After another weekend where Carson Hocevar ruffled some feathers on the racetrack, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had enough: “I’m just so exhausted,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download.
This time, Hocevar ticked off Zane Smith and the No. 38 team after he wrecked Smith on Lap 229 of this past Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway. Ryan Bergenty, Smith’s crew chief, confronted Hocevar on pit road after the race.
“Hey, when are you going to learn to f*cking drive, dude?” Bergenty said. “I mean you wiped us the f*ck out.”
It was the latest on-track and subsequent post-race incident involving Hocevar, who’s gained a reputation around the garage for being an aggressive — perhaps overaggressive — wheelman. Hocevar has been down this road several times this NASCAR season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was angry with him at Nashville and later Mexico City, while both Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain confronted him at Atlanta.
And since that first incident with Stenhouse at Nashville, Hocevar has put together a string of underwhelming performances. To his credit, he’s bounced back to tally back-to-back top 10s at Indianapolis and Iowa. Earnhardt still believes it’s time for Hocevar to “calm down a little bit” and get back to the basics.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives advice to Carson Hocevar
“The one thing is I think if he would try to calm down a little bit, though, he would do a little bit better. He needs to clean it up a little bit in terms of look at his results since Nashville. Just a lot of incidents, lot of contact, lot of problems, lot of bad finishes,” Earnhardt said. “I’d like to see him take the next step in polishing his craft. I don’t want him to change anything he’s doing off the track.
“… I’m just saying let’s kind of get back to basics, let’s get back to racing, let’s quit ruffling a feather every single weekend, let’s go run a complete race. He’s got quick cars, he’s got good talent — let’s get back to building this team, helping this team get to where they wanna go.”
Hocevar seemed unbothered that Smith and his team had a problem with him. Hocevar posted on Instagram after the race, and his song choice for the post was “IDGAF” by Drake, which translates to “I don’t give a f*ck.” The post also included a picture of a ticket counter with the message to “please take a number.”
Earnhardt didn’t mind that at all. He said that NASCAR needs personality; Hocevar has plenty.
“That part I do like. Our sport needs personality and he’s got a lot of personality,” Earnhardt said. “Some of the stuff he does, has done or does in the future — I’m not gonna love all of it, but I like it because we need people to [stir the pot].”
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