Another race weekend, and another batch of disappointment was served courtesy of Carson Hocevar to an opposing race team. The driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet capped off an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway, but a run-in with Zane Smith on Lap 230 drew the ire of Ryan Bergenty, the crew chief of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports driver.
As Hocevar was attempting to conduct his post-race interviews on pit road, Bergenty stormed up to Hocevar to give him a piece of his mind.
“Hey, when are you going to learn how to f—ing drive, dude?” Bergenty is heard asking Hocevar in a video shared to X by Stephen Stumpf of Frontstretch.com. “I mean, you wiped us the f— out.”
Asked one question before the confrontation started. Video ends when I was told to stop filming. https://t.co/J2IqWG1wRV pic.twitter.com/NEcBia24K3
— Stephen Stumpf (@stephen_stumpf) August 3, 2025
The conversation lasted a bit longer, but Stumpf was asked to quit filming what was transpiring, so, we don’t have a clue what else was said between the driver and the angered crew chief.
Hocevar says there was no nefarious action behind his incident with Smith on Lap 230 as he simply got loose, and was likely going to spin by himself, but Smith was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I just got loose, and was wrecking myself. And he was right there,” Hocevar explained. “So, I got cleaned out, you know, I just think everybody cleans — it’s just a product of just trying on restarts and then hitting the [bump] stops and getting loose. I was going to spin myself.”
Despite Hocevar not intending to contact Smith’s car late in the race, Bergenty’s frustration was as palpable as it was understandable. As Hocevar drove to his sixth top-10 result of the 2025 season, Smith was left to limp his car around with the damage sustained in the incident to a 36th-place finish in the 37-car field.
Smith, who was vocally upset on the team radio following the incident with Hocevar, did attempt to retaliate with 112 laps remaining in Sunday’s race. Hocevar drove past Smith on the frontstretch, and as the pair of drivers reached Turn 1, Smith took a swipe at Hocevar’s No. 77 car, which ultimately failed.
Zane Smith's attempt to wreck Hocevar pic.twitter.com/FPgsXEYL9A
— Andrew (@Basso488) August 3, 2025
Smith, who has recorded three top-10 finishes this season with Front Row Motorsports, has finished outside of the top-20 in each of the last four races. This is the longest such streak this year for the 26-year-old racer, which likely added to the frustrations.
For Hocevar, it’s the latest in a long line of run-ins with other drivers this season, but I’m sure Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is happy to see Hocevar is selecting a variety of other people to incense lately.
