{"id":497375,"date":"2026-02-25T00:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497375\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T00:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:04:21","slug":"kevin-harvick-calls-for-nascar-cup-drivers-to-wreck-carson-hocevar-after-controversial-atlanta-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497375\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Harvick calls for NASCAR Cup drivers to wreck Carson Hocevar after controversial Atlanta move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carson Hocevar\u2019s<\/a> aggressive brand of racing continues to divide the NASCAR<\/a> garage. Kevin Harvick<\/a> believes it may only be a matter of time before someone responds in kind.<\/p>\n

On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick\u2019s Happy Hour<\/a>, the 2014 Cup Series champion offered a blunt assessment of Hocevar\u2019s driving style following Sunday\u2019s chaotic run in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like Carson is going to take a run. He\u2019s going to plug a hole every chance that he gets,\u201d Harvick said<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s going to put you three-wide. He\u2019s possibly going to put you four-wide. If you open the middle up, he\u2019s going to take a chance, like he did with Christopher Bell<\/a>, to fill that hole. Especially when he\u2019s racing for a win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not going to worry about it when he gets out. I think that\u2019s the part where all the other drivers are \u2014 it kind of pisses them off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alas, Hocevar\u2019s \u201cHurricane\u201d reputation was fully on display in Atlanta. After going two laps down early in Stage 1, he clawed his way back into contention and ultimately finished fourth.<\/p>\n

But along the way, he forced tight situations, including the move that contributed to Bell\u2019s crash on an overtime restart. Still, Harvick made it clear he doesn\u2019t believe Hocevar is technically in the wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s doing anything wrong. I think he\u2019s racing aggressively,\u201d Harvick added. \u201cBut when you put people in bad positions over and over and over, eventually somebody is going to take that method and make sure that they send that message.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if Harvick were still behind the wheel? \u201cIf you\u2019re a competitor and you\u2019re racing against him, what do you do to show him that you\u2019re not going to do that?\u201d Harvick responded. \u201cI think the way I would approach it is, I\u2019d probably wreck him the first chance I got. I mean, if it was me, I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Hocevar\u2019s final-lap fate only added to the drama. Side-by-side with Tyler Reddick<\/a> for the win, he was left without drafting help when Chase Briscoe<\/a> pushed Reddick instead. Hocevar was shuffled backward and watched his first Cup victory slip away.<\/p>\n

A fourth-place finish is strong on paper, and Hocevar\u2019s 2026 start has been impressive. But in the Cup Series, aggression can earn respect, but it can also lead to retaliation.<\/p>\n

As Harvick put it, it may simply be a matter of who decides to send the message first. There\u2019s plenty of candidates, so Hocevar better heed Harvick\u2019s words moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carson Hocevar\u2019s aggressive brand of racing continues to divide the NASCAR garage. Kevin Harvick believes it may only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-497375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}