{"id":234278,"date":"2025-09-17T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234278\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:55:10","slug":"carson-hocevar-infuriates-ex-teammate-who-wants-to-punch-nascar-star-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234278\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Hocevar infuriates ex-teammate who wants to ‘punch’ NASCAR star – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the most divisive driver in the NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> field, Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar has managed to alienate himself from many of his competitors during his first two seasons, seemingly including his teammates.<\/p>\n

This season alone, the 22-year-old has been labeled a \u201cmoron\u201d by Ryan Blaney<\/a>, NASCAR\u2019s \u201cbiggest dumb\u2014\u201d by Austin Dillon<\/a>, and been threatened by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another rival that Hocevar has seemingly gotten on the wrong side of over the last two years is now-former Spire teammate and current Front Row Motorsports star, Zane Smith, who has admitted he\u2019d like to \u201cpunch him in the face\u201d following their recent clash at Iowa Speedway on lap 230. Smith would go on to finish 36th, while Hocevar crossed the line in eighth.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old\u2019s comments came during an appearance on the \u2018Stacking Pennies<\/a>\u2019 podcast, hosted by Hocevar\u2019s former teammate, Corey LaJoie, just days after both Smith and Hocevar finished in the top 10 at Bristol Motor Speedway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on their collision at Iowa, which saw Hocevar get loose and spin Smith into the barrier, the FRM driver explained: \u201cNo, I didn’t talk to him. And it’s just you’re not going to get anything from it. Like, I don’t really know how else you can explain that. You want to go up to him and punch him in the face, but that’s $75,000, and that’s not very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With this in mind, Smith has decided that he simply plans to give Hocevar a taste of his own medicine, explaining: \u201cWhat it’s come down to me is like I just treat him how he would treat me. And it’s just how it goes. And until that changes, I’m not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaJoie clearly knew exactly where Smith was coming from when reflecting on his time as Hocevar\u2019s teammate in 2024. \u201cI could appreciate how fast he drives in a circle,\u201d he said. \u201cHe’s exceptional with manipulation and dirty air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can make the car do things that I could watch, like I need to get better at that. And the way he drives the [simulator] with how, I mean, he’s an iRacing kid at heart. So, like he\u2019d pick up on the cues really quickly, and he pushed me to become a better race car driver and work on some of my weaknesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to team building and all the things, not the guy who I’d pick to lead my team. Luckily for him, they’ve got (crew chief) Luke Lambert, who is one of the all-time, in my opinion, one of the great managers, he’s great for Carson if you listen to his radio, and Tyler Green is the best spotter on the roof.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have put him in a really good system, and it’s paying some dividends. Also, overly frustrating when you have a beef with him because he literally doesn’t give a s\u2014 about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disinterested in forming friendships within the sport<\/a>, as Hocevar has previously discussed with Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/a>, his devil-may-care attitude could come back to haunt him down the line<\/a>, according to the Hall of Famer. Earnhardt believes that when it comes to Hocevar, “everything\u2019s fine until he runs into one of Rick [Hendrick\u2019s] cars or something like that, and he has to go into the office and talk to Rick Hendrick.”<\/p>\n

He added: “It might not be Rick, but it\u2019ll be a person like Rick that when he has to go in and have that conversation, that will have an effect. That might not fix it all, but that will have an effect on the decision-making behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m entertained by Hocevar until it becomes my problem. I think it\u2019s all fine until he does something that irks Hendrick. Or somebody that\u2019s directly above his chain of command.”<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, and having clearly not paid attention to Earnhardt\u2019s advice, Hocevar lashed out at Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Chase Elliott<\/a> after being spun by the No. 9, yelling over his team radio: \u201cF— him. I don’t care who he drives for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps the most divisive driver in the NASCAR Cup Series field, Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar has managed to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":234279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[17649,4423,1406,10790,62,67,132,68,35366],"class_list":{"0":"post-234278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-carson-hocevar","9":"tag-motorsport-section","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-spire-motorsports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-zane-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115220691361389399","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}