Carson Hocevar fined $50,000 for putting safety workers at risk

Carson Hocevar will have to pay a $50,000 fine to NASCAR as part of a behavioral penalty issued this week.

The Spire Motorsports driver was involved in an incident late in Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway, spinning out on the backstretch. He was unable to get back rolling due to flat tires on the No. 77 car, triggering a caution.

However, when safety workers came to assist Hocevar, NASCAR says he revved the engine and spun the tires again in an attempt to get going. By doing this, he put safety workers at risk, resulting in a $50,000 fine from the sanctioning body.

It was a frustrating day for Hocevar, who has a top ten run before he was involved in multiple incidents. He got into the slower car of J.J. Yeley, crashing him and causing the fifth caution of the race. He was also part of the sixth caution, spinning out as part of an 11-car restart pileup due to contact from Ross Chastain. And then with just a handful of laps to go, contact from Chris Buescher sent him spinning down the backstretch and pushed the race into overtime.

"Four flats, can't f****** roll," he radioed the team. "It's just frustrating." 

Hocevar continued to try and get the car moving without any luck. When the safety team chose to tow him back to the garage, that appears to be when he spun the tires. He did return to the race after getting four fresh tires, finishing 29th. NASCAR has since released video of the incident:

Hocevar was also fined $50,000 earlier this year by his own team following the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City. The internal penalties were issued because of insensitive remarks he made about the city.

The only other penalty from the Kansas race weekend was a $5,000 fine for unsecured lug nuts on the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet of Nick Sanchez in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.