It will be interesting to see if the feud between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carson Hocevar reaches the boiling point this weekend at Pocono Raceway.
Three weeks ago at Nashville, Hocevar got into the back of Stenhouse, causing his car to spin into the outside wall. The crash ended Stenhouse’s day and caused him to finish last (39th). There were hard feelings, but the two drivers talked in the week after and appeared to smooth out things.
However, Sunday at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, the two got together again. Hocevar, running one lap down, had his car lose traction on lap 90 of 100 and slide into the path of Stenhouse’s car, making contact and causing it to spin. Although both cars continued the race, the incident likely cost Stenhouse a solid finish; he wound up 27th. Hocevar placed 34th.
After the race, an angry and frustrated Stenhouse approached Hocevar’s car with Hocevar still in it. He leaned into the driver’s side window and, despite Hocevar trying to apologize, began shouting at him.
“I’m going to beat your (expletive) when we get back in the States,” Stenhouse was heard saying on audio from the in-car camera.
Round 3 could take place Sunday at Pocono in The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM. It is part of a NASCAR tripleheader weekend at the 2.5-mile triangular track in Long Pond that includes the Craftsman Truck Series Miller Tech Battery 200 on Friday and the Xfinity Series Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 on Saturday.
Before heading to Mexico City, Stenhouse spoke about running at Pocono.
“(Turns) 1 and 2, I feel really good there. It’s got more banking,” Stenhouse said. “Turn 3 is actually a little flatter. I probably struggle a little more in Turn 3. It’s just all about getting your car filled and the balance where you feel comfortable at to be able to push the throttle down.”
In 21 Cup Series starts at Pocono, Stenhouse has an average finish of 22.3 with a seventh place in 2023 being his best effort. Last year, he got collected in a crash between Kyle Busch and Corey LaJoie and finished 33rd.
“Pocono is an odd race track, obviously totally different than a lot of race tracks we go to,” Stenhouse said. “We’ve had some recent success, some recent speed. It’s a race track where strategy comes into play. If you’re leading and fast enough to win, obviously it makes your strategy easier. But I feel like there are a lot more ways to get a good finish now.”
Case in point: his run at Pocono in 2023.
“We were struggling for speed and then people started pitting and because I got clean air and track position, I started running really fast lap times,” Stenhouse said. “So my crew chief was like, ‘Man, we’re just going to stay out because you’re running faster than guys who pitted.’ Then we ended up just doing two tires, so a shorter pit stop, got back out in clean air, stayed and ran good.
“So the way our cars are right now, if you’re in the 15th-to-20th area, you can stay out, start in the front and stay up there because we’re all so close. It was three-tenths of a second from first to 30th (at Michigan) in qualifying.”
Because of drafting, Stenhouse said it is critical to get a good run coming off Turn 3.
“That front straightaway is very important at Pocono for good lap times,” Stenhouse said. “You don’t want to be side-by-side with anybody. You want to get in line. Turn 3 is the most important corner on the race track still.”
Through 16 races, Stenhouse has two top-10s — fifth at Atlanta, sixth at Texas — and an average finish of 19.1 in the No. 47 Chevrolet for Hyak Motorsports, which was rebranded from JTG Daugherty Racing this season. The 37-year-old driver from Olive Branch, Mississippi, has 312 points and is 61 points in back of Chris Buescher for the 16th and final cutoff spot for the playoffs over the final 10 races.
Stenhouse drives for one of the few single-car teams in NASCAR. He said sometimes there are advantages to that. For example, when drafting you don’t have to worry about waiting for your teammate to come with you.
For the most part, though, Stenhouse wishes he had a teammate.
“It is difficult on a weekend when you’re struggling,” he said. “There are race tracks we go, we’ll go practice and even if my car is good, we’ll run 15-20 laps, come in and make a pretty big adjustment on our car to see what that does. That’s mainly just to get another data point because we can’t phone-a-friend and ask how our teammate is driving and what adjustments they made. So we’re at a disadvantage in the grand scheme of things.
“At least we have a better focus. We’re not trying to get a car to drive good for two different people; we’re trying to get a car to drive the way I need to drive. So all our notes are good for us, same driver, same team, same kind of car over the years. So we’re building our notebook, but I would much rather have a teammate.”
Practice and qualifying for The Great American Getaway 400 is scheduled for Saturday. The 160-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. and will be streamed on Amazon Prime. All camping sites at the track are sold out and limited grandstand tickets remain.
NASCAR AT POCONO SCHEDULE
Friday: Craftsman Truck Series practice, 12:35-1:30 p.m.; qualifying, 1:40-2:30 p.m.; Miller Tech Battery 200, 5 p.m.
Saturday: Xfinity Series practice, 10-10:55 a.m.; Xfinity qualifying, 11:05 a.m.-noon; Cup Series practice, 12:35-1:35 p.m.; Cup qualifying, 1:45-2:30 p.m.; Xfinity Explore the Pocono Mountains 250, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday: Cup Series, The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM, 2 p.m.
Source: Berkshire mont