Smith done playing nice with Hocevar: 'I just don't like him as a human'

Zane Smith left no room for interpretation or confusion about his feelings towards Carson Hocevar when asked about the animosity between the two.

“I just don’t like him as a human,” Smith said Saturday at EchoPark Speedway.

Smith ran into the back of Hocevar on lap 32 of last weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway. The contact knocked Hocevar sideways, and he bounced off the wall. Smith also ended up with damage.

“I just tried to move him off the bottom,” said Smith of the incident.

“It’s hard racing [when we’re around each other] and that’s fine,” the Front Row Motorsports driver went on to explain about his history with Hocevar. “But what created a lot of anger at Chicagoland was our past run-ins together. He’s pointed me by a few times, and, like Nashville, as soon as we’re around each other, he runs into me, then points me by, then talks crap to the media. That’s a goon in my opinion.”

NASCAR did not issue a penalty. However, they met with both drivers on Saturday.

“I think we both understand where we’re at with everything,” Smith said. “But the meeting doesn’t change how much he dislikes me and how much I dislike him.”

There was no clarification from Smith on when his dislike of Hocevar started. The two have competed against each other in NASCAR for multiple years between the Craftsman Truck and Cup Series, but Smith countered that he never really raced much with Hocevar in trucks. He was, however, on the receiving end of Hocevar’s bumper last year at Iowa Speedway.

“I have no problem with anyone, and I’m not going to go create the trouble,” Smith said. “But I’m a big believer in I’ll race you on how you race me. So, until he proves that to me, we’ll go from there.”

“Both,” said Smith when asked whether it was Hocevar’s attitude or racing style.

“No,” he said when asked if they could race together without trouble.

Hocevar did his best to brush off the encounter. Not only did the Spire Motorsports driver say the meeting with NASCAR was fine and that he was cracking jokes in there, but he was also left wondering what the big deal was because it felt like a racing incident.

“No,” said Hocevar when asked if he knew Smith had those feelings about him. “We’ll have to go to couples counseling at some point. A lot of times with your partner, you don’t see it.”