Why No Suspension for Carson Hocevar?

NASCAR docked Carson Hocevar 25 points this week and fined him $50,000 for appearing to intentionally spin Harrison Burton under caution at Nashville Superspeedway in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“I don’t know, he blocks everyone every week,” Burton told Frontstretch. “I blocked him once and he decided to try and wreck me under yellow.”

The penalty is the same points-wise as what Austin Hill received after he spun Cole Custer under caution at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The fine is just a bit higher, as Hill was fined $25,000.

In a vacuum, you look at these two incidents and it makes sense that the penalties are similar. But if both drivers’ past records are taken into consideration, Hocevar’s penalty should’ve been way more severe than Hill’s.

Sure, Hill is known as an ultra-aggressive driver who has made a lot of enemies on the racetrack. But I’ve never seen him intentionally wreck someone before. So his penalty for wrecking Custer was fair.

Hocevar, on the other hand, has a rap sheet of prior times when he wrecked someone intentionally. Let’s take a look at a few of those.

The first such incident was as Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2022 when Hocevar turned Tate Fogleman in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. It’s hard to tell what exactly happened, but it sure did look intentional.

The next incident that comes to mind was in the Truck race at Richmond Raceway in 2022. Hocevar was about to get lapped and got into Nick Leitz, sending him spinning into the wall.

Some thought Hocevar did so intentionally, but Leitz told Frontstretch he thought he might’ve chopped down on the No. 42 truck.

Probably the most egregious moment was when Hocevar right-hooked Colby Howard at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2022. He wasn’t suspended for that when Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott have both been suspended for similar incidents in recent years.