NASCAR insider laments current environment amid Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drama: ‘Sometimes people need punching’

Very rarely in today’s NASCAR do you see drivers settle scores with their fists. NASCAR security is typically on the scene to prevent such happenings. Despite this, Ricky Stenhouse and Kyle Busch managed to go at it last year. Fast forward to after this past Sunday’s race in Mexico City, and Stenhouse told Carson Hocevar, “I’m going to beat your ass when we get back to the States.” 

Stenhouse was irate with Hocevar, who dumped him two weeks prior at Nashville Superspeedway and then did it again while running a lap down at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Motorsports journalist Matt Weaver addressed the incident on the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast. Weaver lamented the current environment, saying that “sometimes, people need punching.”

“One of my biggest frustrations with the current NASCAR environment that we live in is sometimes, people need punching. I’m pro Ricky, I’m pro Carson. This is not personal to me, but in racing, I am pro ass whooping,” Weaver said. “… The alternative is at some point — we saw this with Kyle Busch and Ricky last year — you get encouraged to use your car as a weapon, and I don’t want that at all.”

Tommy Baldwin Jr. airs it out on Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Carson Hocevar drama

As Weaver pointed out, the alternative is drivers using their cars as a weapon. Instead of that, perhaps issues can be settled by allowing drivers to get their shots in. Tommy Baldwin Jr., competition director at Rick Ware Racing, agrees with Weaver. He said that Hocevar is “not processing” the garage’s criticism of him.

“It’s NASCAR security’s job and they let everyone know that they are the ones policing the situations with the drivers,” Baldwin said. “If the crews would just leave it alone and let the drivers go at it and the security step in after it’s over or someone’s getting beat up pretty bad, let’s get it over with because it’s not processing for him [Hocevar]. Something’s not processing. Carson, hello, something’s not processing with you.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: ‘I’ve calmed down a little’ after threatening to kick Carson Hocevar’s ass

Both Stenhouse and Hocevar are back in the States and there have yet to be any fireworks. They’ll be in the same place this weekend at Pocono Raceway. But now, five days later since the incident, Stenhouse admits he’s “calmed down a little bit.”

“I’ve calmed down a little bit. My wife talks me off the ledge sometimes,” Stenhouse said Friday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “She does a good job of that. But it doesn’t change the fact that you get spun out for no reason. Felt like it cost us at least seven spots. We didn’t wreck like at Nashville, but we put ourselves in a spot. We got spun a couple times in that race. And just kept trying to fight back and get our track position. Felt like on that long run there at the end — there was still three or four spots right there in front of us that we could get and we ended up giving up another four or five spots.

“Just frustrating, obviously, when you got someone a lap down that had ran into you a couple weeks before that. Our talk after Nashville — he said, ‘Hey, I’m going to run you a lot different,’ which hey, at Mexico City, he waved me by. I was like, ‘Alright, things are looking up.’ And then, he missed his marks and came from pretty far back and ran into us. Again, I know he wasn’t racing us. But it’s really frustrating for my team and our partners and myself to get spun at a stage like that where there was nothing to be raced for.”