Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar is a 23 year old happy-go-lucky guy who just wants to have fun; but he is also a rather aggressive driver, which has gotten him into a spot of bother more than once this season driving the number 77 car for Spire Motorsports.
On November 3, Spire announced that they are suspending Hocevar for the final race of the season. While Hocevar is one of the 16 Chase drivers, he is far enough back in the standings that he is mathematically ineligible to win the championship.
Craftsman Truck Series driver Justin Haley will drive the 77 at Homestead-Miami on Sunday to end the season.
After numerous on track incidents this season, the incident involving Austin Cindric on Sunday at Martinsville in which Hocevar “brake-checked” Cindric a number of times before Cindric rearended Hocevar; causing race ending damage to Cindric’s car became the proverbial “last straw”.
Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson has issued a statement saying, “A decision like this has a lot of variables and a cascading effect across an organization like ours. The easy thing would have been to leave this in NASCAR’s hands and let them decide what any penalty should be. To us, however, this isn’t about money or points. We believe in respect. Our integrity matters. This is the right decision for Spire Motorsports.”
He continued, “everyone here loves working with Carson, and we’ve enjoyed watching him thrive alongside our team. Sometimes the right decision for someone you care about hurts in the short term. The way Carson conducted himself at Martinsville doesn’t meet the standard we set for our drivers, team members or employees, and there are consequences for that. That doesn’t mean we don’t love him and support him.”
Dickerson concluded, “racing at the Cup level is a privilege, and it comes with an expected level of professionalism from everyone who represents Spire Motorsports. We’ll go to Homestead united and compete as an organization. After that, we can get ready for Daytona in February with the right mindset to contend for a championship.”