Carson Hocevar says he understands why NASCAR fined him $50,000 this week for an engine rev with safety worker present on Sunday at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n
The second-year Cup Series driver was stuck on the track after a spin, a common occurrence with this car, but he wants everyone to know it wasn\u2019t malicious. The car was stalled in second gear and he needed to fire it back up to put it in neutral so it could be towed to the work area.<\/p>\n
As soon as the car fired-up, it spun the tires, and NASCAR was forced to acknowledge it with a fine.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI fired it up just to throw it into neutral,\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cIt\u2019s sometimes hard to get these things into neutral so I fired it up. Honestly, I didn\u2019t know it spun the tires. Obviously, there\u2019s a tow truck in front of me so I\u2019m not going anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to go someplace earlier but the tires were off the ground and they just spin. But they judge based off of actions and visibility and not intent, right? The tires spun, black and white, so next time I might just have them rock the car to throw me in neutral. That\u2019s on me not \u2026 I was sitting there in third gear doing a burnout so it\u2019s on me not thinking about the tires spinning. It was educational for me. It\u2019s expensive too. It\u2019s educational for our guys too so I could just say I\u2019m stuck in second and go from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cNASCAR doesn\u2019t have the intent. They can\u2019t know the plan and story behind everything and judge everything and sometimes they have to call it the way they see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Hocevar says the NASCAR official that called him to tell him about the fine was surprised there wasn\u2019t an argument. But Hocevar responded that it was a black and white call and he gets it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got to like 1200 RPMs right? I just fired it up, threw it into neutral and shut it off, and I didn\u2019t even realize the tires were spinning. They called it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hocevar only wished the minimum fine for this infraction was $5,000 and not $50,000.<\/p>\n
Who pays for the fine \u2013 the driver or Spire Motorsports?<\/p>\n
\u201cI spun the tires. It\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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