Denny Hamlin Clears Carson Hocevar of Blame in Sonoma Wreck That Wrecked His Day
Denny Hamlin called the Lap 64 incident with Carson Hocevar at Sonoma Raceway a racing deal — and on-board camera footage supports his take. A chain reaction started by Alex Bowman running into Brad Keselowski pushed the No. 6 car into Hocevar, who then had no choice but to collect Hamlin's No. 11. The spin dropped Hamlin from sixth to 26th, but he still leads the regular-season points standings heading out of Sonoma.
Video Transcript
Denny Hamlin assigns blame for costly incident with Carson Hocevar at Sonoma.
Carson Hocevar has a reputation for wrecking people, so when he got into Denny Hamlin at Sonoma and spun the number 11 car, everyone pointed the finger at him.
But Hamlin himself says, "Not so fast."
On lap 64, Hamlin was running sixth and in position to grab the regular season points lead.
Then he checked up entering the turn.
Hocevar made contact, and Hamlin went spinning through the field, dropping all the way to 26th in a damaged car.
Costly doesn't even cover it.
On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin called it a racing deal, and the tape backs him up.
Onboard footage from Alex Bowman's car shows Bowman getting into Brad Keselowski, which shoved Keselowski into Hocevar, who then had nowhere to go but into Hamlin.
A classic domino effect.
Hamlin acknowledged Hocevar could have driven it better, but said there was no reckless abandonment involved.
Given Hocevar's history this season, that's about as clean a verdict as the kid's going to get.
Hamlin still left Sonoma on top of the points standings, so the damage was limited.
But one thing's clear: when Denny Hamlin is defending you, you probably caught a break.
