BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ryan Blaney walked up to confront Carson Hocevar after the checkered flag at Bristol Motor Speedway.
He was greeted with a punch to the face.
A Blaney-Hocevar fight lit up pit road after Saturday night’s (Sept. 19) NASCAR Cup Series race, sparked after Hocevar’s No. 77 and Blaney’s No. 12 came together moments earlier. The contact led to Blaney slamming into the wall in turn 1, knocking him out of the race while Hocevar marched forward to battle for the win with Ty Gibbs.
“I mean I kind of crossed him over there,” Hocevar said. “And I felt like I was at least at his left rear, and it looked like he just kept coming down and I was on the brakes pretty hard. He obviously sun and it resulted in that. I was just trying to stop my bleeding. I got loose there and was trying to just cross him over and get back to second, because I knew that was gonna be important.
“I don’t know if he made a poor decision. They were telling me the spotter said inside, so I don’t know, but I think everybody saw the intensity of The Chase. I don’t know if he’s mad at me or just mad at the situation or both, or if I’m an easy punching bag.”
At the infield care center, Blaney was asked if he would talk to Hocevar after the race.
“Yeah, something’s gonna happen,” Blaney said.
And Blaney delivered on that promise.
After contact between Hocevar and Gibbs allowed Joey Logano to slip past them both for the win, Hocevar settled for a third-place result. As he climbed out of the No. 77 car, he was swarmed by media, but then Blaney came flying in out of nowhere.
Blaney shoved Hocevar before he was quickly greeted with a right-hook to the face. The two pushed and shoved for a bit before they were separated. Seconds later, Blaney re-emerged to start the shoving all over again, with the two once again being pulled apart.
“That was the first time I ever hit anybody,” Hocevar said. “It’s a cool story. At least that’s gonna be at Bristol of all places.”
Hocevar noted that it was about two seconds before Blaney approached that his team was telling him that something might happen.
“And then I saw him, and I was like, OK, he’s moving pretty fast for a convo,” Hocevar said. “And then he grabbed me, and I was like, OK, well I’m not gonna wait. I’ve seen enough of these. I’m just gonna start swinging, see what happens.”
Also in the ruckus, Gibbs threw his water bottle at Hocevar, which connected with a Frontstretch camera.
Blaney was unable to be reached following the fight, but he did say at the care center earlier that what he could’ve done differently in the race was, “Understand who was beneath me.”
“I protected pretty early, and he just kept coming left and never lifted and crashed me,” Blaney said.
The 2023 Cup champion scored 15 stage points on the night, including a win in stage 2. Had he been able to win or even come away with a top five, it would’ve helped him close the 33-point gap in The Chase he entered Saturday’s race with. Instead, he finished 33rd, dropping him two spots in the standings at 52 points out the top spot.
Meanwhile, Hocevar moved up one spot in the standings to eighth and is now three points closer to the championship lead at 85 markers back.
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 50+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
I replayed it numerous times and saw Blaney punch Hocevar in the body to start it all. show me I’m wrong.