Yet again, Carson Hocevar found his name doing the rounds after his Atlanta outing, where he threw a wrench into Christopher Bell\u2019s day on the first overtime restart. Restarting on row two at EchoPark Speedway, Hocevar tried to get into a hole between the leaders, Bell and Bubba Wallace, going three-wide into a diminishing gap.<\/p>\n
The move backfired as Hocevar clipped the left rear of Bell\u2019s No. 20 Toyota, sending him spinning nose-first into the SAFER barrier and ending his day as a result. Bell chose to stay silent after the race, but his teammate Denny Hamlin did not bite his tongue.<\/p>\n
On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin sent a message between the lines, hinting that payback could be waiting down the road if Hocevar keeps poking drivers, as he is often known to do. Even Dale Earnhardt Jr., who once backed Hocevar, drawing comparisons to his father, weighed in, noting the Spire driver could be stacking up enemies in the field.<\/p>\n
Hocevar, though, seems cut from a different cloth altogether. In a clip shared by Dirty Mo Media, he brushed off the heat over his style, saying he keeps his eyes on gaps and lap times, not microphones and timelines. \u201cI just watch all the shows and listen\u2026 I\u2019m just racing. I\u2019m out there. I see opportunities. And, this is all I think about. This is all I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doubled down, drawing a line between media chatter and on-track results. \u201cLike the rest is noise, and I laugh at it sometimes, or I see it, but there\u2019s not one bit where I look at any podcast or anything. I just look at it, and that\u2019s just entertainment. The rest is all competition, and I separate it,\u201d he continued<\/a>, making it clear he lets his performance do the talking, or so he wishes.<\/p>\n