HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Austin Cindric is still wondering why Carson Hocevar decided to brake-check him at Martinsville Speedway on Nov. 1.
Cindric was eliminated from the Xfinity 500 after Hocevar inexplicably stomped on the brakes four times during Stage 2, forcing Cindric to run into Hocevar’s rear bumper and destroying the front end of Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford. The damage landed Cindric a 36th-place finish and cost him three positions in the points standings, falling to 11th ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Hocevar was suspended for this weekend’s race by his Spire Motorsports team and was separately penalized by NASCAR, which docked him 25 driver points and fined him $100,000 for his Martinsville actions. Cindric, though, has yet to learn why Hocevar chose to make that decision.
“I guess that’s an important piece, isn’t it?” Cindric said. “Well, I don’t have the answers, unfortunately.”
Cindric addressed the media at Homestead on Saturday after qualifying fifth for the finale, speaking for the first time since the Martinsville madness reached its fever pitch. Taking the opportunity to gather his thoughts in the six days since the incident, Cindric is most disappointed that something out of his control will impact his final landing place in the championship points standings.
“Super frustrating event for us to drop three spots in points at a critical point in the year,” Cindric said.
Hocevar is at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend and spoke to the media Friday to address the fallout of last weekend’s events. Asked if he planned to speak to Cindric or apologize, Hocevar said he would “if it’s natural in passing, sure. But I felt like I more owed an apology to my team and stuff and in person and whatnot obviously because I see them every day, so I did all that.”
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Cindric said that discussion has not yet happened and is “not necessarily” interested in talking to Hocevar.
Hocevar also posted an 18-minute video to his personal YouTube this week, in part apologizing to the No. 2 team. Cindric has not watched.
“To be honest, I know there’s a lot of content that’s been out since last Sunday, six days ago, and I can’t say I’ve really, really watched any of it as I don’t really believe that I’m the audience,” Cindric said.
While frustrated by the incident, Cindric is eager to put it in the rearview mirror with 400 miles on deck Sunday at Homestead-Miami.
“I can’t have anything from last week be a distraction,” Cindric said. “And that’s the thing. I mean, it doesn’t really affect what the job is and what my role is for me and the team to have a productive weekend and maximize our position of points.
“So I think that’s really the highlight for me is being able to go out there this weekend and maximize what’s been a really strong couple months for us.”
In addition to his top-five starting spot, Cindric also posted the second-fastest lap in Friday’s 50-minute practice session as well as the field’s best five-lap average.
“I think our race tomorrow is a lot in our hands with seemingly a decent qualifying effort and a super challenging race track,” Cindric said. “So it’s fun to get out there and understand what the conditions are going to be like for the end of the race and want to make sure we’re in the mix for it.”
Cindric is seeking his first win of the season to close the 2026 campaign.