NASCAR asked both Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith to drop the ongoing rivalry between them, but the Spire driver believes that it’s one-sided and not a real rivalry. 

Rivalries are often a motivating factor in any sport when athletes go head-to-head, and the same would be expected from NASCAR drivers. But when he was asked if this particular rivalry was a motivating factor for him, the Spire 77 Chevrolet driver went in a completely different direction. 

“I mean it's not really motivating. It's actually almost embarrassing when the guy that's 23rd in points is getting compared as your rival.” 

That was Hocevar’s response while discussing the situation that’s brewing between him and Front Row Motorsport’s No. 38 Ford driver Zane Smith on the Smart Girl Dumb Questions podcast.  

Hocevar didn’t only say that he doesn’t want his rivalry to be with Smith, but he also spoke about the kind of rivalry he would enjoy.

“I’d rather be with them (higher-ranked driver) or at least someone. His(Smith’s) comebacks are lame, and I really couldn’t bother. There’s some guys that I have gotten run-ins with, and it’s funny to mess with them, or funny sometimes they’ll clap back, and I love it.”

Hocevar outlines how the issues began with the race last year in Iowa when He went over a bump and got loose, unintentionally spinning out Smith as his own car was spinning towards the wall.

He also said that the score between them is 2-0, about the unsuccessful attempts made by Smith to take him out. 

Hocevar opens up on Hauler Talk post Chicagoland

The boiling point of this assumed rivalry was when the two had a bust-up at Chicagoland when Smith tried to take out Hocevar, and while he managed to spin him, Smith ended up in the wall himself. 

On the same podcast, Hocevar spoke about the conversation that followed after the incident when both drivers were called into the NASCAR hauler for a face-to-face chat. 

“Got pulled into the principal's office, and they're talking about we need to chill out. ‘You guys need to learn how to race each other,’ and I was like, I don't care. Like I don't even know what this is about… My crew chief told them they're not a factor to us. We don't care what they do. So it's very one-sided.”

Hocevar added, “I just thought it was funny. I was laughing. I got to talk to the NASCAR officials after, and we were all laughing.”

While Hocevar doesn’t see it as a rivalry, he’s currently trying to get as high up in the standings as possible before the Chase kicks in, and if Zane Smith is around him, it could spell jeopardy for Hocevar.

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason