Carson Hocevar has been suspended by Spire Motorsports for competing in this upcoming weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Hocevar’s suspension, which was announced on Tuesday, November 3, was due to the Portage, Michigan, native’s on-track actions and incident with Austin Cindric during this past Sunday’s Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway. During the event, Hocevar was seen repeatedly brake-checking Cindric that resulted with the latter colliding into the rear of Hocevar’s entry and sustaining heavy front nose damage. The SMT data by NASCAR showed Hocevar slamming on the brakes on multiple occasions in front of Cindric, in which Hocevar described the incident as, “Just Martinsville [racing] and I think we’re just having fun.”
The collision and damage, however, resulted with Cindric being terminated from further contention as he ended up in 36th place while Hocevar, who spun earlier in the event, finished in 21st place. Cindric declined to comment on the incident with Hocevar.
Instead of leaving the decision by NASCAR to implement any penalties towards Hocevar over his on-track actions at Martinsville, Spire Motorsports made the decision to suspend its own competitor from competing in the 2026 finale at Homestead, Florida. Hocevar, a 2026 Chase contender, is currently ranked in 12th place in the standings with 2,259 points. As a result of his suspension for Homestead, he will cap off the 2026 season with his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway in mid-April, two poles, six top-five results, 12 top-10 results, 198 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.9 through 35 events.
Following the announcement of Hocevar’s suspension, Jeff Dickerson, Co-owner of Spire Motorsports, released a statement that explains the decision of suspending the driver from competing in the 2026 finale.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Not long after, Hocevar took to social media to release his own statement about the incident and suspension.
With Hocevar out, Justin Haley, a Craftsman Truck Series competitor for Kaulig Racing, will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. Haley, who will compete alongside Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell to cap off Spire’s 2026 Cup Series season, will make his first Cup start of this season and his first since he previously drove for Spire on a full-time basis in 2025.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is scheduled to occur this upcoming Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
