Denny Hamlin sends dire NASCAR warning to controversial driver after latest wreck

Denny Hamlin has given his typically forthright opinion about Carson Hocevar, after the young NASCAR driver was the center of conversation once again this weekend.

Hocevar looked to have authored a truly impressive weekend as Sunday's Atlanta weekend drew to a close, with Kyle Busch calling him a 'great wingman' after strong teamwork in the O'Reilly Series race, and the Spire driver had driven a swashbuckling 250-ish laps to recover from two laps down in the Cup Series race to challenge for the lead.

However, a boneheaded move at the first overtime restart – diving for a gap between Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell that never truly existed – put him back to square one in terms of public perception.

Hamlin talked about the 23-year-old on his Actions Detrimental podcast the day after the race, warning that if he continues to irk the rest of the grid at his current rate, he's going to find himself in trouble when he's in a vulnerable spot.

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Hamlin: Media loves the Hocevar content machine

“It’s tough to watch. The media loves it, by the way. If you want to see what the media thinks, just ask them and they’ll tell you, ‘Ah, we love Hocevar’. Well, no question you do because he’s giving you some content for you to talk about. As a competitor, though, like, eventually, it’s going to come back around.

“He’ll be in a position where he thinks he’s about to win and someone will decide he’s not going to and that’s gonna suck for him and his team on that day. But, you’re never gonna get anyone to give you a break when you clearly won’t give anyone else a break.”

He continued: “His style is his style, and he’s free to be whatever he wants to be. He’s certainly exciting to watch if you’re a race fan; he’s not exciting to watch if he’s racing your guy because you know there’s a heavily possibility that he’s gonna run into him. Just seems a little wild right now, and I feel like those are not the moves you have to make to win the race nowadays.

“I think he’s missing a little bit of the craftsmanship of winning these races beyond just having a fast car. There’s just so much more to it, and I don’t know, it’s tough to watch as a competitor, but I don’t think we’re gonna do anything about it.

"I think you just gotta let it play itself out over time. I think he knows that anyone he gets into, he’s gonna have to be on his tippy toes when he’s racing around those guys, which is a tough way to race. But, if you don’t care, you don’t care and that’s okay too.”