Spire Motorsports suspends Carson Hocevar at Homestead
Carson Hocevar was suspended by Spire Motorsports Tuesday (Nov. 3) ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Justin Haley, who raced for the organization from 2019 to 2021, earning the team’s first win at Daytona in 2019, and again from late 2024 through 2025, will fill in.
Team owner Jeff Dickerson said Hocevar’s actions from Martinsville fell short of the team’s standard.
“Sometimes the right decision for someone you care about hurts more in the short term,” Dickerson’s statement said in part. “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.”
Hocevar is 12th in points, nine points behind Chase Elliott for a potential Top-10 position in final points.
Hocevar’s streak of 109 consecutive Cup Series starts will come to an end.
“This is an embarrasing day for me,” Hocevar said in a statement on social media.
“I let the people down that gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to drive a Cup car… I crossed the line with my on-track actions and gave Jeff and Spire Motorsports no option but to put someone else in the 77 car this weekend at Homestead.”
This isn’t the first time Spire Motorsports has taken charge on reprimanding their driver.
The team fined Hocevar $50,000 in June of last year after comments he made about Mexico on a livestream ahead of the Mexico City race weekend.
Later that year, NASCAR fined Hocevar $50,000 after a behavioral incident at the Kansas race weekend in September.
Through 35 races, Hocevar has posted one victory (Talladega), 6 Top-5 finishes, and 12 Top-10 finishes.
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.