Carson Hocevar has been a controversial figure since his full-time debut in NASCAR. He's found a lot of fans of his unabashed personality, but is despised by many rivals for his aggressive driving. However, Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has now taken a distinct stance on the controversial driver.

Elliott recently sat down to discuss his life and career on Thursday's episode of the "Racin' With The Boys" podcast. In the penultimate segment, he dissected his relationship with Hocevar.

"I have no issues with him. I really don't," Elliott said. "He's a guy that raced me hard, and there's been a couple times I felt like maybe, right around his rookie year, that he kind of rubbed me the wrong way a couple times, but I do remember having a couple conversations with him there early on, respectfully."

Notably, Chase Elliott and Carson Hocevar have hardly made headlines for wrecking each other or having post-race confrontations.

"I feel like he's given me quite a lot of respect, really ever since those early on incidents, that or, I wouldn't even say incidents but just conversations we had, just kind of racers talking back and forth. So I wish I had something juicier and better to give you, but I don't. We've kind of been good," Elliott further added in the podcast.

Carson Hocevar has often come across as a controversial figure because of overly aggressive driving and frequent on-track incidents.

Even though he has been compared with the late great Dale Earnhardt for his attitude and racecraft, his villain persona has isolated him and alienated his peers from the NASCAR garage. And his recent fallout with Zane Smith sheds more light on it.

Zane Smith gets blunt about Carson Hocevar: "I just don't like him as a human"

Front Row Motorsports' Zane Smith was one unhappy driver after the Chicagoland race. It was the race where he intentionally wrecked Carson Hocevar, but unfortunately wrecked himself doing so.

After their meeting in the hauler at Atlanta last weekend, Smith outright stated that he despised Hocevar's behavior.

"I just don’t like him as a human," Smith told reporters in Atlanta (via RACER). "I think we both understand where we're at with everything, but yeah, certainly the meeting doesn't change how much he dislikes me and how much I dislike him."

Their rivalry stemmed from Iowa last year, where Hocevar spun and wrecked Smith.

Unfortunately, NASCAR's closed-door meeting with both drivers at the hauler in Atlanta doesn't seem to have done anything to mend their relationship.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak