KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Ryan Blaney was still sporting a shiner under his left eye when he arrived at Kansas Speedway on Friday.
“I wish it had healed a little quicker,” he admitted, “but it did not.”
The tension between Blaney and Carson Hocevar, who delivered the haymaker that left Blaney with the black eye last weekend, has apparently eased a little bit quicker. Blaney called the on-track incident that led to a pit-road fracas “just a racing” thing,
upon further reflection, the kind of stuff that happens at a fender-to-fender track like Bristol Motor Speedway.
“It's kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly but I calm down really quickly,” Blaney explained. “These things happen. The on-track, it happens really, really fast. You're making decisions in a split-second of a moment, and sometimes you can be skewed or not skewed on what you think happened, and then you know, watching the incident, pretty 50-50, I thought.”
The incident last Saturday night unfolded 41 laps before Joey Logano captured the checkered flag.
Blaney had just taken second with a pass around the outside of Hocevar, who countered by steering his No. 77 Chevrolet down the track. Blaney moved to block him, Hocevar stayed on the gas, and the result sent the No. 12 Ford spinning into the wall.
It was a big blow to Blaney, who had led a race-high 202 laps, and his hopes of winning a second Cup Series championship.
“It's just kind of built,” said Blaney, who now trails Kyle Larson by 52 points in the Chase for the championship. “A couple of rough finishes back-to-back and you realize, man, this is not going the way I thought it was going to go.”
Hocevar ended up third behind Logano and Larson last weekend.
But as he brought his car to a stop along pit road, Blaney was there waiting, and despite standing several inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Hocevar, went right after him with a shove. Hocevar responded with two overhand rights, the first knocking Blaney’s hat off and the second connecting with his cheek, sending one of NASCAR's most popular drivers to the ground.
Blaney scrambled to his feet and threw a left hook that clipped Hocevar’s own hat before team members could intervene.
“We've been cool and stuff. I think Ryan is one of the coolest guys in the garage,” Hocevar said. “I didn't want to hit him, and looking back, I 100 percent see where he wanted to just throw a shove in there and yell. But in the moment you're not going to see that.”
Hocevar said he had no regrets over what transpired on pit road.
“I don't think so. My dad is probably the least controversial person I ever met in my life. He's got a local business so he freaks out if he gets a bad Google review. I texted him and was like, ‘Sorry about that.’ He was proud that I defended myself,” Hocevar said. “If we were racing anywhere lower than second, I think, you know, I maybe look at it differently, but I think Blaney does, too.”
With a brazen driving style, the 23-year-old Hocevar has made plenty of enemies — and, yes, quite a few fans — during his third full Cup Series season. It was just a few weeks ago he spun out Brad Keselowski during the Southern 500, leaving the frustrated former champion to declare: “His day is coming, and it's coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”
Turned out his day came at Bristol, only it was Blaney — not Keselowski — trying to deliver the punishment.
NASCAR seems to be leaning into the brewing feuds, too. Promotional posters for the race at World Wide Technology Raceway, which came on the heels of the Darlington dust-up, declared: “A Rivalry Worth Watching: Hurricane Hocevar vs. Bad Brad Keselowski.”
So it wasn't entirely surprising that NASCAR chose not to punish Blaney or Hocevar this week.
“We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion,” NASCAR chief executive Steve O’Donnell said during an appearance on Kevin Harvick’s podcast Monday. “Blaney’s showing his passion, showing his fire.”
Blaney called it the right decision by NASCAR, and not just because it kept the series from digging into his pocketbook.
“I would fully understand getting slapped with a penalty if I went over and initiated a punch or something,” Blaney said. “I initiated a confrontation, Carson defended himself. I'm glad they didn't do anything. They just let it simmer. I thought it was the right call.”
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