Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Appreciative of Post-Nashville Call From Hocevar

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was upset, and rightfully so, that he was relegated to a last-place finish in last Sunday's Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway after an early accident with Carson Hocevar. The contact from the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet sent Stenhouse into the Turn 4 wall, which ended his day and effectively ended a great four-race stretch for the HYAK Motorsports driver.

Heading into Nashville, Stenhouse had recorded four consecutive top-20 finishes, three of which were finishes of 12th or better. As a result, Stenhouse had improved to 13th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings and was well inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff cutline. After a 39th-place result at Nashville, the driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet now finds himself 18th in the standings and is outside the cutline.

Stenhouse continued to stew on the on-track incident as the days passed without a call from Hocevar, and in a Tuesday night appearance on the Motor Stardom Show, Stenhouse expressed frustration about not hearing from Hocevar following Sunday's run-in.

On Thursday, Stenhouse finally received communication from Hocevar. In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Friday, it seemed like the call from Hocevar went a long way as Stenhouse explained he was able to finally understand where Hocevar's head was at during the Lap 106 incident.

"Yeah, I didn't need to think about it too much. I know what happened, but it's part of racing, too, at the same time. After Carson called me this week, I definitely see what he was thinking that he could get to the inside of me before we turned down into the corner. [The] problem was, he didn't," Stenhouse chuckled. "He said that he had committed to thinking he was going to, and unfortunately, just misjudged it and ran right into the back of us. You know, Carson and I haven't had any issues before, and so, I appreciate him reaching out and just explaining what his thought process was in it."

While the phone call doesn't erase the 39th-place result for Stenhouse at Nashville, the driver appreciated the phone call. Stenhouse said that he told Hocevar that he doesn't mind a good rivalry, but doesn't want to get into a pissing match of sorts for the 15th position each weekend. Instead, Stenhouse is focused on getting his No. 47 Chevrolet back into contention for a Playoff berth.

"It doesn't change that our NOS Energy Drink Camaro was in the garage at the end of the race, which was unfortunate. We were on a pretty solid roll of you know, just getting solid finishes and keeping ourselves in the points. But, like I told Carson, I don't mind a rivalry, but I don't want a rivalry for running 15th," Stenhouse said. "Like, if we're battling for wins, and battling in the top-five week in and week out, that's great. But having a rivalry not competing for wins, is kind of difficult. Kind of takes away from the focus of what we're trying to do at HYAK, which is get ourselves back in the point standings and into the Playoffs."

If you were expecting on-track payback from Stenhouse onto Hocevar, it seems like the situation is diffused. At least until someone goes over the line on the racetrack again.

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