Carson Hocevar feels that he and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are ready to move on after a productive pre-Michigan conversation.
Hocevar was the source of Stenhouse's ire last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway after an on-track incident. He went to make a move on the inside of the No. 47, but Stenhouse began to move down the track.
Hocevar hit Stenhouse from behind and sent him into the wall. This wrecked the No. 47 team in what was Hyak Motorsports's first DNF of the season.
Stenhouse said earlier in the week that he and Hocevar had not talked after the incident, but the situation has since changed. The former Daytona 500 winner appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Friday and said that they had finally had a conversation.
"I mean it was productive," Hocevar said about his conversation with Stenhouse. "You know, me and him both have the reputation, I guess, of being aggressive at times and everything.
"So at that one point, we both reminded each other that even with those reputations, we've raced each other very well together, right? It clashes together.
"So, yeah, I mean we've had no issues before, as he had said, and I feel like we've had a decent relationship leading up to this. So, yeah, I thought it was productive and, based off his comments, I felt like it was received productive."
The yellow is out as @StenhouseJr makes contact with the wall between Turns 3 and 4. pic.twitter.com/SuqVv26sJX
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 2, 2025
Hocevar added that he does not expect any retaliation from Stenhouse moving forward with the rest of the season. This had been discussed as a possibility in the immediate aftermath of the Nashville wreck.
Fellow driver Denny Hamlin, in particular, had weighed in on his podcast and expressed the opinion that Stenhouse would wreck Hocevar in the future.
Mike Kelley, Stenhouse's crew chief, confirmed that the issues are behind the two drivers during a conversation with NBC Sports. Kelley told longtime reporter Dustin Long that Stenhouse said the conversation with Hocevar was "sincere" and that they could move forward.
Having a productive conversation before Michigan was key. After all, Hocevar and Stenhouse are next to each other in the Cup Series standings. This put the two teams in the same garage stall at Michigan.
Squashing the issues before heading to the 2-mile track eliminated the possibility of some contentious face-offs in the garage.