BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2014 Ryan Blaney believes responsibility for the on-track incident that ignited his post-race confrontation with Carson Hocevar belongs to both drivers, but he admitted lingering frustration from recent weeks helped fuel his emotional reaction following Saturday night\u2019s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
Speaking days after the altercation on Denny Hamlin\u2019s podcast Actions Detrimental, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion described the contact that spun him from contention as a racing incident between two drivers fighting for the same piece of real estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back on it, I\u2019d say it\u2019s a 50\/50,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI was wanting to protect the bottom, he was wanting to get to the bottom and was there late by a little bit, and neither of us wanted to give. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s 100% to blame. I\u2019m not 100% to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaney said he was attempting to protect second position and keep his car in its strongest groove on the bottom lane when the incident occurred. While many questioned why he didn\u2019t move to the outside lane, Blaney said he felt he had every right to defend the preferred line.<\/p>\n
The Team Penske driver said his anger wasn\u2019t solely connected to the Bristol incident.<\/p>\n
Instead, Blaney described a mounting sense of frustration after a stretch of bad luck that included mechanical failures and multiple DNFs despite having race-winning speed. He said the disappointment from losing a strong finish at Gateway because of brake problems, combined with three DNFs over a five-race span, created emotions that continued to build after the checkered flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday night was weird,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI kind of more calm than I normally am, and it built over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike many post-race confrontations that involve crews gathering around drivers, Blaney said he intentionally approached Hocevar alone.<\/p>\n
Without informing crew members of his plans, Blaney handed his phone to crew chief Jonathan Hassler and walked away. His goal, he said, was to avoid creating the appearance of a larger confrontation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, I\u2019m not going to go walk over there with six of my guys,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI\u2019m going to need to do this myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaney insisted he never intended for the situation to escalate into a fight.<\/p>\n
His plan, he said, was to grab Hocevar and voice his displeasure. Instead, the exchange quickly turned physical when Hocevar defended himself after Blaney aggressively approached him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I know, he landed a pretty good right hand,\u201d Blaney said.<\/p>\n
The punches became one of the most talked-about moments of the weekend, with Blaney jokingly acknowledging he did not come out on the winning end of the confrontation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, yeah, I went over there\u2026and got tagged pretty good, but I just wanted to show my displeasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite defending the emotions that led to the incident, Blaney expressed regret for how he handled the situation and acknowledged the example NASCAR drivers set for younger fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to set a good example for kids who are watching,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI definitely regret the way I acted. That\u2019s really unlike me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaney also indicated part of his frustration stemmed from what he viewed as a lack of accountability following the incident. He said drivers who unintentionally make mistakes should be willing to acknowledge them and apologize when appropriate.<\/p>\n
As for any reconciliation, Blaney said he has not spoken with Hocevar since the confrontation and does not expect that conversation to happen anytime soon.<\/p>\n
NASCAR, meanwhile, has elected not to penalize either driver.<\/p>\n
Following Saturday night\u2019s incident NASCAR executive Steve O\u2019Donnell appeared on Happy Hour with Kevin Harvick and said the sanctioning body viewed the situation as drivers handling a dispute themselves and emphasized the passion both competitors displayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf drivers are going to handle their own business, the way we looked at that, how it played out, we\u2019re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion, right?\u201d Said O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd those are two guy Blaney\u2019s showing his passion, showing his fire. So no, there\u2019s nothing coming from us in terms of [penalties]. We\u2019ll obviously watch what happens the rest of the way, but nothing in terms of post-race penalties.\u201d O\u2019Donnell continued<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2014 Ryan Blaney believes responsibility for the on-track incident that ignited his post-race confrontation with Carson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-904806","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\/904806","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=904806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}