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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Threatens Rival Driver Before Sunday's Race

Originally posted on The Spun | By Daniel Bates | Last updated Jun 22, 2025 3:33 PM ET

After numerous dust ups this Cup Series season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a warning for one of his fellow NASCAR drivers ahead of Sunday's race at Pocono.

With incidents at Nashville Superspeedway and last week's event in Mexico City, Stenhouse made sure to let the up-and-coming Carson Hocevar know that he has something coming for him if the extracurriculars don't stop.

"Honestly, tired of talking about the kid," Stenhouse admitted to NBC Sports. "Eventually, it will come to a head. In the right place in the right time, eventually. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, but he probably will be looking over his shoulder for a long time. We'll see how that goes."

Following June 15's race south of the border, Stenhouse went off on the 22-year-old wheelman. Yelling to Hocevar: "I'm going to beat your ass when we get back to the States."

While that hasn't happened just yet, Hocevar did reveal that he knows his veteran counterpart is gunning for him — and he expects retaliation at The Great American Getaway 400.

"The scorecard has it that I'm getting something from the 47 at some point, right?” Hocevar shared. "And I think my team and everybody kind of knows that. But at the same time, it's ideally just the 47, right? It's not an open hunting season on the 77 because of these incidents..."

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - MARCH 30: Cody Ware, driver of the #51 Arby's Ford, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #47 SUNNYD Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on March 30, 2025 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)Logan Riely/Getty Images

"But we're still just going to go race, be aggressive and defend ourselves when we need to," the 2024 Rookie of the Year said. "But this is, unfortunately, now a 2-0 scorecard. I've been a fan of the sport for a long time. You know the game; you've seen it and everything. But we just go race."

We'll see what happens when the green flag waves up in Long Pond, PA. But it sounds like we could be in for some hard fought racing at the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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