The relationship between Spire Motorsports teammates Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar may have appeared strong coming into the race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Sunday but it looks like things may have soured a bit.
While LeJoie described the race as his "best day at the track ever," with he and Hocevar running inside the top-15 for most of the day, he later took issue with the way Hocevar raced him after he ran into some trouble in the final stage.
"Got plugged in the fence by our teammate, so it drove like s*** after that and wrecked itself," LaJoie said to the media, as he blamed a late spin on damage that stemmed from racing against Hocevar.
LaJoie was asked if he would be hashing things out with Hocevar after the incident, to which he replied, "We'll see."
On Tuesday, Hocevar was a guest on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio and revealed that he and Lajoie had since talked about the situation.
"We had that conversation quickly and painless, but wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," Hocevar said. "We talked separately and then as a team on how we're going to race in the future. How we can be better and make it easier on each other. We need to be able to race each other competitively, but also with respect."
Hocevar finished 15th in Vegas, the second-highest finish in a Cup Series race in his young career, while LaJoie finished 32nd.
This isn't the first instance of other racers getting frustrated with Hocevar. During the NASCAR Cup Series event at the Darlington Raceway last year Hocevar allegedly irked a number of veterans on the track with some questionable choices, despite securing some impressive results throughout his time with Legacy Motor Club.
Hocevar was hired by Spire Motorsports during the offseason, when it also hired Zane Smith and purchased a NASCAR charter from Live Fast Motorsports, expanding to a three-car operation, with veteran LaJoie rounding out the team.
It's obviously not common to have drivers complain openly about their teammates, so it will remain to be seen whether the veteran and rookie can quickly mend their relationship and move on from this incident.
