Ryan Blaney has finally told his side of the story after his stunning postrace fight with Carson Hocevar at Bristol Motor Speedway.
And the former NASCAR Cup Series champion isn’t pretending he won it.
Blaney addressed the confrontation while speaking with Denny Hamlin on “Actions Detrimental,” offering his first extended public comments about what he intended to do when he approached Hocevar, what actually happened once things turned physical and why he now regrets how he handled himself.
“I’ll be honest with you, I went over there and I got my ass kicked for sure,” Blaney said. “I ate a two piece and got tagged pretty good, but I just wanted to show my displeasure.”
It was a remarkably candid assessment from Blaney after one of the wildest scenes of the Bristol weekend.
Ryan Blaney Reveals What He Planned to Do With Carson Hocevar
Blaney also made clear that he did not approach Hocevar with a plan to start throwing punches.
“I didn’t really have a huge plan,” Blaney said. “I wasn’t planning on throwing anything. I just really wanted to grab him and pretty much yell at him, and show my displeasure.”
Instead, the confrontation escalated into a physical altercation following a frustrating end to the night.
Blaney’s comments provide important context after days of replaying the incident itself. Whatever ultimately happened once the two drivers came together, Blaney says his original intention was to confront Hocevar and make his frustration known, not initiate a fight.
He also isn’t running from his own role in allowing the situation to reach that point.
Blaney Admits He Regrets How He Handled Bristol Fight
Blaney struck a noticeably different tone when discussing the example he wants to set for younger NASCAR fans.
“I try to set a good example for kids who are watching … their parents who are allowing these kids to watch races,” Blaney said. “I look back on those things and I definitely regret the way I acted. That’s really unlike me, but I was just frustrated.”
That admission might be the most revealing part of Blaney’s first comments since Bristol.
He isn’t walking back his frustration with Hocevar. He isn’t pretending the confrontation went particularly well for him, either. But with some time between the incident and his conversation with Hamlin, Blaney acknowledged that the way he expressed that frustration wasn’t how he wants to represent himself.
His description of the actual fight was considerably less complicated.
He went over to confront Hocevar.
He “ate a two piece.”
And, in Blaney’s own assessment, “(I) got my ass kicked.”
For a driver who rarely finds himself at the center of confrontations like this one, that may be about as Ryan Blaney of an explanation as NASCAR was going to get.
Ryan Blaney Breaks Silence on Carson Hocevar Fight: ‘I Got My Ass Kicked’