Renowned NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi has made a strong statement about Carson Hocevar, who has become infamous for his involvement in on-track wrecks and some off-track verbal battles.

On Monday's episode of "The Teardown" podcast, Bianchi was breaking down the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. In one segment, he shed light on the lap 64 incident, which involved Carson Hocevar spinning Denny Hamlin around in Turn 7.

"The benefit of the doubt is not something that Hocevar gets," Bianchi began. "You could absolve him of this, and you could say, listen, he got ran into from behind, not his fault. But it doesn't matter because he loses the benefit of the doubt because these moments keep happening where he's involved, whether it's his fault or not."

Following this, he highlighted how often Hocevar is involved in such a scenario, and there are often doubts about his intentions. Even though Hocevar clarified his stance on the incident post-race, saying he was hit from behind, Bianchi explained why his reputation doesn't help such clarifications.

"This is the problem is when like you have all the other stuff that is your fault, it adds up, and you get a reputation, and people are not going to give you a break and say, 'Oh, well, shoot, you know, that's a big deal. It happened. Somebody got into it.' Like, he makes himself a really easy target, and that's the issue," Bianchi further added on "The Teardown" podcast.

The incident stemmed from Alex Bowman pushing Brad Keselowski entering Turn 7, who then went on to push Carson Hocevar from behind. Hocevar, failing to stop his car, hit Hamlin from behind, spinning him.

As a result, Hamlin's car took some damage, which later required repair on pit road and dropped him to the back of the pack.

Carson Hocevar jokes about "sports fixing" after Denny Hamlin incident

Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are neck-and-neck for the championship lead in the Cup Series. At Sonoma, Hamlin was running in seventh when he got spun.

Had he finished in the Top 10, he would not only have overtaken Reddick for the championship lead but also gotten a significant points cushion.

Post-race, Carson Hocevar addressed how the spin he indirectly caused affected this title battle. He told TNT Sports (as quoted by Daily Express U.S.):

"I was happy to hear that I wasn’t the difference maker of Ty beating Denny because I think I would be looked at for sports fixing, probably because of the way I was singing Ty’s praises. Ultimately, I apologize to them. I wasn’t trying to spin them."

In the end, Hocevar finished the race in 11th place. Whereas Denny Hamlin came home in 26th place. But because Tyler Reddick had a mechanical issue and finished dead last, Hamlin became the new championship leader.

Read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak