Carson Hocevar offers benign explanation for $50k penalty

Carson Hocevar says he understands why NASCAR fined him $50,000 this week for an engine rev with safety worker present on Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

The second-year Cup Series driver was stuck on the track after a spin, a common occurrence with this car, but he wants everyone to know it wasn’t malicious. The car was stalled in second gear and he needed to fire it back up to put it in neutral so it could be towed to the work area.

As soon as the car fired-up, it spun the tires, and NASCAR was forced to acknowledge it with a fine.

“I fired it up just to throw it into neutral,” Hocevar said. “It’s sometimes hard to get these things into neutral so I fired it up. Honestly, I didn’t know it spun the tires. Obviously, there’s a tow truck in front of me so I’m not going anywhere.

“I was trying to go someplace earlier but the tires were off the ground and they just spin. But they judge based off of actions and visibility and not intent, right? The tires spun, black and white, so next time I might just have them rock the car to throw me in neutral. That’s on me not … I was sitting there in third gear doing a burnout so it’s on me not thinking about the tires spinning. It was educational for me. It’s expensive too. It’s educational for our guys too so I could just say I’m stuck in second and go from there.

“NASCAR doesn’t have the intent. They can’t know the plan and story behind everything and judge everything and sometimes they have to call it the way they see it.”

In fact, Hocevar says the NASCAR official that called him to tell him about the fine was surprised there wasn’t an argument. But Hocevar responded that it was a black and white call and he gets it.

“It got to like 1200 RPMs right? I just fired it up, threw it into neutral and shut it off, and I didn’t even realize the tires were spinning. They called it right.”

Hocevar only wished the minimum fine for this infraction was $5,000 and not $50,000.

Who pays for the fine – the driver or Spire Motorsports?

“I spun the tires. It’s me.”