With a fifth-place finish at Michigan, Carson Hocevar earned his best career Cup finish at his home state track on Sunday. However, the Hurricane left a trail of wreckage in his wake, triggering a nine-car crash during a mid-race restart. Among the wrecks was Bubba Wallace’s car, facing the results of getting in Hocevar’s path for the second race in a row. But Wallace wasn’t ready to take it on his chin.

As NASCAR’s rite of passage deems, the veteran took Hocevar to the pit wall at the Michigan International Speedway and animatedly explained why what he does is wrong. While many, like Dale Earnhardt Jr., prefer the entertaining energy Hocevar brings to the track, Wallace has one simple take:

“Suarez is going to run you really, really hard and force you into bad spots,” Wallace said on Door Bumper Clear. “Carson is just going to put it into a hole that’s not there and either almost wreck you, (or) wreck you..

“Hocevar is a hard racer. I told him this; he’s a fast racer. But he races stupid.” This is the insider view or the opinion of the Cup garage against Hocevar. But this aggression has been praised by Dale Jr, who feels it is good for the fans to enjoy hard racing. “I don’t want him to really change,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “As a fan and as a broadcaster, what he did today was make the race unique.” Freddie Kraft, Wallace’s spotter, brought this up during the podcast. “He gets praised by Dale and other people on TV,” and if we look at his Michigan muckup, the complaints by Cup drivers seem justified.

On the Lap 83 restart at Michigan, Carson Hocevar tried to force his No. 77 Chevrolet into a three-wide opening entering Turn 1 but struck the right-rear bumper of John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 Toyota. The contact spun Nemechek across the track and triggered a nine-car pileup that collected Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, and Denny Hamlin, and ended the races of Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon.

With 38 laps remaining, Suarez and Hocevar restarted near the front and battled each other for the lead. Suarez chose to maintain his position and preserve his equipment, while Hocevar pushed aggressively in an attempt to clear the No. 7 car. This allowed Denny to draft past them to take the win. Suarez eventually finished sixth, one spot behind Hocevar in fifth. Hocevar, however, did come clean on what he did at Michigan.

“I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to do that,’” Hocevar said. “I obviously feel bad that I wrecked them and everything, but my intention wasn’t to wreck anybody, really. So next time I’ll know what to do a little differently.”

Then, too, Wallace maintained the same stance on Hocevar.

“He’s one of the fastest in the field, and that’s his natural ability,” Wallace said then. “I’ve got to give respect to it. But at the same time, Kevin Harvick told me four or five years ago, ‘Stop hitting (stuff), and your finishes will show.’ And that’s what I simply tried to tell (Hocevar), man. He’s going for every move, every second. Not worth it.

Earlier this year, Dale Jr. compared Hocevar’s approach to that of Dale Earnhardt Sr., saying NASCAR needs drivers who stand out rather than become “invisible.” Even Kevin Harvick, who had been critical of Hocevar’s racing style, is having a change of heart.

“My advice to Carson Hocevar from the beginning of the year to now would be much different,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour podcast. “I think that he’s learned enough about how to manage the situations and not tear up his own car,” he further claimed.

As things stand, Hocevar has to clean up his on-track performance and optimize his racing moves, while remaining true to himself. It certainly won’t be a surprise if the Spire Motorsports driver finds himself at the center of another incident this weekend at Pocono Raceway.