.”
Stenhouse also said there’s no reason for the two of them to risk igniting a back-and-forth while both are fighting for playoff spots.
“It doesn’t change that our NOS Energy Drink Camaro was in the garage at the end of the race, which was unfortunate. We were on a pretty solid roll of you know, just getting solid finishes and keeping ourselves in the points. But, like I told Carson, I don’t mind a rivalry, but I don’t want a rivalry for running 15th,” Stenhouse said. “Like, if we’re battling for wins, and battling in the top-five week in and week out, that’s great. But having a rivalry not competing for wins, is kind of difficult. Kind of takes away from the focus of what we’re trying to do at HYAK, which is get ourselves back in the point standings and into the Playoffs.”
