The NASCAR news this week has centered around driver Carson Hocevar‘s latest incident at Darlington Raceway last weekend and his seeming unbothered response to criticism for wrecking another driver. Amid growing criticism of his team for enabling him, it appears Spire Motorsports has at least done some things in the past.
On Tuesday’s episode of Door Bumper Clear Freddie Kraft, spotter for 23XI’s Bubba Wallace, stated that he knows “for a fact” that Spire has fined Hocevar for doing “dumb s***” since he’s joined the team.
“I know for a fact that they have fined him in-house for dumb s***”
Freddie Kraft on Spire Motorsports fining Carson Hocevar
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It came as a slight pushback to comments made by Denny Hamlin, who said on Actions Detrimental that there are no adults in the room at Spire. While Hamlin’s criticism of the team drew some agreement around NASCAR, he is also biased given that Joe Gibbs Racing is actively suing Spire.
Notably, some of the things that Hocevar has been fined by the team for are more internal issues. He has been late to meetings and he was fined $50,000 last year by Spire for making insensitive comments about Mexico during a Twitch stream.
With that said, the team has largely stood by Hocevar publicly amid the growing criticism from his peers and defended his actions. On this week’s episode of the Gluckcast, Spire co-founder Jeff Dickerson made it clear that they do care about Hocevar running into people and they don’t want it to happen, leading to meetings with him for some “tough conversations” to try and prevent further incidents on-track.
Related: Denny Hamlin Takes Shot at Spire for Handling of Carson Hocevar
“We support Carson 100 percent. Our entire building supports Carson…But it’s also true that we have tough conversations, apparently every Monday now or every Tuesday, it feels like…We’re not afraid to have tough conversations.”
Spire Motorsports co-founder Jeff Dickerson on Carson Hocevar and the team
Hocevar said earlier this week that the voice he primarily listens to is Dickerson, who he views as a mentor and he tries his best to take his advice. However, he is also made it clear that he is not going to change how he races or who he is just to appease his peers.
With the team behind him and one of the largest fan bases in NASCAR and the merchandise sales to prove it, there is no incentive for Hocevar to change anything he is doing. It might ultimately take other drivers racing him the way he does them or getting payback in some way. Otherwise, the complaints are just noise that he can tune out in favor of those singing his praises.
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