Denny Hamlin reacts to incredible Ryan Blaney save, charge to front of field at Atlanta

Denny Hamlin loved what he saw from Ryan Blaney at the Atlanta NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin reacted to Blaney saving his car after Carson Hocevar bumped him.

“I thought Blaney did a great job there,” Hamlin said. “We talked about this when I got sideways at Daytona. The last thing you want that thing to do is suddenly hook back right. He did a great job of keeping gas in it, keeping the wheels left and trying to save it but also if you spin out just spin down to the apron and you’ll get the caution and you’ll be able to recover. I thought he executed that spin perfectly.”

The incident happened near the end of the race, and Ryan Blaney was battling up front with Kyle Larson. He then received a bad bump from Hocevar which led to the spin. But with the save, Blaney did not damage his car and earned a P8 finish.

Ryan Blaney speaks out on incident with Carson Hocevar

“I just said, ‘Hey, you got to calm down,'” Ryan Blaney said, per MotorsportsWire. “I told [Carson Hocevar] a couple moves that he made earlier in the race that were really, really sketchy. Obviously, me getting spun. He should know better than to hit me in that spot. Like, you can’t just run into my bumper as I’m turning into the corner. Like, I’m gonna wreck. So, I just told him, ‘You got to calm down. You got a lot of talent, but you got to be a little bit easier in certain moments and be a little smarter.’”

Carson Hocevar, who finished second at the Atlanta race, was looking to earn his first win in his Cup Series career. And while he didn’t earn the victory, it was still a strong showing for a driver who has struggled at superspeedway-style tracks.

“I called Jeff Dickerson (Spire Motorsports co-owner) right after Monday, and I was like, man, well, I told my team I was not riding at all after the 500 … I said I wasn’t riding,” Hocevar explained, per NASCAR.com. “And I called Jeff, and I said, ‘Hey, man, like, what do you think I do?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, you just ride. You do what you normally do.’ And I said, I think I’m just gonna go race, and I’m just gonna go see what happens.

“So, they have full faith in me on the riding thing, and they have full faith in me going forward, and I felt like our car was capable enough to do what we just did. Last year, I still probably ride because I think we weren’t there yet, but now I felt like I was racing the race car. I was racing again, so lots of hold our head high on.”