Denny Hamlin: Carson Hocevar Always Picks the ‘Nuclear Option’

Denny Hamlin says Carson Hocevar had two choices at Bristol, and he took the one that always ends with someone in the wall. Hamlin made the case with Ryan Blaney sitting across the table from him on the Actions Detrimental podcast this week.

The wreck and the fight have driven motorsports talk since Saturday night. Blaney called it a 50/50 deal with no clear villain. Hamlin agreed the move sat in that gray area, but he said Hocevar reaches for the same tool every time.

"My thoughts on it was that I thought Carson had two options. One was the nuclear option, which is the, 'Okay, if you're going to come down when I've got my run, I'm not lifting.' That's one option."

"That's the nuclear option, which is you know the outcome. That guy is going to wreck. The other option, in my opinion, is that you check up slightly, and then when you get into the corner, he probably should shuck you then."

Hamlin said the second option usually ends the argument on the track instead of on pit road.

"One is to just plow through them, and whatever happens to them happens to them. The other is, 'Okay, I'm going to lift, but then I'm going to give you the business once we get into the corner.' And that typically will lead into something that doesn't escalate a whole lot further."

"So my thing was that he always chooses the nuclear option, which is, 'Well, I'm there, so I'm not lifting.' And so that's the racing part of it that definitely is tough, but everyone has a way of doing it."

Hamlin was careful to say he is not going after Hocevar. He pointed out that Hocevar spun him at Sonoma and that he gave him the benefit of the doubt then.

Hamlin Says He Learned the Same Lesson in 2017

Hamlin's take comes from experience on the other side of it. With three laps left in the fall 2017 race at Martinsville Speedway , Chase Elliott tried to block Hamlin for the lead and Hamlin spun him. The caution sent the race to overtime and handed the win to Hamlin's teammate, Kyle Busch .

"We all make decisions, right? And you see up there, it was one with Chase Elliott at Martinsville and one where I was, like, thinking, 'Okay, I'm just going to get him off the bottom here.' Well, you can't expect a guy to control his car when you've got his rear tires lifted up on the entry, right?"

"So there's certain mistakes that we make through our careers that certainly we learn from. And, yeah, that sucks that you ended up wrecked in that situation."

Hamlin said every driver has a code and that rivals learn to read it. His argument is that Hocevar's code leaves no middle setting.

The wreck cost Blaney more than a finish. He led a race-high 202 laps at Bristol, then went to the garage in 33rd and dropped to sixth in the standings, 52 points behind leader Kyle Larson . Hocevar finished third and sits eighth.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns Sunday with the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway , where both drivers will be back on track, with coverage at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.