Spire Motorsports rookie driver Carson Hocevar has been reprimanded by NASCAR officials for his actions during the Ally 400 race at Nashville. Brad Keselowski’s crash during the race on Lap 244 brought out the caution. As soon as the caution was flagged, the entire field dropped its pace, but Hocevar surprisingly kept his speed and almost caused a huge wreck running caution laps.

Seeing the yellow, Harison Burton, driving the No. 21 Ford Mustang, was quick on the brakes, but the oncoming No. 77 car directly rammed into his back. While there was no significant damage to either of the race cars, this was enough for NASCAR to warrant a penalty for Hocevar. Taking swift action, the officials have fined him $50,000 and docked him of 25 driver points.

“Carson Hocevar, driver of the Spire Motorsports No. 77 Chevrolet, was fined $50,000 and assessed a loss of 25 driver points for violating Sections 4.4B: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct Penalty Options and Guidelines during Sunday’s Ally 400. Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevy made contact with Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 Ford driven by Harrison Burton under yellow, causing the latter to spin out.” NASCAR said in a statement.

There’s always a provision with the teams that they can appeal a penalty decision. However, the Spire President has confirmed that the team will not appeal this judgment call. “NASCAR has informed Spire Motorsport of its decision to penalize Carson Hocevar following last weekend’s race at the Nashville Superspeedway. We understand and respect NASCAR’s decision and will not appeal.” He was quoted as saying this to Bob Pockrass.

The fans certainly approved of the stance taken by NASCAR on this incident and shared more insights via their comments on social media platforms.

Fans react to Carson Hocevar’s hefty penalty call by NASCAR officials

The NASCAR community certainly didn’t have a hard time concluding this ruling, given how obvious the wreck was to Burton. Moreover, the Spire team president commented in public, stating they wouldn’t appeal the penalty. This further goes on to show that NASCAR was spot on with their ruling, “Justice.”

However, a few fans were surprised to see Hocevar not serving a penalty during the race itself, “why didn’t he get parked for 2 laps?” To this, Bob Pockrss replied, “NASCAR views the two-lap hold as a penalty to use only when it is 100% sure in the moment. As they mentioned on the telecast, it looked like Harrison Burton checked up at one point in the exchange, so they wanted to look at data, probably talk to drivers, etc.”

With the docked points, Hocevar is virtually out of the playoff race. And this could also impact his rookie-of-the-season race. Sharing a concern for the driver, a fan wrote, “Big hit to the rookie of the year run, too.”

Oftentimes, fans are at odds with NASCAR officials in the way they deal with fines and penalties. We all know how frustrating it was to see them hand a $75,000 fine to Ricky Stenhouse Jr for his post-race brawl with Kyle Busch. But this time around, they certainly made a sound call, which was appreciated by this fan, who wrote, “rare nascar officiating W.”

Meanwhile, some fans were demanding a penalty for Kyle Larson, who was out of his game and racing aggressively against everyone in Nashville. “Where is larson fine and penalty. He admitted to trying to wreck Hamlin.”

Carson Hocevar was clearly out of line in his actions last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway and is rightly penalized by the officials. Hopefully, this sets a precedent and helps drivers keep their hands clean while running caution laps.