Ryan Blaney ripped into Carson Hocevar during Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., a race in which the two of them finished in the top five.
Hocevar bumped into Blaney on Lap 234, spinning out the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske between turns 1 and 2, bringing out a caution flag.
Blaney immediately ripped into Hocevar over his radio.
“I don’t know what we can do about it,” a member of the No. 12 Ford team said.
“No, he’s just a moron,” Blaney responded to his team over the radio. “He just runs right into the back of you. He has zero idea of where like to bump somebody, where not to. He’s swiping across my bumper as he’s doing it. He just has no idea.”
Even though the No. 12 spun out at that point, Blaney still rallied to finish fourth in the race. Hocevar finished second in his No. 77 Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports. That was the best finish of Hocevar’s Cup Series career.
After the race, the 22-year-old Hocevar celebrated his high finish but was critical of himself for his driving.
“[Blaney] zigged when I zagged. My fault,” Hocevar acknowledged, taking responsibility.
The driver of the No. 77 had Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain upset with him at points during and after the race, in addition to Blaney.
Hocevar apologized after the race and said he would keep the contents of his converations with those drivers private.
“There’s some stuff I gotta learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try and win a race,” Hocevar said.
Blaney talked after the race about what he said to Hocevar.
“I just said, ‘hey, you gotta calm down.’ I told him a couple of moves that he made earlier in the race were really sketchy. He should know better than to hit me in that spot,” Blaney said.
