{"id":59928,"date":"2025-08-05T10:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59928\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:22:08","slug":"denny-hamlin-shreds-carson-hocevar-over-attitude-concerns-for-nascar-longevity-youre-gonna-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59928\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin shreds Carson Hocevar over attitude, concerns for NASCAR longevity: ‘You’re gonna pay’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carson Hocevar seemed unbothered that Zane Smith and his team were upset with him after Sunday\u2019s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway. Hocevar posted on Instagram after the race<\/a>, and his song choice for the post was \u201cIDGAF\u201d by\u00a0Drake, which translates to \u201cI don\u2019t give a f*ck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post also included a picture of a ticket counter with the message to \u201cplease take a number.\u201d Of course, Hocevar was making reference to the growing list of drivers who have a problem with him. Denny Hamlin wasn\u2019t a fan of Hocevar\u2019s social media behavior. He said on Monday\u2019s \u201cActions Detrimental<\/a>\u201d podcast that Hocevar\u2019s attitude will hurt him in the long run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like Carson is definitely brushing it off to say, \u2018Tough luck, buddy.\u2019 That\u2019s a tough way to live,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201c\u2026 It hurts you in the long run. If that\u2019s the attitude you wanna have, it\u2019s good for social media and it\u2019s bad for on-track results. [Drivers are saying] \u2018I don\u2019t mind sticking that guy three-wide in the middle and if he\u2019s an innocent bystander, so be it. He would do it to me, and he wouldn\u2019t care.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocevar sent Smith spinning on Lap 229 at Iowa. Smith then appeared to take a stab at wrecking Hocevar<\/a>\u00a0later in the race. On pit road after the race, Smith\u2019s crew chief\u00a0Ryan Bergenty\u00a0interrupted an interview Hocevar was doing<\/a> to confront the driver of the No. 77 Chevrolet. <\/p>\n

\u201cHey, when are you going to learn to f*cking drive, dude?\u201d Bergenty said. \u201cI mean you wiped us the f*ck out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin warns Carson Hocevar about his attitude<\/p>\n

From Hamlin\u2019s point of view, the contact between Hocevar and Smith was accidental. He wishes Hocevar would have apologized. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an accident; he got loose,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cSay \u2018Sorry about that. I f*cked up, I got loose. I went into the corner, I shook the right rear out and I got into you. I apologize.\u2019 Instead of \u2018Ha, take a number.\u2019 \u2026 I don\u2019t know where they were running at the time, but when you\u2019re doing it for a win versus when he whacked out Ricky [Stenhouse Jr.] for 15th or 20th, that\u2019s just not the time. \u2026 I can tell you 100 percent, without a doubt, he did not purposely hit Zane Smith. It was an accident, but I\u2019m telling you that it\u2019s good for clicks and bad for results. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s out for clicks right now. That\u2019s my opinion. I could be wrong. You\u2019re gonna be in contention and someone is gonna clean you out and they\u2019re gonna say, \u2018I took a number.\u2019 I just feel you\u2019re gonna pay. You\u2019re gonna pay at the most inopportune time when it was your day. \u2026 You can choose the path you want, but Brad Keselowski went through this, Joey Logano went through this and ask them \u2014 they would tell you right now they\u2019ve changed because they\u2019ve wised up to what it takes to be successful long-term in the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carson Hocevar has been here before<\/p>\n

Hocevar has been down this road several times in his brief NASCAR<\/a> career. Stenhouse was angry with him at Nashville and later Mexico City, while both Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain spoke with him at Atlanta. Hamlin is impressed with Hocevar\u2019s ability, but there\u2019s more to being a successful driver than making speed, he explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cVery impressed by the talent but is it worth all the other bullshit? \u2026 Every team owner has different motivations. You typically want someone who is capable of going fast and he checks that box, has good race craft \u2014 questionable box. There are just more elements than making speed to being a successful racecar driver,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cMaking speed is a small part of it. For example, look at my ranks. We\u2019ve won more races than anyone else \u2014 I ain\u2019t beating up on anyone in any category. So, there\u2019s more to it than that. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I think he has the ability to get speed out of the car. We\u2019ve been talking about the same thing for years about the same guy, so you almost just wanna let him do whatever he wants to do and don\u2019t interrupt him while he\u2019s making a mistake. Let him learn it the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carson Hocevar seemed unbothered that Zane Smith and his team were upset with him after Sunday\u2019s Iowa Corn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-59928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}