Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Zane Smith crew chief confronting Carson Hocevar after Iowa

In a relatively uneventful race at the Iowa Corn 350, it was what happened after the race that drew the most headlines. Carson Hocevar was confronted by the crew chief for Zane Smith at his car during a post-race interview.

That immediately became a topic for discussion on various podcasts after the race. That included the Dale Jr. Download, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke down the incident.

“We’re going to talk about Hocevar and Zane Smith,” Earnhardt said. “I’m exhausted talking about Hocevar, everyone. I really wanted to move on and skip over this one, but apparently the rest of the crew is just really enjoying the Hocevar happenings.”

So what happened with Carson Hocevar, exactly? Well, he had an incident with contact on the track with Zane Smith. The two got into it on the racetrack.

“So he got loose and I guess he got loose underneath Zane and wrecked him, and then Zane tried to wreck him back. Missed,” Earnhardt explained. “And then Zane’s crew chief come up to Carson on pit road after the race.”

Ryan Bergenty, the crew chief for Smith, was vocal. He questioned why Carson Hocevar drives the way he does, like a “f****** r****d.”

“Man, I mean it’s like we’ve seen this before,” Earnhardt said. “Multiple times. I don’t mind it, I think it’s fine. I mean Hocevar needs to hear from somebody, so I’m fine with that.”

Perhaps the most surprising part of the entire ordeal with Carson Hocevar was Earnhardt’s reaction to the fall-out. Hocevar did himself few favors when he posted to Instagram using the song “IDGAF” by Drake, which translates to “I don’t give a f***.”

In addition, his post included an image encouraging people to please ‘take a number,’ a reference to a journalist’s tweet pointing out how frequently others come to angrily chide Hocevar after races.

The bottom line? Carson Hocevar was completely unapologetic.

“That part I do like,” Earnhardt said. “So our sport needs personality and he’s got a lot of personality. And I don’t, some of the stuff that he does or has done or does in the future, I’m not going to love all of it. But I like it because we need people, like, hey. We need people that are like that.”