Hocevar expands on Darlington run-in with Keselowski

A few days after his contact with Brad Keselowski at Darlington Raceway, which left Keselowski angered, Carson Hocevar – who seemed initially to shrug off the incident – was more forthcoming about what happened.

“Kind of (expletive) happens sometimes when you’re racing hard,” the Spire Motorsports driver said. “I think Brad knew how aggressive he was being, racing super hard, obviously trying to keep us behind him. I was racing really hard, trying to be aggressive and to hurt his momentum a lot, and we just got racing really hard. I feel like you put yourself in that spot that it’s going to open up after 10 or 15 laps of – not patience running out, because it sounds like I was trying to turn him after 15 laps – but it’s more so of when you’re just racing really, really tight, within an inch of each other, for 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 laps, it just starts to add to the intensity of it. 

“Sometimes you just hit, and sometimes you race really hard. I’ve been hit multiple times in those races throwing blocks and doing everything, and you kind of open yourself up to that. Yeah, sometimes (expletive) happens. I wasn’t trying to spin him out or wreck him or anything, but I was trying to pass him and was getting closer and closer to try to pack air and make his life a little more difficult because sometimes it’s tough to pass, and he was doing a really good job of holding me off.” 

In the immediate aftermath, Hocevar seemed to brush off the incident when USA Sports asked about it. He claimed he didn’t know what happened, only going as far as to say twice that Keselowski spun. But contact from Hocevar into his left-rear quarter panel started the incident.

Keselowski, meanwhile, was more direct. The RFK Racing driver vowed that Hocevar has one coming. 

“I just care what Jeff [Dickerson, co-owner] and the sponsors and my team say,” Hocevar said. “Whether their opinion changes because of what Brad or Denny [Hamlin] or any of these guys says, that’s all relevant, that’s all included. So, then I do care. But I think ultimately racing is a family sport, and this is family, and I just care what my family thinks. Ultimately, that’s of the utmost importance.”

Hocevar has not spoken to Keselowski and doesn’t plan to, although he was informed on pit road of what Keselowski had said. According to Hocevar, Keselowski has done all the talking.

But Hocevar also pointed out that if Keselowski was as mad as he seemed, he could have walked over to him on pit road and said something. Hocevar said they were not parked that far apart, and Keselowski’s pit stall was near where Hocevar was parked. 

“I just think it’s racing,” Hocevar said. “Roles reversed, I wouldn’t care to talk. I’ve been pretty vocal about that. I don’t like the BS apologies, and I think you just race. We’re just both racing hard. I think he knew what he was doing; he’s smart. He’s won championships. He knows how hard he’s racing and trying to pull this off.”

Hocevar finished 11th at Darlington and is 12th in the championship standings as the series heads to World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis this weekend. The venue was the site of Hocevar’s Cup Series debut in 2023.