“And I was like, come on, man”: Connor Zilisch pulls back the curtain Carson Hocevar’s antics pre-race in Hampshire

Connor Zilisch has explained how his clash with Carson Hocevar at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Sunday started during practice.

During an appearance on the Stacking Pennies podcast, the Trackhouse Racing rookie shared that he caught Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet after coming off Turn 4 and made light contact with the left rear during the practice session.

“So in practice, I came off a four in practice and got up to him and touched his left rear. Because I was on new tires, he was racing me a little bit. And I accidentally got up into him. Wasn’t egregious. It wasn’t enough to even knock the toe out or anything,” Connor Zilisch said (8:18 onwards).

“That same lap, I clear him in one and two. And then three and four, he tries to throw this big slider and get to me and wreck me. And I was like, come on, man.”

That exchange appeared to carry into Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301. Zilisch said he caught up to Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet, making light contact with the left rear.

The contact came off Turn 4 as Hocevar turned left across Zilisch’s No. 88 Chevrolet and spun on the frontstretch on Lap 84. Joey Logano and Austin Dillon were caught in the incident, but all four cars continued.

During a second incident at the one-mile track, Zilisch claimed Hocevar tried to door-slam him.

“He was just trying to do one of those door slam, like ‘f*** you’ door slams. And I mean, I didn’t even have time to check. It just shocked me,” the 20-year-old said.

Hocevar admitted to wrecking himself in a post-race interview.

“Why are you screwing with the guy that you turned your nose across” – Denny Hamlin calls out Carson Hocevar after Connor Zilisch incident

Denny Hamlin also commented on Carson Hocevar’s incident with Connor Zilisch during his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“If you know you’re at fault, why are you screwing with the guy that you turned your nose across,” Hamlin said.

Carson Hocevar had been fifth in the Cup standings after finishing ninth at Indianapolis. He then fell to 11th after a run of poor results. He had two finishes outside the top 30, including a DNF at Richmond. Those results pushed him down to 11th in the standings.

The 23-year-old managed to bounce back with a 19th-place finish at New Hampshire and is 11th in the points standings with one race left in the regular season. Meanwhile, Zilisch was involved in a late incident with Riley Herbst and finished 35th after completing 222 laps.