Blaney brushes off fight with Hocevar as 'just a racing' thing - ESPN

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ryan Blaney was still sporting a shiner under his left eye when he arrived at Kansas Speedway on Friday.

«I wish it had healed a little quicker,» he admitted, «but it did not.»

The tension between Blaney and Carson Hocevar, who delivered the haymaker that left Blaney with the black eye last weekend, has apparently eased a little bit quicker. Blaney called the on-track incident that led to a pit road fracas «just a racing» thing, upon further reflection, the kind of stuff that happens at a fender-to-fender track like Bristol Motor Speedway.

«It's kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly, but I calm down really quickly,» Blaney said. «These things happen. The on-track, it happens really, really fast. You're making decisions in a split second of a moment, and sometimes you can be skewed or not skewed on what you think happened, and then you know, watching the incident, pretty 50-50, I thought.»

The incident Saturday night unfolded 41 laps before Joey Logano captured the checkered flag.

Blaney had just taken second with a pass around the outside of Hocevar, who countered by steering his No. 77 Chevrolet down the track. Blaney moved to block him, Hocevar stayed on the gas, and the result sent the No. 12 Ford spinning into the wall.

It was a big blow to Blaney, who had led a race-high 202 laps, and his hopes of winning a second Cup Series championship.

«It's just kind of built,» said Blaney, who now trails Kyle Larson by 52 points in the Chase for the championship. «A couple of rough finishes back-to-back and you realize, man, this is not going the way I thought it was going to go.»

Hocevar ended up third behind Logano and Larson last weekend.

But as he brought his car to a stop