Did Carson Hocevar cost Corey Heim, Grant Enfinger a NASCAR Truck Series championship?
Carson Hocevar ended his NASCAR Truck Series championship race outside the Phoenix Raceway infield care center — his head down, voice low, demeanor dejected.
“He should win the championship,” Hocevar told reporters, apologizing by proxy. “He should win. I didn’t want to do that at all.”
Hocevar was referring to a move he made on Lap 119 out of 179, when he got on the inside of Championship 4 contender Corey Heim and knocked him loose. Heim wasn’t damaged in the carnage, but the move drastically diminished his title chances.
Late in the race, Heim appeared to retaliate with only a few laps to go, squeezing Hocevar into the wall. (Heim later contended that it wasn’t intentional.) That wreck collected a few cars in its wake — including Grant Enfinger, another Championship 4 driver who was battling with eventual champion Ben Rhodes for the title. Enfinger had to make a trip down pit road after that late caution, and while he came close thereafter, he couldn’t catch Rhodes.
In the end, the 12-caution day sullied the title chances of three-fourths of the Championship 4.
And Hocevar, the 20-year-old Niece Motorsports driver who is headed to Cup next year, acknowledged his role in all of that post-race.
“With my track record, right, (people are right to say) I can’t sit here and say I didn’t mean to,” said Hocevar, whose pugnacious racing style earlier this season made him a sour source of head-scratching and fist-shaking. “But I just (expletive) up. I just messed up. And I was just trying really hard, blocking, doing everything I could. I just tried to slow him down, and I just messed up.”
Heim was made aware of Hocevar’s apology after the race, but that didn’t quell any of his frustrations.
“Yeah, I mean, he obviously screwed up,” Heim said. “He just wrecked me. I mean, I’ve been racing Carson for a long time, been racing him since I was 8 or 9 years old. And this is what he does. He’ll wreck you and apologize. And he’ll do it again next week.
“It’s not gonna be the last time he does it. It’s not the first time he’s done it. I’ve known him for a long time. I know a lot of you guys have only known him for four years as far as his racing, but it’s been a decade on top of that. It is what it is. I actually expected it. I drove into one way past my lifting point to avoid that contact because I literally saw that coming. But he went that extra yard and got us.”
Heim later added: “Every guy on Sunday is going to see that and understand they’re going to be racing against him like that. I’m not too worried about it.”
Enfinger was asked if he thought the race was “stolen” from him after the race. The 38-year-old driver was running in his final race for Petty GMS, which announced it is ceasing operations at the end of 2023 earlier this summer — and he had the race won before it descended into utter chaos.
His response?
“I feel like we had it in control until that caution came out there at the end,” Enfinger said. “So, yeah, sure.”
Heim was asked the same question.
“It’s hard to even say,” Heim said. “Like, it turned into such a wreckfest. So it’s like, it’s ridiculous. What can you even say right now?”
