Ryan Blaney reacts to Spire Motorsports Twitter beef, warns payback is coming on Carson Hocevar

Ryan Blaney has yet to get payback on Carson Hocevar for wrecking him in the February race at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. Blaney might feel more inclined to get back at Hocevar after a Spire social media person stoked the flames this past weekend.

Blaney and Hocevar went head-to-head in Round 1 of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge this past Saturday, in Atlanta of all places. Hocevar, the No. 26 seed, knocked off the No. 7 seeded Blaney after a 10th-place finish. After the race, Spire decided to troll Blaney on social media.

Thanks for accepting our trade, @Blaney. pic.twitter.com/0RnoXU8GQj

— Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) June 29, 2025

Blaney addressed Spire’s social media activity during an appearance on the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast. He reminded Spire that he still owes Hocevar, adding the troll has “re-sparked me.”

“I’m happy he was able to beat me when I got crashed on Lap 50 — that was cool. Great job by the whole Spire Motorsports team,” Blaney said. “I saw that, and I wasn’t really in a mood. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s speedway racing, whatever.’ Then, I saw that on the plane and I’m like, ‘Well, now you’ve kind of pissed me off a little bit.’

“So, that social media person is going to have to explain when something happens to the 77 car, that it was their fault. I hope they’re proud of themselves for that. I do still owe him — he wrecked me at first Atlanta this year and I haven’t done anything about it. Now, you’ve just re-sparked me.”

Ryan Blaney fails to finish in Atlanta

Blaney didn’t get much of a chance to compete against Hocevar in Atlanta. Just before the end of Stage 1, he was involved in a multi-car wreck after Christopher Bell went for a spin. Blaney suffered his sixth DNF in 18 races this season.

“I couldn’t see much,” Blaney said after the race. “As soon as they started spinning and coming down, I tried to get to the apron and finally got there and got blocked. Story of our year: Getting caught up in other people’s garbage. As soon as I feel like we get it going pretty well and find some momentum, we never really seem to have things going our way. Tried to flip the stage and was right in the middle of it.

“Stinks and that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ll be back and go at it in Chicago next week. I definitely thought we could improve [the car] in dirty air. But I was excited to work through it during the night and never got the chance.”