MADISON, Ill. – No dust has been settled. No air has been cleared between drivers Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski after contact in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase opener (presented by Mobil 1) at Darlington Raceway.
While nothing can be said verbatim about intentional contact, Hocevar and Keselowski are prepared for the next chapter in a developing saga of tension amid the return of the 10-race sprint to the 2026 championship.
Facing the media first Saturday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway, the No. 6 RFK Racing driver and team co-owner addressed the biggest elephant in the room after last week’s run-in with Hocevar.
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“Each race weekend presents its own challenges and coming to Gateway, obviously my car is not in the playoffs or Chase, but we still have a lot to race for and commitments and things that we have to do, and a lot of people that work really hard on the car,” Keselowski said. “I have to balance that with the different things that happened last weekend and that’s always the challenge. My challenge this weekend is to balance that of going out, maximizing the performance I can this weekend while also not letting a fire spread for all intents and purposes of being taken advantage of. How to walk that line is is difficult. It’s kind of one of those things you just you live and you figure it out in the moment, and it’ll play out however it plays out.”
Racing in the midpack late in Stage 1 at Darlington, Hocevar attempted to get around Keselowski for a handful of laps in Turns 3 and 4. It culminated in Hocevar using up the width of the corner and hitting the No. 6 Ford in the left rear, causing Keselowski to get loose. The No. 77 then hit Keselowski again to send him for a full spin.
After the race, an irate Keselowski fired a warning shot at Hocevar saying: “His day is coming and it’s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”
With no verbal jabs back at Keselowski, Hocevar is embracing the entertainment side of having drama on-track with his fellow competitors.
Hocevar alluded to his local short-track days in Kalamazoo, Michigan when promoters would hype up their events with specific driver beefs and also talked about the reach and virality the sport gets when fiery moments are posted.
“I happen to scroll on TikTok or whatever, and I’m pretty much my whole ‘for you’ page. It’s just me on my own page,” Hocevar said. “There’s one that got a million something views, right? That has to be somewhat good for the sport. I happen to look at the comments just to see like who’s reacting to it, like if they’re NASCAR fans or normal NASCAR fans, and if you kind of scroll the comments for like two seconds, you can tell that it’s not normal NASCAR fans that were getting in on their algorithm. I have to imagine that’s good.”
Leading into Gateway, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson stated on Dirty Mo Media’s “Gluckcast” that he isn’t interested in a “car-crashing contest” with RFK, but if it manifests, it could spread to the RFK Chase cars (Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece).
Keselowski’s response? “Bring it. I’ll fight back with anybody in the garage.”
If tensions do boil over between RFK and Spire, it does open a Pandora’s Box that could affect Chase drivers, cause collateral damage and ruin title hopes.
However, defending champion Kyle Larson may be bringing some popcorn along for his ride Sunday if he sees Keselowski and Hocevar in front of him.
“If Brad’s around him, I would keep my eyes peeled a little bit more,” Larson said. “But more just like when you’re behind it, you’re like hoping something cool happens and you don’t get caught up in it. It’d be funny.”
In past cases, Cup veterans used to meet with younger drivers who were habitually causing issues to nip future occurrences in the bud. But in a new era where virality and Internet fame are sought after, Keselowski says those opportunities aren’t there anymore and there’s no point to having a conversation with Hocevar.
For 300 miles Sunday afternoon, all eyes will be focused on how Chapter 2 is written between the two drivers.
“We’re in a different day and age, which is greater than our sport,” Keselowski said. “It transcends our society as a whole where that level of social interaction is not valued the same way it was valued 10. 20, 30 years ago, and at some point, everybody just has to touch the hot stove and learn.”