Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shares details about his encounter with Carson Hocevar days after their clash

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a run-in with Carson Hocevar during the Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1. His car spun out and crashed into the outside wall, all due to the impact from the crash on Lap 106.

Stenhouse Jr.'s first DNF of the season and a 39th-place finish disappointed him. Hocevar was quick to apologize. He called Stenhouse Jr. last Wednesday (June 4) to discuss their collision, and the two also met on the driver intro stage in Michigan. The good thing is that the drivers are past all that.

However, on the Door Bumper Clear podcast recently, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. recalled the incident and revealed why it bothered him so much.

“You don't get those points back, which is kind of tough for us because, when you're averaging a 15th, 20th place car, going to get stage points is just very difficult,” the Hyak Motorsports driver explained. “Definitely makes it sting worse, and like, I told him you're so fast right now, just drive around me.”

“We're past that. He came and found me on the driver intro stage. He definitely feels bad about it. I hope he, at least when he's around me, thinks about that,” he added.

Hocevar ended up second that day, marking yet another close finish. A week later, the Portage native suffered a flat left-rear tire at Michigan International Speedway, which forced him to surrender the lead to William Byron, never to get it back. Safe to say that the 22-year-old is knocking on the door to his maiden series victory.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is also among the drivers vying for their inaugural win of the 2025 season. Next up for the drivers is the Viva Mexico 250. Scheduled for Sunday, June 15, the 100-lap event will be televised on Prime Video, 3 p.m. ET onwards, with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Back when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got fined for hitting a former Cup Series champion

After last year’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. found himself in a fistfight with two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. What followed was an altercation between the crew members of their respective teams.

NASCAR reacted to the incident, charging Stenhouse Jr. with a $75,000 fine and suspending three others, including his father, Richard Stenhouse, who was also involved in the fight.

Explaining Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s fine, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said in May 2024 (as quoted by NBC):

“I will say when you wait, you know, 198 laps and you make those decisions that were made, we’re going to react to that. There could have been different decisions made. We want the two drivers to be able to have their time to express their differences, but again, once it escalates to where there’s been a physical altercation there, again, we’re going to react.”

However, Kyle Busch, whose actions on the track led to Stenhouse Jr. hitting the wall on Lap 2 of the exhibition-style event, was not penalized. The explanation was simple: what Busch did was just hard racing.