Joey Logano made a bold move to steal a win Saturday night, but Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney stole the show and left everyone choosing sides in Bristol, Tenn.
Logano passed Hocevar and Ty Gibbs to capture the Bristol Night Race that ended with a brief fight on pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway.
After a restart, Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford shot past the two 23-year-old drivers with seven laps to go and beat Kyle Larson by 1.248 seconds for his third Cup Series win of 2026 and 40th of his career.
“Our cars have been good and getting better,” said Logano, who emerged from his No. 22 and was interviewed amid a resounding cascade of boos. “I’ve got a great team that knows how to win championships. I thought there for a minute we would finish third or fourth tonight.
“There’s nothing like the Bristol Night Race,” he said after the third of 10 races in The Chase.
Logano, who led 93 of the 500 laps, moved to third in the Cup Series standings 16 points out of first, behind new leader Larson and Denny Hamlin (-1 point).
While the 10-caution race had mayhem in the final 59 laps, Ryan Blaney — wrecked by Hocevar with 43 laps left — came to pit road and grabbed Hocevar, who got a few fists landed on the Cup champion as a melee broke out.
“I wasn’t trying to wreck him,” said Hocevar, who immediately set out to defend himself when Blaney shoved and grabbed his driver’s suit. “I got a run, he went left and spun. I spun him. He kind of like said one thing and then went after me (on pit road). And I wasn’t going to take it. … They got an old-school Bristol show here.
“I don’t know what I did wrong there,” he said. “Looked like he spun himself then wanted to instigate a fight. I was going to finish that and play the audience for a second.”
Hocevar finished third, while Christopher Bell and Gibbs rounded out the top five. Blaney who led a race-high 202 laps, finished in 33rd place.
With rain having washed out both practice and qualifying, NASCAR decided to throw a competition caution early in the 500-lap race, while polesitter Larson led the way from the green flag until the caution.
Logano gained the lead by staying out and never pitted during the 125 laps that made up Stage 1. He won the segment, earning 10 important bonus points. Larson, Hamlin, Ross Chastain and Gibbs followed behind the No. 22 Ford.
Stage 2 breezed by with Blaney leading Bubba Wallace and Josh Berry. Tire wear did not become a major problem as the lead group, running on older rubber, were able to stay out front most of the segment but surrendered positions over the final 30 circuits.
Cody Ware’s No. 51 wrecked as Stage 2 was nearing its end, and Blaney grabbed the maximum points. Gibbs, Logano, Berry and Bell finished in the top half of the 10 drivers receiving stage points.
Blaney kept his No. 12 out front, but Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota, bearing the famous colors of the late Kyle Busch’s yellow M&M’s paint scheme, passed the Ford on Lap 326.
After a caution when the entire field had pitted, Hocevar ran out front on a restart with 95 laps to go and with only nine cars on the lead lap. Many of them were in position between Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet and second-place Gibbs.
With 69 circuits left, Gibbs went through the middle three-wide between Alex Bowman and Cole Custer, wrecking Bowman’s No. 48 Chevy with Hocevar just behind.
–Field Level Media
