Spire owner Jeff Dickerson gets surprisingly candid on Carson Hocevar after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. controversy

Last week in Nashville, Carson Hocevar raised eyebrows with his on-track actions, and his team owner has something to say. Hocevar got into NASCAR rival Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the second stage of the Cracker Barrel 400 and has started a firestorm of debate.

Spire Motorsports is making a big splash this season. Michael McDowell is fantastic in qualifying most weeks. Then you have Carson Hocevar, who has been finding speed that no one expected to see from a Spire Cup car.

Speaking on Door Bumper Clear this week, Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson talked about the drama. He shared what he said to Hocevar after the Stenhouse drama.

“Full transparency here’s what I said: ‘Man, you didn’t need to do that. You know, you just didn’t need to do that,'” Dickerson said. “It wasn’t going to cost him anything to let Ricky back in line.”

Carson Hocevar was a tad bit aggressive while holding his line on the bottom of the track. Perhaps too aggressive, too early.

“I just wish he would have cut him a break. I have a personal relationship with Ricky, and so I don’t want that to cloud it. I’m like, ‘S**t man.'”

This week, there have been a lot of criticisms of Carson Hocevar. He has taken a lot of heat. However, he’s earned a lot of fans as well. Dickerson put it in simple terms about focusing on the future, and how he will view these actions years from now.

“There’s plenty of times I go to Carson and I’m just like, ’35-year-old Carson is not going to be cool with what you just did, or what you just said.’ This isn’t a Carson thing I think it’s in general, they’re too young to know that it’s cool to be like, ‘Man, I f***ed that up.’ Know what I’m saying?” Dickerson continued. “And that’s where I wish they would help themselves more. But again, I want to teach Carson how it is, quote, unquote.

“I’m not trying to change him. I certainly don’t want to get in car-crashing contests out there, right? And Ricky to me is a guy that, like, he’s not going to wreck our car, he’s going to go beat the hell out of him. You know what I’m saying? Which is how it probably should be, you know what I mean? But you can’t get it until you go through it, right? So, it’s like being a parent, sometimes your kid just wants to shut his hand in the car door to see if it hurts, right? Sometimes you just gotta let them.”

This weekend, Carson Hocevar is going to his home track at Michigan International Speedway. Fresh off his historic third Money in the Bank 150 win at Berlin this week, he’s ready to chase his first Cup Series win. Can he do it on the fastest track on the schedule?