Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made it clear he was not happy with Carson Hocevar after Hocevar dumped him during the second stage of the Cup Series race at Nashville.
Hocevar got into the left rear of Stenhouse and sent him into the wall.
After he exited the infield care center, Stenhouse was asked if he wanted to have a conversation with Hocevar. He said, “Oh, I will. I will.”
Then when asked if it would be after the race, he replied, “No, that costs too much money.”
Ricky Stenhouse says he was dive bombed over and over
“Not real thrilled with that exit.”
He will talk to Carson Hocevar about it.
Tonight?
“Thats too expensive.” pic.twitter.com/kcBXT2A9nI
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) June 2, 2025
During an appearance on the RJ Starcevic YouTube channel, Stenhouse joked that the reason it would cost too much money wasn’t due to the fine NASCAR gave him last year after he confronted Kyle Busch during the All-Star Race, but instead for facial reconstruction. He said, “Well, it’s not going to be for reconstruction of my face.”
He went on to reveal that he had not spoken to Hocevar, “No. So, I mean, obviously, I’ve been in this sport a long time. If you make a mistake like that you generally pick up the phone as quick as you can especially if you feel bad about it. If you don’t you just roll on with it. No, I’ve not got a call from him. I’ve talked to his owner. Jeff Dickerson and I are super tight. No, I haven’t got a call from him. So, to my point he doesn’t really care about it, which, you know, it’s fine if that’s the ground he wants to stand on. That’s completely fine, but definitely will be something I won’t forget.”
“And if I don’t hear from him by the weekend, I’ll probably confront him and we’ll figure it out,” he added.
Later in the interview, Stenhouse shared that a number of other drivers had contacted him and encouraged him to do something about Hocevar, “There was a lot of people that have reached out that race in our series that say, ‘Man, I really hope you do something about it.’ That’s kind of funny. I’m not going to name names, but there’s a list.”
When Chris Gollon noted that Hocevar is unlikely to change the way he drives until someone retaliates against him, Stenhouse responded, “Totally agree. I think you hit the nail on the head right there. If nobody’s going to do anything, why would you change?”
He went on to contrast Hocevar to Ross Chastain, “The Ross piece is a lot different. I mean, we were running 17th in stage two. The things that Ross was doing was he was battling for wins. That’s important stuff to me. Wins are big in this series. So when you are battling for wins things are a little bit different. You can be a little bit more aggressive. Like you’re going for the win. Passing me for 17th in the beginning of stage two has nothing to do with trying to win the race.”
“I do agree that if nothing is done about it or definitely confronted nothing will change for sure,” he added.
What do you make of Stenhouse’s comments?