Smith issued $50k fine for Hocevar contact

NASCAR fined Zane Smith $50,000 for running into the back of Carson Hocevar after the checkered flag Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

NASCAR issued the behavioral penalty on Tuesday. It falls under Sections 4.4a & 10.5.2.5a of the NASCAR Rule Book.

Smith didn't let off the gas after taking the finish in the Freeway Insurance 500 and drove up to Hocevar, hitting his rear bumper. The two made contact earlier in the race in Turn 3, when Ross Chastain tagged Hocevar. It sent Hocevar up the track into the side of Smith and Josh Berry.

“The [No.] 77 shipped you,” Smith was told on the radio after the incident. “The [No.] 77 missed the corner behind you and shipped the [No.] 21 into you.”

Hocevar’s team was aware of the post-race contact and made a point of telling Smith’s team that the initial contact earlier in the race came from Chastain. They relayed it over Hocevar’s radio. The Spire Motorsports driver never responded or acknowledged any of the contact.

Smith’s team, meanwhile, was alerted by the spotter to go to their driver on because he was “all over [Hocevar] on pit road.” Front Row Motorsports told Smith, before he climbed out of his car, that the contact came from Chastain getting into Hocevar.

“I don’t give a [expletive],” Smith responded.

NASCAR had previously spoken to the two drivers this season. A meeting was held in the hauler at EchoPark Speedway (July 11), a week after Smith seemed to intentionally try to wreck Hocevar at Chicagoland Speedway. It did nothing to cool things off.

Smith told the media later that day how much he dislikes Hocevar “as a human.” Some of his anger has been from previous run-ins.

Hocevar downplayed it all by not understanding why Smith was mad. He made a joke that they needed to go to couples counseling.

“There was video, audio, and data review that did play a part in this [penalty],” NASCAR’s Mike Forde explained on Hauler Talk. “I think P1 in the reason that we penalized here is because we had a discussion with Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar. This happened after Chicagoland, after they had their dustup on the racetrack. … Pretty much the message was this: if you guys can’t figure it out, we will help you figure it out, and they couldn’t figure it out. So, this is us pretty much helping Zane Smith figure it out in the form of a $50,000 fine.

“When we have drivers called into the hauler like that - we have it often, not overly so, but when we feel it's necessary - we’re serious about those conversations, and we want them to have some reasoning behind it. We don’t want to just check a box that says, ‘OK, we did this thing for PR speak so that Mike Forde can say on Hauler Talk about bringing in drivers in the hauler and they’re doing something rather than just turning a blind eye.’”

Smith can appeal the penalty.