Zane Smith fined $50,000 after post-race contact with Hocevar

Zane Smith has been fined $50,000 following post-race contact with Carson Hocevar after Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR officials announced Tuesday. Smith is penalized under Section 10.5.2.5a in the NASCAR Rule Book, which states that "any violations compromising Event or participant safety will be addressed on a case-by-case basis with the highest level of seriousness." Additionally, NASCAR officials cited Section 4.4a in the rule book, which provides potential penalty options and guidelines of "general examples of behavior that may fall into certain Penalty levels." MORE: Phoenix results | Smith slams Hocevar's bumper Smith rammed the back bumper of Hocevar's No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet after the checkered flag in Sunday's Freeway Insurance 500, expressing obvious displeasure with Hocevar for contact that was made during the race on Lap 296. After a late-race restart, Hocevar received contact from Ross Chastain entering Turn 3 in a battle around 10th place. That contact sent Hocevar up the track and into Smith's No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford as well as Josh Berry's No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Hocevar finished 12th, and Smith placed 15th. After crossing the start/finish line, Hocevar and others began their cool-down laps by rolling out of the throttle as is commonplace once the checkered flag is taken. Smith accelerated to the back bumper of Hocevar's No. 77 car and slammed into the rear bumper of Hocevar's car before following him down to pit lane. The two drivers have a long-standing feud that led to contact during a July 5 race at Chicagoland Speedway. NASCAR officials met with both drivers at EchoPark Speedway one week later to discourage further on-track incidents, but that discussion did not lead to any mended fences between the two rivals. Making his first appearance in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, Hocevar sits 11th in the points standings, 158 points back of series leader Kyle Larson entering Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hocevar is the most recent Cup Series winner at Talladega. Smith sits 26th in the points standings heading to Talladega.