Kevin Harvick reacts to Carson Hocevar controversy at Nashville, future payback

Carson Hocevar has ruffled the feathers of several drivers in the garage throughout his brief NASCAR tenure. In Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, Hocevar was involved in an on-track incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stenhouse went for a spin through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 106 in Stage 2. Hocevar, riding behind Stenhouse in the corner, clearly got in the back of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Chevrolet. This is hardly the first time Hocevar has been involved in conflict with another driver. He’s not the first driver to go through this. But FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick is blown away by Hocevar’s ability to block out the noise and keep pushing.

“Here’s the thing about Carson: Carson’s fast and is, to me, he’s able to keep making these mistakes and not let it mentally bother him. Not all people are like that way. When Ross Chastain — we saw everything that happened with Rick Hendrick — it slowed him down for a while,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s Happy Hour podcast. “It has not slowed down Hocevar up until this point. And he’s got the speed to be able to back up what he does on the racetrack, and he’s got the speed to overcome these types of scenarios.

“But he’s got the mental ability to just let it go. It didn’t bother him the rest of the race. It isn’t the first time that this has happened this year or last year and it is going to ruffle some feathers along the way.”

Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. need to talk after Nashville?

Prime Video‘s on-air analysts — Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Steve Letarte — all assigned blame to Hocevar for this latest incident. Stenhouse said he would be having a chat with Hocevar. The Spire Motorsports driver said he would welcome one. Several veterans in the garage, such as Denny Hamlin, have said that Hocevar has a receipt coming his way. Some would prefer he settle down on the racetrack.

Here’s the thing: Hocevar is fast, as he scored a second-place finish at Nashville. The more he runs alongside the Cup Series’ best, the more these incidents could hurt him, Harvick warned.

“Most of those instances, until it’s the guys that continuously race in the top-five, that’s when it’ll become more difficult when you start wrecking Denny Hamlin or some of those guys up in the front for the lead. Now, this instance right here was with the 47 car,” Harvick said. “That stuff will eventually come back to bite you because you’re gonna get wrecked when you get around those guys, or they’re gonna squeeze you in the fence or put you in a bad position or block you in the pits.

“Those scenarios will eventually hurt him but right now, his speed and his ability to block out those instances and all the controversy comes with it, seems to be pretty high.”