NASCAR CEO says No Penalties to Come for Blaney and Hocevar after Bristol Bout

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer

The fight heard around the world has reached its final verdict.

NASCAR announced Monday that neither Ryan Blaney nor Carson Hocevar will be issued any penalties from their post-race fight at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

However, the sanctioning body will review whether any crew members involved in the scuffle will be issued any penalties later this week.

NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell spoke with Kevin Harvick on the Happy Hour podcast about the decision to not penalize either driver as he felt both popular racers were handling their business despite not condoning fighting.

“If drivers are going to handle their own business, the way we looked at that, how it played out,” said O’Donnell.

“We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion, right?

“And those are two guys — Blaney’s showing his passion, showing his fire. So no, there’s nothing coming from us in terms of [penalties]. We’ll obviously watch what happens the rest of the way, but nothing in terms of post-race penalties.”

Prior to the fight, wrestling legend Ric Flair commented about if a driver wants to get into a sparing match, the way to go about it is take your helmet off and fight.

Those remarks came true following the Bass Pro Shops Night Race when Blaney, who was taken out of second place on Lap 432 by Hocevar.

While Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano won the race, all eyes went on the former Cup Series champion confronting the polarizing star.

Drama post-race. pic.twitter.com/vZZqtTZGCn

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 20, 2026

After handing off his phone to crew chief Johnathan Hassler, Blaney stormed to Hocevar’s parked No. 77 Chevrolet on pit road and grabbed him. Immediately, Hocevar tried connecting a punch and knocked Blaney’s hat off.

“I didn’t tell any of my guys what I was doing,” said Blaney on Denny Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast Monday. “I’m not going to walk over with six of my guys. I need to do this myself and it’s kind of a rule to me.

“I just handed Hassler my phone and I left. He had no idea what that meant. I didn’t really have a huge plan. The only plan of mine was to have a stern conversation with Carson. I wasn’t planning on throwing anything, but I really wanted to grab him and pretty much yell at him to show my displeasure.

“Granted, I pushed him at the chest and grabbed him pretty aggressively that you’re probably going to defend yourself and he rightfully did.”

From there, chaos ensued in the brawl and outside of it as Blaney was pulled down by Hocevar’s crew members. Not willing to back down and seething vengeance, Blaney escaped them and went after Hocevar again before the latter getting a few more punches in.

Officials and security intervened as Hocevar played along with the crowd while Blaney walked away with a shiner on his left eye but made his message clear about how he felt being taken out of a strong performance at Bristol.

“It got me pretty good and the hat just flung my head,” Blaney on Hocevar’s punches. “When that happened, I was like ‘Okay, I should probably return fire at this point.’

“For the second right, I see the second one coming and I’m kind of immobilized. In my mind, ‘I’m just going to eat this thing and continue to yell at him, and stare at him while I just eat this other right.’ I’ll give it to him, he tagged me in the same exact spot that he got me the first time.

“I got back up which was the funniest part, but everyone forgot about me. I gotta get back in.”

Lost in all the chaos was Ty Gibbs, who wasn’t mentioned in NASCAR’s statement. During the fight, Gibbs threw a water bottle that landed into the brawl, only to accidently strike Frontstretch reporter Michael Massie’s phone. Massie would later confirm that while his phone sustained a few scratches, he was unharmed from the carnage.

Hocevar also had a distant confrontation with both Ryan Preece and Josh Berry before everything finally deescalated.

Following the fight, Hocevar explained he didn’t try wrecking Blaney in spite of turning him around.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of talking. He just kind of said one thing and then went after me, and I wasn’t going to take it,” said Hocevar last Saturday.

“I don’t know what I did wrong there. I got a run to cross him over. It looked like he spun himself and then he wants to instigate a fight. I was going to finish that, and, you know, it seemed like the crowd was pretty pumped up so I was going to play the audience for a second.”

When the dust settled, Blaney, who is normally calm after getting out of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford, regretted his confrontation realizing that kids could be seeing this as he tries to set an example for younger people.

“It was weird to me because that’s the opposite of what I normally was,” said Blaney. “I was calm initially and ramped up after the race to where I’m usually kind of ramped up initially and then calm after the race.

“I wish I would’ve gone about it a different way and don’t want to set a bad example. I’ll be honest, I went over there and got my ass kicked for sure. I ate a two-piece and got tagged pretty good, but I wanted to show my displeasure.”