Hocevar living in the world he's made for himself after latest controversies

Carson Hocevar remains one of the most talked-about drivers in the NASCAR garage. It's not always flattering or focused on his success with Spire Motorsports, though.

Saturday at Pocono Raceway brought more of the same. Hocevar, scheduled for an early morning media availability, mostly faced questions about his feud with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and unflattering comments about Mexico City.

At least he knows he’s doing it to himself.

“You live in the world you make for yourself,” Hocevar said. “This is the world I’ve made.”

Hocevar spun Stenhouse for the second time in three weeks in the inaugural Mexico City race. He was not racing on the lead lap, whereas Stenhouse was. Afterward, Stenhouse didn’t want to hear Hocevar’s explanation and promised he was going to “beat your a**” when back in the United States.

“We’re really fast here; I’m hoping he’s artistic about it [and] I don’t hit anything,” Hocevar said of any on-track retaliation from Stenhouse. “Ultimately, it could be tomorrow or it could be six months from now. It would be very hypocritical for me to then lose my mind and be frustrated. I’ve been a fan for a very long time; you’ve seen these stories before. It’s not, by any means, the first time.

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“Hopefully, for my sake, it doesn’t happen and we can race. If I need to, point him by or whatever. I know how frustrated I was that I brought this back up because I thought we were good. I let him go, even, because I was a lap down and I was riding behind him and then I locked up (the brakes).”

There's been no further communication between the two since the contact in Mexico, but Hocevar doesn’t know that there is anything else he can say; the two already had a conversation after Hocevar spun Stenhouse at Nashville Superspeedway at the beginning of the month.

As for Hocevar's comments about Mexico City on social media, Spire Motorsports took matters into their own hands and penalized their own driver earlier this week. In addition to a $50,000 fine, Hocevar has to undergo cultural sensitivity and bias awareness training after criticizing the host city, travel, safety, and the racetrack before making the trip.

“I think everybody in my inner circle wants the best for me and our group,” Hocevar said. “I feel like I put myself out there a lot more, and the issue for the team and their frustration was not that I was giving my opinion, it was the fact that my opinion wasn’t my opinion. It was based off everybody else that I’ve heard or seen. I didn’t do my own homework and voice my own opinion. I didn’t give it a shot. I didn’t even give it a chance. I didn’t go walk around.

“When I did, then hindsight is 20/20. Then I have my opinion, but I’ve already put it out there, so I think that was the biggest thing. I wasn’t doing what I pride myself on doing – having my own opinion, putting it out there, and being me. I just didn’t give it a fair shot.”