Denny Hamlin sides with Ryan Blaney over Carson Hocevar in Atlanta incident

There were multiple incidents on the track on Sunday at the Ambetter Health 400 involving Carson Hocevar, but one of the most clear-cut appeared to be his collision with Ryan Blaney.

That contact spun Blaney out in one of the turns, forcing him to lose valuable track positioning.

“Blaney was obviously pissed, rightfully so, because the 77, he hit him entering the corner,” Denny Hamlin explained on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I think Blaney explained it right in his interview that like, yeah, there’s things to learn but there’s also things that you should know. This isn’t your first race, right?”

Carson Hocevar’s actions came under significant scrutiny from multiple angles. Kyle Busch got into it with him early on, flipping him off and vowing to wreck him even if it meant taking out the whole field.

There was the Blaney incident.

Then there was some contentious driving down the stretch that led Ross Chastain to have words with Hocevar after the race.

But to Hamlin, the contact with Blaney was some of the most egregious.

“Hitting someone entering the corner on a track where you can’t make contact in the corners is a recipe for disaster, for whoever you’re hitting, anyway,” Hamlin said. “I think Blaney was like this is not something that you should have to learn over time, this should be common knowledge: Don’t run into someone as you’re entering the corner. And it obviously spun Blaney out. I think he would have been way more pissed had he not come back and got a good finish. But yeah, I mean I agree with Blaney here that those are things that you kind of should know.”

As it stood, Blaney recorded a P4 finish even despite the Carson Hocevar incident.

Hamlin called out the bigger pattern when it comes to Hocevar and his driving.

“While Carson admits that he’s got to clean things up, it’s just yeah… he does, but you also, there’s something about when he puts the helmet on that like surely he knows that that’s not a good move,” Hamlin said. “But does it short-circuit when he puts the helmet on or not? I’m not sure.”

The move from Carson Hocevar left most people scratching their head. It’s not that the move didn’t benefit Hocevar. It’s just that most drivers in his position wouldn’t make the same move.

There’s a certain etiquette and protocol to racing.

“You just have to know. I’m watching Carson, it’s like well if he had that big of a run that he wanted to take it, he could have taken it three-wide bottom or whatever,” Hamlin said. “But instead he chose to (hit Blaney). You’ve got to check up there. Now he’s got the 24 right on him, so maybe he doesn’t want to get run over either. But it’s still, it’s just not good for the car you’re running into. That was a bad deal.”