Ryan Blaney offers constructive advice to Carson Hocevar over aggressive style of racing amid Atlanta chaos

Some are calling him the modern day Dale Earnhardt. For those not comfortable to go that far quite yet, Carson “Hurricane” Hocevar will do.

Hocevar’s aggressive brand of racing was on full display in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. It got him in contention for his first win in Cup; it also perhaps created him more enemies moving forward — it’s all part of the Hurricane Hocevar experience.

But, if Hocevar wants to get past contending for wins and actually get to Victory Lane, Ryan Blaney believes he needs to find a balance between aggressive and reckless. He offered lengthy advice to his fellow competitor on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear.”

“With Carson, he’s really talented,” Blaney said. “I think he’s one of the best prospects, young drivers of the sport. He makes some mistakes, but he’s going for it all the time. I think if he cleans up some of the mistakes that he makes — which is what gets him to where he is — I think he’s gonna win a bunch of races. But there’s a few things he has to clean up where he’s young and things like that, which he’ll hopefully clean up.

“I don’t wanna call it a double-edged sword, because it’s not, but, like, he is aggressive and that’s what gets him to where he’s at as far as being in contention to winning these races. But, then there’s mistakes that come that hurts him from finishing it out.”

Ryan Blaney is a believer in Carson Hocevar as a talent

Blaney has had his share of run-ins with Hocevar in the past. After last February’s race at Atlanta, Blaney confronted Hocevar on pit road and told him to “calm down.”

That was one year ago to the day and Hocevar is still causing issues on the racetrack. Take Sunday for example, a race in which Hocevar finished fourth. Hocevar, on the first overtime restart, had communicated with Christopher Bell that he would push him. He quickly aborted that plan after seeing a small hole between Bell and Bubba Wallace heading into Turn 1. It was an aggressive move — reckless even — that saw Bell get turned into the wall.

Even as the incidents continue to pile up involving Hocevar, Blaney remains a believer in his talent. It’s hard not to, as Hocevar has showcased his raw speed on more than one occasion. Clean up a few things and he could soon find his way to Victory Lane, Blaney said.

“Throws it in there under the 20 [Bell] on the restart when there wasn’t any hole there,” Blaney said. “It was an aggressive move, but there was no space to go, and then it hurts him as far as that goes. He’s definitely gotten better, I feel like, as far as overly aggressive stuff. I think I was talking to [Jeff] Gluck a year ago about him, and I was like, ‘There’s a big difference between aggressive and reckless.’ It’s good to be aggressive but if you teeter on reckless, that’s an issue. There’s a fine line between that.

“I have no problem with people being aggressive but when it gets to some reckless stuff that pops up with him every now and then, I think he’s just gotta clean that stuff up, and he’s gonna be really good. He’s already really good but if he cleans that stuff up, he’s gonna be contending for wins a lot.”