Ryan Blaney addresses Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. controversy: ‘You ran into that guy’

Last week, Ryan Blaney won at Nashville, but the story was about Carson Hocevar spinning out Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Stage 2. Hocevar joked in his media availability that he forgot he didn’t win the race because of how much the NASCAR world was talking about him and Stenhouse’s incident.

Ryan Blaney, 2023 Cup Series champion, has been around the sport for a long time now. He’s still young, but he has a wealth of experience. During his time as a driver, he remembers being young and aggressive.

When asked about the Carson Hocevar controversy, Blaney thought back to his upbringing. Of course, his father, Dave Blaney, was a big part of his development as a driver.

“I mean, everyone’s line is different. I can’t really speak for anybody else,” Blaney said about what is considered over the line. “Always in my mind, I was raised, my father raised me, you know, he raced for a long time. So, I had that going for me that he kinda was able to teach me the dos and don’ts. And I’ve been chewed out a lot when I was younger for doing the wrong thing and being overly aggressive and costing somebody else. My dad chewed my ass out when I did that.

“I did it a few times in Late Models when I was like 13, and you know, he set it right. He set the line, he said, ‘This is wrong. You do not race this way. This is just how it is.’ It was one of those situations where I’m racing someone hard, and I made a mistake, like I slipped up and I spun him out, and it wasn’t intentional, but even those mistakes, dad would make me clean up right away.”

Blaney: Hocevar has to ‘make a change’

Everyone has chimed in about Hocevar vs. Stenhouse at this point. Ryan Blaney got more pointed about his take on the situation as he continued to speak to the media.

“I guess in my mind, hard racing is fantastic, everyone races hard. Contact is going to happen. I think it’s an issue if it happens repetitively, like a lot. I think that’s when it becomes, starts becoming an issue. Like, do you learn from your mistakes? You can say you’re sorry all you want, but if you don’t learn from them and make a change, then everyone thinks you’re lying, and you don’t feel sorry about that.

“So, yeah, I mean, two guys are racing and they’re bumping and whatever, but like when you, to me, over the line is like if you get run over in the rear bumper and you get spun out and wrecked, that’s, you have a brake pedal. You ran into that guy.”

Racing isn’t just about going fast. It’s about knowing when to go fast and when to back off. It seems the consensus around the garage is that Hocevar should have backed off.

Ryan Blaney doesn’t think Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is to blame

As Ryan Blaney finished up his comments, he talked about the narrative that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was to blame. That is something that he does not agree with in the least. It is going to take genuine reflection and change from Carson Hocevar.

“And I’ve read some stuff this week that people are like, ‘Well, you know, Stenhouse could have cut him a break.’ I’m like, ‘How could Stenhouse cut him a break?’ I don’t understand. I think the 77 could have cut him a break, if you’re gonna talk about breaks, I don’t even think that situation was cutting somebody a break. That was just getting run over.

“So, I mean, hey, he’s a young guy, all of us have been young, we’ve all been aggressive, everyone has a heavy right foot when they get going. And that’s good, I think he’s a very, very talented race car driver. He’s one of the best guys out there. It’s hard to teach speed, I think it’s just he has to refine a little bit what he does.

“I don’t think he has to change who he is because this is what’s got him here, but I think he’s gotta possibly think of some situations that he’s been in and just try to learn from them, and that’s all you can do. So, I don’t really critique anybody, I’m not critiquing him at all. That’s just kind of my stance on it, you know, when guys keep spinning off the front of your bumper, that becomes an issue. And you know, I just am not a huge fan of that. I’ve been a part of it, I got turned at Atlanta getting run into from behind, and it’s like, how many times you gonna keep doing this until you learn? So, we’ll see.”

Ryan Blaney doesn’t want Carson Hocevar to change who he is. He just wants him to use his head instead of his right foot at times. Can he balance speed and control? We will see.