Six days removed from the post-race antics that put two of NASCAR’s top stars in the limelight, Ryan Blaney – sporting a black eye under his hat brim – and Carson Hocevar met the media in their first at-track setting since their Bristol Motor Speedway beef last weekend.
Their sessions – staggered nearly an hour apart – were marked by measured, conciliatory remarks, a sharp contrast to the boisterous fracas that pitted the two toe-to-toe with fists flying. Both also indicated they were willing to move past their differences.
“I mean, I’ve watched the sport all my life. Technically this is the stuff that brings people closer together, and you laugh about it,” Hocevar said Friday. “So yeah, I’ve never had a problem really with him on the race track, and we’ve been running good. I think he’s as stand-up of a guy as it could be that he could look at it and know that that was just racing and whatnot, heat of the moment and everything.”
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“We’ve been cool and stuff, and I think Ryan’s one of the coolest guys in the garage,” Hocevar said. “I mean, he’s got a cool mustache and smokes and drinks whiskeys and all that, right? I think he looks the part really well. So I thought he made me more of a fan, honestly, when he went on (Hamlin’s podcast). I was like, ‘Oh, respect for that, for sure.’ You know, he could have held some ice on his eye and whatnot, but he went right out there and did it, and I have the utmost respect for that.
“And you know, I didn’t want to hit him. Looking back, I 100 percent see where he had wanted to maybe just throw a shove in there and then yell, but I think we both saw each other, but in the moment, you’re not gonna see that. You’re gonna predict the worst, per se.”
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“He and I really haven’t had a problem in a year or year and a half or nothing like that, and I feel like we’ve raced each other pretty good,” Blaney said. “So yeah, I don’t think there’ll be really anything different than racing hard in tough moments per usual, but that’s with anybody at certain moments of the race. So I don’t really see a big change.”
— NASCAR.com —