The Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2025 is turning into a playoff nail-biter, but for Austin Cindric, it turned into a nightmare that crushed his title dreams. On Lap 33, as the field barreled toward the frontstretch chicane, Carson Hocevar locked up his brakes and plowed into Cindric’s No. 2 Ford Mustang.

The hit sent Cindric spinning, mangling his car and forcing a garage trip. Over the radio, Cindric’s voice was all business: “Toe link is fine, we’ve got two bent control arms. Gotta go to the garage.” It was a devastating blow, ending his day early and slamming the door on his championship run.

Hocevar’s aggressive style has been a season-long headache, and this was no exception. Earlier at Kansas Speedway’s Hollywood Casino 400, he earned a $50,000 fine for revving his engine and spinning tires while safety crews worked on his car, a move that endangered everyone around.

It’s the kind of antics that have got the garage grumbling, and at the Roval, Hocevar’s brake lock-up turned a routine battle into a championship killer for Cindric. The track’s hybrid layout, twisty road sections feeding into oval banking, has always been a powder keg, with slick conditions and tire fall-off turning it into an “ice rink,” as drivers called it. Hocevar’s mistake amplified the chaos, costing Penske a shot at glory.

For Cindric, the heartbreak was personal. He had just notched his first Talladega win, edging Ryan Preece by 0.022 seconds, a playoff booster that had him dreaming big. But the Lap 33 spin, with bent control arms sidelining him, wiped that momentum. His Team Penske crew hustled to patch the damage, but the fix was too much, too fast.

In a season where every point counts toward the Round of 8, this early exit was a killer, leaving Cindric watching the rest of the race from the garage, his championship bid in ruins. The Roval’s unforgiving nature has claimed plenty before. Its mix of road and oval bites hard, and Lap 33 was no different. Hocevar’s brake lock-up, while not malicious, was the spark that ignited Cindric’s downfall.

Hocevar’s Kansas fallout shadows Roval wreck

Carson Hocevar’s Roval mistake wasn’t his first brush with trouble, and his Kansas antics are still fresh in the garage’s mind.

“Yeah, I fired it up just to throw it into neutral. It’s sometimes hard to get these things into neutral, so I fired it up. And honestly, I didn’t really know it spun the tires. Obviously, there’s a tow truck in front of me. I’m not going anywhere. I was trying to go places earlier, and the tires are off the ground, and they just spin,”

Hocevar said, addressing his $50,000 fine for spinning tires near safety crews. NASCAR’s video caught his wheels churning while hooked to a tow truck, a dangerous move with workers close by.

He owned the mistake but argued intent wasn’t there. Officials saw action, not excuses. Turning lemons into lemonade, Hocevar raised the fine’s full amount via a Twitch fundraiser, rallying fans. But at the Roval, his brake lock-up on Cindric reignited the debate over his aggressive style, costing Penske’s star a shot at the title.