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NASCAR Explains Fines And Penalties To Carson Hocevar And Josh Berry Following Martinsville

November 4, 2026  ·
  John Trent

NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer, Senior Vice President of Competition, explained why the sanctioning body issued its huge fines and points penalties to both Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry following the Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

The series announced that it fined Hocevar $100,000 and docked him 25 points for Section 4.4a of its rulebook. It specifically stated he was involved in “Actions detrimental to Stock Car racing; multiple violations of the code of conduct.”

As for Berry, he was fined $50,000 and also docked 25 points simply for “actions detrimental to Stock Car racing.”

In a blog post, NASCAR shared that the penalties were related “to wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result.”

On Sunday at Martinsville, Hocevar brake checked Austin Cindric at least four times ultimately ending his day with a 36th place finish.

The blog post also mentioned Hocevar’s single-car spin that brought out a caution on lap 198 as he was put a lap down by leader William Byron.

As for Berry, he brake-checked Ryan Blaney on Lap 253 of the race that significantly damaged Blaney’s car resulting in a 35th place finish for a driver who was once in the hunt for the Championship.

On SiriusXM Radio, Sawyer explained the hefty fines and the points penalties to both drivers. First, he shared why Hocevar received a $100,000 fine compared to Berry’s $50,000.

“As we reviewed both of those incidents and you look at the 77 and with Carson having been in situations before where we’ve had some behavioral situations and penalties and we’ve had discussions with him. We just felt like after reviewing all the data and the audio, this one rose to a level it needed to be more than just the $50,000 that Josh got. And the 25 points for both.”

As for why there was no discrepancy in the points penalty, he said, “Trying to be as consistent as we’ve been in the past on the points side of it. And we landed with both of them, landed on 25. Again, the difference being the monetary side of it. And we felt like that would have more of an impact than the points side of it. So as a group, we looked at it. I promise you we didn’t take this lightly. We met all morning and part of the afternoon on this topic and felt like this was the best place to land on it.”

“I know that Jeff Dickerson and the team there at Spire, they’ve taken some actions on their own. Have great respect for that organization, Jeff’s leadership. Both of these decisions, the one by Spire was strictly a Spire decision. Our decisions were strictly NASCAR,” Sawyer continued. “And wanted to make sure we could walk into the garage area and look at all the competitors and feel like they’re playing on a level playing field. And the actions that these two drivers took on Sunday that just rose to a level we felt like we had to get involved.”


He would also share that they are looking at trying to penalize actions such as Hocevar’s and Berry’s in the race as well, “The one thing that I would add and something that we’re looking at it, is how we can do a better job, we as NASCAR, do a better job of officiating this within the race. Would love to not be talking about this today. Would love to be talking about going to Homestead-Miami to crown three very deserving champions, whoever they may be, Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. But, unfortunately, we’re talking about this today.”

“What we really strive is to get it right,” he continued. “Sometimes you have to wait just a little bit to get all the data and get all the information to be able to do that. But I will give all our team credit. The NASCAR production facility, Scott Miller and his team, and how we’re starting to be able to process data and be able to have this information live so we could’ve made a decision in-race, but that’s something for the future, but we’ll work on our side on that.”

In regards to the actual brake-checking and what they took issue with it, Sawyer explained, “I think the one thing, Angie, that really grows to a level of concern for us is the fact that we had worked closely with the drivers on the car particularly the front structure and the foam that goes in the front of the cars on the short tracks to lessen some of the harshness on the lower speed impacts, if you will. So what we did, we went to work, we took some foam out, and we had success at Richmond. We’ve had success at other race tracks. We knew Martinsville would be the first test as far as being able to how they could bump-and-run. And that’s part of our DNA. That’s part of Martinsville.”

“But what rose to a level of real concern for us was that they had taken the structure of the front of the car and used that as an antic or a strategy to basically ruin other drivers’ days and we felt like we had to step in. That was a big reason why we got more involved.”

Towards the end of the discussion, Sawyer did share that NASCAR had conversations with Spire regarding the Hocevar’s suspension, “but their decisions we’re based 100% on what Spire thought was best for them and their organization. And when we sat with our team at the R&D Center we had to look at it not only from the standpoint of where the 21 penalty would fall, but as I said earlier, how we walk into the garage and look at all of our competitors. I didn’t really have the information of where they were going to land. I know they were talking about what they were going to do and we huddled up with our team and made our determinations of where we were going to be irrelevant to where they landed.”

Of note, while the blog post mentioned Hocevar’s single-car spin, Sawyer did not mention that in his discussion or whether it played a role in the penalty.

NEXT: Kenny Wallace Blames Austin Cindric After He Got Brake Checked Multiple Times By Carson Hocevar

 

 

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Author: John Trent