The deadline came and went, and Zane Smith never filed an appeal of his $50,000 NASCAR fine. Smith was fined for ramming Carson Hocevar after the Phoenix checkered flag, and he will now be required to pay that dollar amount, according to FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass.
Neither Smith nor Front Row Motorsports has offered a public reason for letting the window close. The two drivers are scheduled to share the track again Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
When the Freeway Insurance 500 ended Oct. 18, Smith did not lift. He steered his No. 38 Ford into the back of Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet on the cool-down lap, according to RACER reporter Kelly Crandall.
The incident was apparently retaliation for an incident during the race, but apparently Smith was blaming the wrong driver.
Ross Chastain’s Lap 296 hit on Hocevar sent Hocevar’s car into Smith’s, and Smith’s team radioed him that Chastain started it.
Smith’s reply: “I don’t give a [expletive],” according to Crandall.
Smith’s feelings about Hocevar were no secret.
“I just don’t like him as a human,” Smith said in July at EchoPark Speedway, as quoted in RACER‘s report.
Front Row Motorsports Driver Smith’s $50,000 Fine
NASCAR announced the penalty Tuesday, Oct. 20, under Sections 4.4a and 10.5.2.5a of the Rule Book, according to Crandall.
The real issue, according to NASCAR, was a July warning.
Officials summoned Smith and Hocevar to the hauler after their Chicagoland Speedway collision and delivered a blunt message.
“If you guys can’t figure it out, we will help you figure it out,” NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said on the “Hauler Talk” podcast, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Forde said the same standard did not apply a week earlier at Charlotte, where Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. traded cool-down contact and drew no fine. The difference, he said, was “the conversation we had and the ask that we had that we felt was largely ignored,” as quoted by the Associated Press.
The amount matches the $50,000 NASCAR levied on Bubba Wallace in 2024 for hitting Alex Bowman on the cool-down lap after the Chicago Street Race. Forde withheld details during the appeal window, and said NASCAR might explain more if Smith did not challenge the fine.
Zane Smith’s Disciplinary Record and Reactions
The friction with Hocevar dates to August 2025, when Hocevar lost control at Iowa Speedway and spun Smith into the wall.
“I personally can’t go have a conversation with him without getting a $75,000 fine,” Smith said, as quoted by NASCAR.com afterward.
Then came Chicagoland on July 5. Smith hit Hocevar on Lap 32 and sent both cars into the wall.
“I just tried to move him off the bottom,” Smith said, according to RACER. Hocevar suggested the two drivers needed “couples counseling.”
NASCAR dropped him to last after a second-place Truck Series finish at Las Vegas in 2022 for a lug nut violation, according to NASCAR.com. His car chief was ejected from Phoenix in March, according to NASCAR.com. In 2018, he rammed ARCA rival Michael Self after a Salem Speedway clash, according to Frontstretch‘s ARCA race breakdown.
McDowell rejected any comparison between the two cool-down incidents.
“How about we use our brains here and realize that rubbing doors in first gear at 40 mph is different than smashing someone at 130 mph,” McDowell wrote on social media Tuesday.
Analysts focused on the hauler meeting.
“I think that the hauler chats, the hauler talks that they get called to, are sort of the modern-day equivalent of the probation,” according to The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck. Denny Hamlin said on the “Actions Detrimental” podcast that data showed Smith may have reached 120 mph.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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