Dale Earnhardt Jr. showered huge praise on young Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar for his aggressive driving style by comparing him to his late father and NASCAR icon, Dale Earnhardt Sr. The comments from Dale Jr. arrive days after Hocevar clashed with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Nashville Superspeedway.

Hocevar hit the rear of Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 car, which pushed him off course and led him straight into the wall. While Hocevar managed to finish second, Stenhouse Jr. finished the race last.

The incident prompted several NASCAR insiders to target Hocevar’s driving style. Stenhouse Jr. also pointed to a possible payback in the future. However, seeing Hocevar’s race, Dale Jr. was reminded of his father, which prompted him to advise Hocevar to continue driving the same way. Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download, he said:

“Carson, I even said in a clip on Dirty Mo Media, I think the guy reminds me of a 1979 Dale Earnhardt. Fast, not scared to use his front bumper, don’t care if somebody gets mad about it and on the verge of becoming a star. That’s exactly how I saw dad around that timeframe in his career.

“Off the track, what they like to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they could be completely different people. But on the racetrack, that’s what I see out of Carson.

“And I say that to maybe encourage Carson to continue what he’s doing because Dale Earnhardt ended up becoming a seven-time champion. That aggressive style was something that endeared him to a lot of people. You can see a lot of people enjoy that as well, out of Carson.”

Hocevar revealed that he texted Stenhouse Jr. after the race weekend and admitted that his intention was not to crash into him. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he said:

“We texted a little bit back and forth and I think we’ll still talk. You see each other 38 weekends a year. Eventually, you’re going to run into each other. Not literally, hopefully, but run into each other in person. I think it’s better if you’re going to have that talk or conversation, to do it before you get to the track and everyone gets into race mode.

“Yeah, he wanted to have that conversation, so I just texted him to reach out or whatever. We’ll probably have that talk and see where it goes.”

He added:

“I know my intentions and what I thought was gonna happen. Ultimately, you don’t want to wreck anybody’s race car. You don’t want to wreck anybody. [Spire co-owner] Jeff Dickerson tells me all the time that if you’re explaining, you’re losing. With us talking about this, instead of talking about how we can get ourselves one spot better, we’re talking about this.

“I didn’t want to wreck him. I went in and I thought I could get there and get a little more space. For his arc, I thought he was gonna go run the middle with the 54 [Ty Gibbs] running the bottom and thought I could get in a little deeper and have his spotter call inside and he just came all the way down and I landed into his left rear. Backed him into the fence. I don’t wanna do that and I feel bad for it, obviously, for wrecking somebody’s race car.

“I think the biggest thing is the story we want is the fact we ran second with the 77 car. Don’t think anyone remembers Ryan Blaney won the race because all they’re talking about is this so far. I think that’s the biggest thing is we don’t want to slow ourselves down by having these clouds over our heads just as a team or put any more targets on my back. I’ve created the world I live in of that reputation; I understand that. You don’t want to do anything more to put a bigger target on your back.”