Hocevar unfazed by contact with Keselowski, who vows payback

Carson Hocevar appeared unfazed, or perhaps unwilling, to play into what some would describe as more controversy involving himself and Brad Keselowski at Darlington Raceway.

It was lap 107 in the Southern 500, the opening round of the Chase, when Hocevar slid up the track into the left-rear quarter panel of Keselowski’s car in Turns 3 and 4. Keselowski made contact with the wall and then started to spin left, back down the track. In the process, it appeared that Hocevar made contact again to finish off Keselowski’s spin.

“Yeah, he spun,” Hocevar said.

When it was pointed out that spin came about following contact from Hocevar, he said, “Yeah, I guess. I don’t know what happened. He spun.”

Those comments followed a tongue-in-cheek moment in which Hocevar was answering a question about not wanting to come from behind in the next Chase race at World Wide Technology Raceway, as he had to at Darlington. Hocevar had qualified 34th and finished 11th.

“I do everything for TV and entertainment purposes based off everybody else [saying so],” said Hocevar. “Whatever makes good TV. I just do it for the clicks; you know what I mean?”

The Spire Motorsports driver has faced unrelenting criticism from fellow drivers and pundits for how he races, and it’s not a new development in the Cup Series. Hocevar has faced those comments over the last few years in both the Craftsman Truck and Cup Series, with insults hurled his way about his immaturity, not knowing how to race, and doing things just for the attention.

Ahead of the weekend, Spire Motorsports turned some of those comments into a graphic for its driver about “blocking out the noise” as he begins the Chase. Naturally, it backfired, with critics using the post as more material against Hocevar.

“His day is coming, and it’s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”