Carson Hocevar sets the record straight after Ryan Blaney’s harsh remarks: "I was focused on defending middle more than hitting him"

NASCAR Cup Series sophomore Carson Hocevar has clarified his stance after Ryan Blaney's scathing criticism of his hard racing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Spire Motorsports driver tried to scoop his #77 Chevy in the middle lane, but while doing so, he bumped the Team Penske rival's right rear, sending him for a spin on the apron.

Blaney was running fourth behind Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, and Ross Chastain, while Hocevar was right behind him as the pack maneuvered through turns 1 and 2. The latter tried to move to the middle lane to pass the Team Penske driver but Kyle Larson's #5 Chevy didn't leave much room for Hocevar to move.

It put the sophomore driver in a tough situation, forcing him to "defend" the middle lane and hitting the 2023 Cup Series champion in the due process. As a result, Blaney criticized the driver, when the disaster struck and after the race.

Though Hocevar took the blame on his shoulders, he clarified that he didn't foresee the #12 Ford would spin on the track, and pressed on where his focus was.

"I was focused on defending middle more than hitting him," Carson Hocevar said via Fox. "I didn't think it would offset him [into a spin]. I thought I could hit him pretty hard. That was the first time I probably lined up with Chevy nose with a Ford nose, and it just got him in a really bad spot.

"That's 100 percent on me. ... It sucks, the optics of it, for sure. It's not fun to do that," he added.

Hocevar also upset his 'mentor' Ross Chastain, whom he raced hard against during the final restart.

Carson Hocevar apologizes to Rick Hendrick after Kyle Larson's Atlanta defeat

Carson Hocevar's best result before he locked horns at the Ambetter Health 400 was a third-place finish in last season's Watkins Glen International race. Moreover, his early performance at Atlanta showed signs of a promising outcome as he jumped from a poor 26th-place start to crack the top 10 with just 13 laps underway.

On his way to contending with the frontrunners, the Spire driver upset many rivals like Kyle Busch, who warned him of the repercussions, Blaney, Chastain, and more. But it was Hocevar's white flag lap move that made him publicly apologize to Kyle Larson's boss, Rick Hendrick.

Larson and Christopher Bell fiercely fought for the season's maiden win. Hocevar joined the party, forcing the HMS and JGR drivers to split and open the middle lane, and disturbing the speed trajectory. While the race was green, a wreck in the rear raised a caution and Bell won the race as he stood ahead of Larson when the flag was raised.

“First off, apologies to Larson and HMS and Mr. H (Rick Hendrick). They help us out a lot, and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to line. The last two nights were kinda that way. I hit the No. 20 to get him out of the way and fill the middle,“ Carson Hocevar told Fox.

“There's some stuff I gotta learn, and clean up a little bit but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try and win a race; I've never had that opportunity really before, especially on a superspeedway,” he added.

Carson Hocevar will next be seen at the COTA race, piloting his #77 Spire Chevy. He will also make a one-off Xfinity Series appearance as a replacement driver for Garrett Smithley.