After Carson Hocevar landed two right hooks on Ryan Blaney’s face, the fans at Bristol Motor Speedway erupted into a resounding cheer for the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet driver. Meanwhile, Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford driver was met with boos as he exited the infield in a golf cart. Those in attendance made it clear whose side they were on. Now, with the dust beginning to settle midweek, it’s all about NASCAR legends choosing sides, and Hocevar will be pleased to know that some of NASCAR’s finest are backing him.
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Richard “The King” Petty and his legendary crew chief Dale Inman were discussing the Bristol brawl and came to a consensus that Blaney was at fault for the incident.
“I can’t blame the 77 for that. I’m gonna have to blame the 12 for really trying to block him,” Petty said on Petty Family Racing. “Well, he [Hocevar] said he was on the brakes. I didn’t see the car slowing down any, though.”
Beyond his assessment of the incident on lap 457 at Bristol, the seven-time Cup Series winner also drew a tall comparison for Hocevar and said, “He’s almost The Intimidator now.”
Petty’s comparison of Hocevar to the great Dale Earnhardt Sr., who earned the nickname through some pretty aggressive driving, came after Inman suggested that every spotter would now be telling their drivers where Hocevar was on track. It’s not the first time Hocevar has been compared to the seven-time Cup Series champion, either.
After his maiden Cup victory at Talladega earlier this year, the similarities were widely discussed among the NASCAR community. The aggressive driving style, along with both drivers’ black race suits and race cars, drew comparisons between the two.
Interestingly, Petty isn’t even the first person to bring up the comparison this week. Former driver and broadcaster Kenny Wallace, who shares his thoughts on Cup races the morning after on his show Coffee with Kenny, made the same comparison between Hocevar and Dale Sr.
Wallace said that when he was racing, at one point Dale Sr. had stopped wrecking fellow drivers, and that was because every driver on the track knew that if Dale Sr. didn’t get the space, he would make a move regardless. Wallace said that drivers learnt it the hard way, but they were conditioned to it, and he suggested that the current NASCAR grid needs to understand that that is what they need to do with Hocevar as well.
Wallace also took Hocevar’s side on the contact with Blaney and said that the Penske driver should have left Hocevar room and not blocked too aggressively.
Blaney has admitted that he regrets what happened after the race, but he also called the incident a 50-50 situation, with both drivers at fault. While Blaney blamed himself for the aggressive block and Hocevar for not braking, former Cup Series champ Kevin Harvick’s assessment also leaned more toward the Spire driver. He laid out his thoughts regarding the Bristol incident on the Speed with Harvick and Buxton podcast.
“I believe Blaney had the faster car at that point,” said Harvick. “I don’t think he needed to risk throwing a block. In my opinion, with a block, you put somebody, you put the car behind you at a 50 percent chance that they have to make. And Hocevar hasn’t lifted for anybody.
“And he put Blaney in the fence. And I think Blaney put himself in a position to get wrecked. And that’s what happens when you block.”
Harvick didn’t just back up Hocevar on spinning out Blaney. The 2014 Cup Series winner also backed up Hocevar on the brawl on pit road, clearing the Spire driver of any wrongdoing on both counts.
“When you grab somebody right off the bat, that’s usually the sign of, I’m not here to talk. I’m angrier than talking,” said Harvick. “And a lot of times you go into those situations looking to aggressively talk. And I think that the hands on Carson immediately threw that into a moment of self-defense on Carson’s side. So he definitely defended himself.”
As things stand, heading into Kansas, most of the prominent voices around the sport have backed the Spire driver, while NASCAR’s CEO has already described the incident as a moment of passion, meaning no penalties will follow. Now, we just have to wait and see how Blaney races Hocevar when they’re back on track.