Zane Smith did not need much time to decide how he felt about Carson Hocevar missing the NASCAR Cup Series finale. Asked at Homestead what he made of the punishment handed to a rival he has repeatedly criticised, Smith gave a blunt answer that left little doubt about where he stood.
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“Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, I don’t know if he’s here or not, but yeah, glad he got some karma,” Smith said in a clip shared by Jeff Gluck.
The comment came only two weeks after their latest confrontation at Phoenix.
Smith had been fined for driving into Hocevar’s car on the cool-down lap after the Phoenix race. Now, Hocevar had received a much larger NASCAR fine, a points deduction and a separate suspension from Spire Motorsports that kept him out of the Homestead finale.
Smith’s frustration with Hocevar has been building for more than one incident. Their problems go back to Iowa 2025, where contact from Hocevar sent Smith into the wall. The two clashed again at Chicagoland in July 2026, with contact sending both drivers into the wall. Smith later accused Hocevar of racing him aggressively before acting as though nothing had happened, including apologising on track and then taking a different tone on social media.
In July, Smith was already calling Hocevar a “goon” and questioning the way he handled their run-ins. “That’s a goon in my opinion,” he said after describing incidents at Chicagoland and Nashville. NASCAR summoned both drivers to the hauler at Atlanta for a conversation after the Chicagoland clash, but the warning did not settle the rivalry.
The immediate trigger at Phoenix was contact on Lap 296. Ross Chastain hit Hocevar while they were fighting around the top 10, sending the No. 77 up the track and into Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford and Josh Berry’s No. 21. Smith then accelerated into the rear of Hocevar’s Chevrolet on the cool-down lap and followed him down pit road.
NASCAR fined Smith $50,000 for the post-race contact, citing rulebook provisions covering participant safety and actions detrimental to stock car racing. NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde later explained that officials had already warned Smith and Hocevar after Chicagoland.
The message, Forde said, was that if they could not settle their differences themselves, NASCAR would step in. The Phoenix contact showed officials that the warning had not worked.
Asked about the penalty at Homestead, Smith did not pretend he had taken it lightly.
“Frustrated, especially at this time of year, but it is what it is. Move on from it,” he said.
Hocevar’s punishment after Martinsville was considerably severe. NASCAR docked him 25 driver points and fined him $100,000 for multiple violations of the rulebook’s conduct provisions. Spire then made its own call, suspending him for the Homestead finale and putting Justin Haley in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
The distinction matters: NASCAR imposed the fine and points deduction, while Hocevar’s absence from the race came from his team’s suspension.
The Martinsville incident involved Hocevar repeatedly braking in front of Austin Cindric, damaging the nose of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford and ending Cindric’s race. NASCAR’s SMT data showed four instances of the No. 77 braking directly in front of Cindric, while audio captured Hocevar’s spotter telling him to stop. Cindric finished 36th after the damage left him with a DNF.
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said the difference between Hocevar’s penalty and Josh Berry’s separate $50,000 fine was not the points deduction; both lost 25, but the monetary amount. Officials reviewed the data and audio, and took Hocevar’s previous behavioural situations and earlier conversations with him into account.
Berry had also brake-checked Ryan Blaney at Martinsville, but NASCAR judged Hocevar’s conduct to warrant the larger fine. Sawyer said the incident “rose to a level that it needed to be more than just a $50,000 fine that Josh got.”
Spire’s suspension meant Hocevar would not be behind the wheel for the finale, although he travelled to Homestead and addressed the incident. He acknowledged that what happened with Cindric was not defensible as racing, saying there was “not really like a defense for it.” His comments were a shift from the initial post-race response, when he said he had “got lost there for a second” and “had fun,” remarks that drew criticism.
Jeff Burton viewed the suspension as a possible wake-up call rather than simply a punishment. He argued that missing the finale could help Hocevar understand what he stands to lose, saying, “We don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it.” Burton added that Hocevar did not need to abandon his personality or stop being different, but had to meet the expectations of a professional Cup driver.
Smith, however, was not being asked to assess Hocevar’s long-term development. He was asked what he thought of the consequences facing a rival with whom he has had repeated problems.
Having paid for his own decision to hit Hocevar after Phoenix, Smith was not about to express sympathy when the same driver faced a $100,000 NASCAR penalty and lost his place in the finale.