Denny Hamlin baffled by Carson Hocevar’s explanation for controversial Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wreck

Carson Hocevar spun Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during this past weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. When he had a chance to show some compassion for the incident, he instead doubled-down on the belief that he did no wrong.

Denny Hamlin doesn’t believe that’ll sit well with his fellow former Daytona 500 winner. He was baffled by Hocevar’s explanation, and he simply can’t see where the young driver is coming from with his sentiment.

“I didn’t quite understand Carson’s reasoning for saying that he thought maybe Ricky could have given him a break because of the run he had. That’s an interesting take,” Hamlin stated, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “He ran into the back of Ricky, so he wasn’t ever inside of Ricky, that I could tell. Ricky was ahead of him and was making a normal arc into the corner.

“Ricky would’ve had no opportunity, even if he wanted to give the No. 77 the bottom lane, which you don’t want to do. Nobody’s giving anyone anything. He didn’t give Ricky’s spotter a chance, nothing. Because he just dove it in there and said, ‘I think there might be a hole.’ Nope, there wasn’t.”

So what will this all lead to? Simple, Hamlin is willing to bet everything that Stenhouse will see retaliation against Hocevar. He’s willing to place a hefty wager on it happening soon rather than later, too.

“Ricky Stenhouse will absolutely wreck Carson Hocevar sometime in the near future. That’s just a fact. I would — I’d put this week’s salary on it. I’m not kidding you,” the veteran wheelman added. “You know, he ain’t going to punch him in the face, but he will absolutely wreck him, because Ricky’s that kind of guy that he’s going to feed into what people say.

“He’s going to hear, ‘Are you going to get him?’ And you know, he’ll just suddenly — he’ll make sure you know, if you’re Carson, just know that it’s coming. So don’t be surprised. … It’s coming. There’s nothing I’m more confident of right now, other than Jordan having a baby, than Ricky wrecking Carson. I just feel as though that’s inevitable.”

Still, Hamlin think this all could’ve been avoided, or at least taken down a notch, if Hocevar apologized after the race. That’s the opposite of what happened in the Music City, and now nobody can blame Stenhouse for being peeved.

“I don’t think that there’s anything that Carson will say. … Carson had an opportunity to be empathetic to Ricky Stenhouse who he just wrecked in an interview, and he chose not to,” Hamlin said. “He said, well, you know, ‘He could have given me a break,’ I guess. It’s like, hold on, this guy is wrecked on the trailer and you’re telling him he should have cut you a break? It just — it’s going to come back to him.”

It remains to be seen when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retaliates against Carson Hocevar, but Denny Hamlin will be hoping he doesn’t get caught in the crossfire. Whenever these two are near each other on the track, the cameras will be on them for the next couple of weeks.