Exclusive: Ben Rhodes Harshly Condemns Carson Hocevar’s “Attitude” After Dumping Corey Heim for the Truck Championship

NASCAR drivers do pick their times to create a mess. The fiasco that Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim put into motion on Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series finale has drawn flake from many. The duo’s on-track battle exceeded the lines of professionalism and as voiced by multiple icons including Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., created a less-than-ideal image of NASCAR. As condemnations continue pouring over the case, one other important voice has come out hard.

In an exclusive interview with Essentially Sports, the 2023 Truck Series Champion Ben Rhodes gave his take on the attitude that drivers like Hocevar had and how it affected more people than just the drivers themselves.

Ben Rhodes is not a fan of the ugly finale battle that helped him win a championship

The crescendo came down during the finale when Corey Heim got spun by Carson Hocevar’s truck during the 121st lap. Naturally, Heim was quick to retaliate 27 laps later. The sequences that followed ended Hocevar’s own title hopes while Heim had to settle for a P18 at the end of the day. The play that the duo got involved in brought Ben Rhodes’ ThorSport Racing truck ahead of the other championship contenders, and he ended up getting his team their fifth Truck title.

Despite his historical win at Phoenix, Rhodes wasn’t very pleased with the attitude of his fellow drivers. Questioned about the incidents and the fairness of wrecking others for a win, he expressed his views on on-track aggression. Speaking exclusively to Essentially Sports, he said, “Yeah, I don’t think it’s okay. I really don’t. And I think most people in the sport would agree with that. It’s really doing it at one race is one thing, but doing it for a championship is another. That’s somebody’s entire season a year of their life and not just the driver that’s been put into that.”

Continuing on about the magnitude of the results of actions like Hocevar’s warrant, he said, “There’s at least on our team, 50 people and then not to mention everybody at Ford and all of your partners. There are hundreds of people that are affected by that. So to say that it’s okay to do is not fair for a championship race.”

Watch More: Dale Earnhardt Jr Speaks Out on Chaotic Truck Series Race

Despite his outlook against Hocevar and Heim, the champion put himself in the clear as far as the issue was concerned, claiming that he was smarter than acting that way.

The Truck Series clears his name of any wrongdoing, drawing a line between himself and fellow drivers

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Talking about what he could do from his point to prevent such petty fights from happening, Rhodes said that he was doing everything possible. Defending that it was the attitude of his contenders that was the problem, he said, “So the only thing I can do on my side is just try to be smart. And, I let people go when I can and I do things that seem logical to me and smart when you look at the big picture. When you say, this is an entire year coming down to one race, do I really need to be racing this person that hard? I really do try to stop, take a step back, and think of things that way.”

“Chaos” is the fitting word to describe the events of Friday at the one-mile track. 29 overtime laps had to be run to see the race end which also had 12 caution flags. With a couple of laps left on the board, it appeared as though Grant Enfinger would finally emerge to be the champion for the year. But thanks to the quarrel between Hocevar and Heim, a late caution came into the fixture. The break breathed life back into the #99 Ford of Ben Rhodes and he ended up becoming the champion with his P5 finish.

Following the pattern of his first title, Ben Rhodes had shown up to the post-race interview at Phoenix in quite a celebratory fashion. Talking to the media he made clear that he was in no hurry to move to the Cup Series. The 26-year-old has been with Thorsport Racing since 2016. Backing his decision, he said as reported by Autoweek, “I’m having a lot of fun in the Truck Series with ThorSport right now.” But as the ES Exclusive interview showcased, Ben Rhodes is doing it the smart way on the track.

Read More: NASCAR Insider Solves Denny Hamlin’s Confusion Behind Ben Rhodes’ Second ‘Tipsy’ Presser