After the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday, Zane Smith slammed into Carson Hocevar.

As a result of his actions, Zane Smith has been fined $50,000 by NASCAR under Section 10.5.2.5a in the NASCAR Rule Book – “any violations compromising Event or participant safety will be addressed on a case-by-case basis with the highest level of seriousness.”

NASCAR also cited Section 4.4a in the rule book for the option of assessing a financial penalty.

Smith hit Hocevar because he was unhappy with the way Hocevar drove during the race and made contact with Smith on lap 296 of the race.

During a late race restart, Ross Chastain made contact with Carson Hocevar in a turn three battle.  The contact from Chastain sent Hocevar up the track and into Zane Smith and Josh Berry.

During the cool down lap after the race when drivers slow down, Zane Smith accelerated his number 38 car and slammed into the rear of Carson Hocevar’s number 77 car before heading down pit road.

Drivers are known for having elephant memories when it comes to on track incidents.

The same two drivers made contact during the race at Chicagoland during the Fourth of July weekend and had a visit with officials in the NASCAR hauler the following week where they were “discourage further on-track incidents.”

During their “Hauler Talk” podcast NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde explained, “after they had their dust-up on the race track (in Chicago), we called both of them in at Atlanta.  And we don’t typically like talking about what we tell those drivers in the hauler. But in this case, pretty much the message was this: If you guys can’t figure it out, we will help you figure it out. And they couldn’t figure it out. So this is us pretty much helping. Zane Smith figured it out a little bit in the form of a $50,000 fine.”

He added, “when we have drivers called into the hauler like that, we don’t have it often, but when we feel like it’s necessary, we’re serious about those conversations.”

Forde noted, “NASCAR wants its drivers to be aggressive and passionate, but (the Smith fine) was a little bit different than that, largely because of the conversation we had and the ask that we had that we felt was largely ignored.”

Zane Smith has the right to appeal the penalty to the National Appeals Panel – a three person panel.