CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR will not issue penalties to Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney over their fight after Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race.
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell confirmed the move to not penalize either driver while appearing on NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick’s podcast. O’Donnell credited the drivers for handling their own business and showing passion. While he said the sanctioning body doesn’t want to encourage fighting, they want to encourage passion.
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“If drivers are going to handle their own business, the way we looked at that, how it played out, 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,” O’Donnell said.
The move marks a departure for NASCAR, which has typically penalized drivers for fighting. Even after the 1979 Daytona 500, where Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison fought and Bobby Allison jumped in with the voice of Ken Squier narrating the scenes to an audience of millions of people who propelled NASCAR to new heights, all three drivers had to each pay NASCAR a $6,000 fine (or around $27,000 in today’s money).
More recently, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had to pay a $75,000 fine for punching Kyle Busch after the May 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The nature of that fight was different as Stenhouse and Busch were talking back and forth before Stenhouse suddenly punched Busch in the face. It was also in a different time under different leadership where NASCAR sought to clamp down on fighting more.
That brawl seemingly created a chilling effect in the garage until Saturday. However, a fight on pit road at Kansas Speedway in May of 2023, involving Ross Chastain punching Noah Gragson, helps to make sense of NASCAR’s decision over Saturday’s fight.
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Similar to Saturday, Gragson walked up to Chastain and grabbed hold of him and then starting pushing toward him before Chastain punched him in the face. NASCAR didn’t issue any penalties to either party for that incident either
Saturday’s fight erupted on pit road after an incident late in the race. Carson Hocevar had a run on the outside lane exiting turn four and then dove to the bottom under Ryan Blaney entering turn one. Blaney and Hocevar collided as they met in the middle, sending Blaney into the outside wall and out of the race.
Blaney showed his passion in his interview on live TV where he dropped an f-bomb in the second question a reporter asked him.
Hocevar ultimately finished third to race winner Joey Logano, Blaney’s teammate who snagged the win away from Hocevar, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson who lost after a fierce battle for the win went awry for them.
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Blaney waited until the end of the race to confront Hocevar and took the consequences.
“I went over there and got my — kicked. I ate a two-piece and got tagged pretty good but I wanted to show my displeasure,” Blaney said on Denny Hamlin’s podcast.
Blaney is in a tough points spot now heading to Kansas Speedway this Sunday.
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