The wallets of Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry will be a bit lighter this week.
NASCAR has fined the pair of Cup Series drivers for separate incidents at Martinsville Speedway involving brake-checking that wrecked two other cars during the Nov. 1 race. Hocevar was hit with a $100,000 fine, while Berry will pay $50,000. Both drivers were also docked 25 points.
In its weekly penalty report, NASCAR termed the infractions as "behavioral" incidents and “actions detrimental to stock car racing.” NASCAR also said Hocevar had “multiple violations of the code of conduct.”
The penalties came down after Hocevar’s team, Spire Motorsports, announced it was suspending him for the season finale this Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Justin Haley will drive the No.
77 Chevrolet instead.
Drivers from Team Penske were on the receiving ends of the brake-checking from Hocevar and Berry.
Hocevar seemed to deliberately brake-check Austin Cindric multiple times, eventually destroying the front end of Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford and forcing him to retire from the race. During the incident, Hocevar’s spotter, Tyler Green, pleaded with him to stop fooling around with Cindric, saying: “Hey, just go, please. Just go. Focus on driving to the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.).”
Cindric declined to comment on the incident after he exited the infield care center Sunday, but said over his radio: “NASCAR, what are we doing? Like, we’re just weaponizing cars here. I stack on entry with the guy and he has a mental breakdown.”
“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,” Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire, said in a statement regarding Hocevar’s suspension. “ … We believe in respect. Our integrity matters. This is the right decision for Spire Motorsports.”
Berry’s incident came near the end of Stage 2 of the Xfinity 500. Ryan Blaney made contact with Berry’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, and Berry hit the brakes shortly after, crunching the front end of Blaney’s No. 12 Ford as it rammed into Berry’s rear. Blaney then spun between turns 1 and 2 before going to the garage for repairs. Blaney returned to the track, but was 57 laps down with his championship hopes gone.
“It’s uncharacteristic of Josh to do something like that,” Wood Brothers president Jon Wood told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It's hard to think it was on purpose, but I don't know. I guess I don't want to know."
In June, ahead of the Cup Series’ return to North Wilkesboro Speedway, NASCAR made a rule change for short track racing, banning the use of energy-absorbing foam in the front bumper structure of the race cars. It was a move to discourage drivers from running into the back of another car to move them out of the way. With the foam, a car could drive into the rear of another with no real damage occurring to either car.
This was mostly a non-story at North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Bristol, but Martinsville is different. It’s a one-groove track with tight confines. Drivers are constantly battling for the bottom lane going into corners. It’s impossible to race at the old-school short track without contact.
Berry, who is leaving the Penske-aligned Wood Brothers at the end of the year and driving for Legacy Motor Club next season, finished fourth at Martinsville. Among the non-Chase drivers, he has the most top-10 finishes this season with 11. The points that he was docked dropped him to 22nd in the standings.
Hocevar dropped from 12th to 13th place in the point standings. He won his first Cup Series race of his career earlier this season at Talladega, but has rubbed a lot of other drivers the wrong way for how frequently he is involved in on-track incidents and wrecks due to his aggressive and at times reckless driving style.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR penalizes Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry for Martinsville incidents
