Carson Hocevar and Denny Hamlin employed some sneaky racing tactics during last weekend’s race at Pocono, where they tricked their NASCAR Cup Series rival Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski’s chances of a victory at Pocono came undone when he made a huge pit road error, mistakenly entering it when it was closed and was forced to fight his way back through the field.

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However, team radio has emerged from Pocono which highlights the gamesmanship from rivals Hocevar and Hamlin, who both ‘faked’ following him in the pit road.

Hocevar’s team originally warned him that the red light off was off, but he quickly clarified his intentions via the radio and said: “Yeah I know. I wanted to bait him. I didn’t want him to have him realize the mistake.”

Hamlin went through a similar exchange with his team, who were relieved to hear him confirm he was playing similar games and said: “Yeah, I know. I just didn’t want to tip him [Keselowski] off.”

Keselowski tricked by Hamlin and Hocevar

Despite the trickery from his rivals, Keselowski refused to blame Hocevar and Hamlin for his mistake and instead admitted fault for entering the pit road.

“This is my fault, let me just be clear with this,” Keselowski told Prime Video on its post-race show.

“We held pit road [closed under caution] every pit cycle for three laps. Normally, they hold pit road for one lap. So when you get to lap two, it’s just an automatic pit. So when we were going down the short chute, the team said, ‘pit this time,’ and I had no reason to challenge them.

“Ultimately, I hold the steering wheel and I’m the one that’s got to check. I didn’t check the crew chief and the spotter, and that’s my fault.”

Later in the race, a poorly timed caution flag ruined his strategy and Keselowski tumbled down the order into 24th, where he once again had to drive the wheels off his RFK Racing car to re-enter the top 10.

At the end of the race at Pocono, Keselowski only had a ninth place finish to show for himself in what could have been a more successful weekend for the No. 6 team.

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