Zane Smith has been fined $50,000 for contact between himself and Carson Hocevar following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway. During the cool-down lap, Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford made hard contact with Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
The penalty to Smith stemmed from Section 10.5.2.5a in the NASCAR Rule Book, stating “any violations compromising Event or participant safety will be addressed on a case-by-case basis with the highest level of seriousness.” Also cited was Section 4.4a of the rule book, which outlines “general examples of behavior that may fall into certain Penalty levels.”
The Incident
Full breakdown of Zane Smith ramming into Carson Hocevar after the checkered flag including the onboard from Ross Chastain’s car.
The corner before it looked like Hocevar crossed Chastain’s left front on exit and that it was very close. Can’t say definitively if that had anything to do with how Chastain raced Hocevar in the next corner or not.
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) October 18, 2026
Late in Sunday’s race, Hocevar and Smith made contact coming to the start-finish line. It appeared that Hocevar’s car received a shove from Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, sending him up the track in the corner and into Smith’s car.
The subsequent contact occurred immediately after the checkered flag waved. Hocevar crossed the line 12th, while Smith finished 15th. While other cars decelerated, Smith didn’t appear to slow until after he rammed Hocevar’s bumper from behind.
“Just so you know, the No. 1 was apparently the one that shipped the No. 77 into us,” Smith was told on his radio after pulling onto pit road. The 27-year-old’s response was curt: “I don’t give a f–k.”
History and Precedent
Sunday’s run-in between Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar isn’t the first time this season that the two drivers have run afoul of one another. In June the two hit the wall together at Chicagoland Speedway. NASCAR reportedly discussed the incident with Smith after the race, potentially contributing to their decision to penalize him after Phoenix. Smith later called Hocevar “an idiot” and “a coward”. Hocevar responded that “maybe his t-shirt sales were low” during a Twitch stream.
Phoenix was the second straight week that two drivers feuded on the cool-down lap after the race. Last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell each appeared to veer into one another. NASCAR VP of Racing Communications Mike Forde said that the incident was “probably the closest it’s gotten to being a penalty without it being a penalty”.
Previously, Bubba Wallace received a $50,000 fine for making contact with Alex Bowman on the cool-down lap following the 2024 Chicago Street Race. In that incident, Bowman’s window net was down and his car hit a concrete barrier after Wallace’s contact.
