NASCAR will be combing through the data on Tuesday to determine if any punitive action needs to be taken on Carson Hocevar for spinning Harrison Burton under caution on Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.
The incident in question transpired on Lap 244, right after Brad Keselowski spun off the front bumper of the car driven by Austin Dillon. Hocevar hooked Burton down the backstretch towards the wall under caution.
The two were engaged in a bout of hard racing leading up to the incident.
“We’ve obviously got that on our list today,” said NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran. “Tuesday, we go through that information, we’re going to go through the audio and all the video, SMT data, just to confirm everything we witnessed and if there’s a penalty, that will be announced today or tomorrow.”
Chase Elliott was suspended one race last year for a right rear hook on Denny Hamlin during the Coca-Cola 600. Bubba Wallace was suspended a race for right rear hooking Kyle Larson in 2022 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I’m gonna call on NASCAR here — they need to do something to Carson,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “They don’t need to suspend him or anything like that, but they need to dig into his pocket a little bit because I think you have to — anytime you have someone that goes before a judge, they always take into account your past history. And we’ve seen this happen when he was in the Truck Series, I think he right rear hooked someone under caution at Martinsville.
“Carson goes through these moments where he’ll be fine and then all of a sudden, he’ll just lose it. Certainly, Harrison took exception to it as he should. The 77 crashed him under caution. You need to dig into his pocket. Points is whatever, I don’t really know if he cares about points. … You gotta do something.”
“I don’t know, he blocks everyone every week,” Burton said outside of the infield care center. “I blocked him once and he decided to try and wreck me under yellow so I don’t know. He’s on a lot of people’s lists as guys they don’t like racing. So, it kind of shows why.”
Hocevar did not comment after the race but has a history of behavior that has gotten him into trouble with the sanctioning body and peers. In April 2023, Hocevar right rear hooked Taylor Gray at Martinsville and was held for two laps during the race.
The Riggs, Parsons incident
That Hocevar was not at least held two laps for this incident was puzzling, in part, due to what happened on Friday night when Truck Series rookie Layne Riggs was held two laps for driving into the back of Stefan Parsons.
This also followed a bout of really hard racing for laps between the two.
Moran said Truck Series director Seth Kramlich is holding Truck Series drivers across the board accountable for what happened last season, the most crash-ridden season in division history.
Riggs is also a repeat offender in NASCAR’s eyes.
“Seth Kramlich will discuss that with them but the thing is, with the Truck Series, they’ve been met with plenty times as a group, as well as Riggs has been talked to a few times,” Moran said. “Again, they’re trying to clean up that series after what we saw at Phoenix and some of the reckless driving from those guy. They’re young and aggressive, and we like that and want them to get to Cup, but in that series we have to keep it in control to a point. We’ve worked hard to do that this year and I guess the move (Riggs) did was obviously beyond that line and they held him a couple of laps as a result.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
