![\"Carson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ryan-blaney-carson-hocevar-reactions-fight-NASCAR.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney made an honest statement about Carson Hocevar before the NASCAR race at Kansas, offering his view on the fellow Cup Series driver.<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney got honest about rival driver Carson Hocevare Friday when he walked back the heat<\/a> on his Bristol pit-road brawl with Hocevar, saying the whole incident was \u201cdefinitely unlike me.\u201d<\/p>\n The Team Penske driver\u2019s post-race shove-turned-fistfight with Hocevar became the story out of the Chase\u2019s third race, and six days later both drivers sat for separate NASCAR interviews explaining themselves ahead of Sunday\u2019s race at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly, but I calm down really quickly, and the other night it just kind of slowly built over the half hour or so,\u201d Blaney said, according to NASCAR\u2019s official social media account<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ryan Blaney\u2019s Fight Comments Detail Bristol Buildup The outburst on pit road, Blaney made clear, wasn\u2019t a snap decision. It built for roughly half an hour after his race ended rather than boiling over in the moment.<\/p>\n He also softened his read on the wreck that started it. Blaney and Hocevar were racing for second, chasing down Ty Gibbs\u2019 faltering Toyota, when the two made contact off Turn 4 with 43 laps left, leaving Blaney\u2019s No. 12 Ford crumpled against the outside wall. He finished 33rd. Hocevar finished third behind race winner Joey Logano.<\/p>\n \u201cReflecting on it for a day, watching the incident, talking back with Timmy and stuff like that, yeah, it\u2019s pretty 50-50, I thought. Just kind of a racing thing at Bristol, of two guys being aggressive with the line they wanted to be in,\u201d Blaney said, according to NASCAR.<\/p>\n That marked a shift from Saturday night, when Blaney insisted trackside that Hocevar simply \u201cdidn\u2019t lift\u201d and warned that \u201csomething is going to happen.\u201d He made good on the threat minutes later, storming toward Hocevar\u2019s car after the checkered flag, grabbing him by the firesuit and setting off the swinging match that left him with a black eye<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carson Hocevar Explains His Side of the Pit-Road Fight \u201cI was shocked that he went on there, obviously. But he\u2019s very scrappy,\u201d Hocevar said, as quoted by NASCAR<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hocevar, who threw the first two punches, said he didn\u2019t expect Blaney to seek him out after absorbing them.<\/p>\n \u201cHe could\u2019ve held some ice on his eye and whatnot, but he went right out there and did it. I have the utmost respect for that,\u201d Hocevar said, per NASCAR.<\/p>\n Hocevar also said he now understands what Blaney was after.<\/p>\n \u201cI 100% see where he wanted to maybe just throw a shove in there and then yell,\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cBut I think we both saw each other. In the moment, you\u2019re not going to see that. You\u2019re going to predict the worst, per se.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR won\u2019t punish either driver. CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell said the sanctioning body wants to encourage the passion both drivers showed rather than police it, according to Speedcafe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blaney had already previewed most of this Monday on Denny Hamlin\u2019s \u201cActions Detrimental\u201d podcast<\/a>, saying he \u201cgot my ass kicked\u201d and \u201cate a two-piece\u201d trading punches with Hocevar, and that he regretted the example it set for young fans watching.<\/p>\n Blaney dropped two spots to sixth in the Chase standings after Bristol, 52 points behind new leader Kyle Larson. Hocevar sits eighth, 85 points back. Both drivers return to action Sunday at Kansas.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tJonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Ryan Blaney made an honest statement about Carson Hocevar before the NASCAR race at Kansas, offering his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-909735","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\/909735","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=909735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"NASCAR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ryan-blaney-carson-hocevar-kansas-statement-honest.jpg\")
GettyNASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney speaks to the media during a press conference at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 25, 2026, in Kansas City, Kansas.<\/p>\n
\n![\"NASCAR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ryan-blaney-carson-hocevar-kansas-statement.jpg\")
GettyNASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar speaks to the media.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790383332_315_nascar-kansas-race-purse-payouts-money.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n