Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
Here’s a hint: you didn’t talk about him much all night long. He’s also probably not who everyone is actually talking about today, but he should be.
The Joey Logano train is coming, race fans.
Logano deserved more attention all night than he got at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (Sept. 19). He started second after qualifying was rained out. The NASCAR metric for that situation relies heavily on the previous week’s finish, and Logano was third last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway. He led 86 laps early, winning the first stage after a no-pit call on a lap 40 competition caution proved to be the right one.
From there, Logano ran with the top cars but didn’t lead laps in the second stage. He looked like he was going to score his third top 10 of The Chase, but then a couple of late cautions changed plans, which included some of the contenders.
The final restart came with just nine laps to go … and well, it was the night race at Bristol. Ty Gibbs had the best car for most of the night and led at the restart, followed by Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson.
Gibbs might even have been the sentimental favorite, running an M&M’s paint scheme reminiscent of the ones run by the late Kyle Busch when he drove the car. Busch’s family was on hand for the race with his son Brexton on the No. 54 pit box.
Logano was in fourth on that restart. Gibbs rubbed fenders with Hocevar a couple of times, lost the lead, and rubbed fenders with Larson. While the three battled, the bottom lane opened up in front of Logano, and he drove right through. Logano led the final seven laps to take his third win of 2026. The win is the 40th of Logano’s career, tying Mark Martin for 20th all time.
When NASCAR returned to The Chase format with an expanded 16-car field, most believed that the winner was going to come from the top five in points before the reset. At that point, Logano was a distant ninth. With seven races to go, he’s third. And it’s an even year…
On the other hand…
No driver has lost the wind in his sails this year quite as much as Tyler Reddick. Reddick, who leads the Cup Series in wins with five, has been wildly inconsistent for the last few months. He opened The Chase by finishing third in the Southern 500, but followed that up with results of 25th and 18th. The 25th-place run meant starting 20th at Bristol. But unlike some teams who were able to make up track position with early pit strategy, the No. 45 group was unable to do that.
Reddick was visibly struggling with his car early on. He lost a lap before the lap 40 competition caution and never recovered, finishing 18th, three laps down. He and his team need to find their mojo in a hurry before any chance at finishing what they started this year slips away.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
After a late-race incident between Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar ended Blaney’s night prematurely despite having the best car for most of the race, Blaney stalked Hocevar down on pit road and grabbed him, resulting in punches thrown by both drivers, unsavory internet allegations from Blaney’s wife, and a water bottle thrown in Hocevar’s general direction by Gibbs, who also rubbed fenders with him. Hocevar walked away from the race as the villain once again.
But was the incident with Blaney even Hocevar’s fault?
No, not entirely, or even mostly. The two had been racing hard for position. Blaney made a pass and cleared the No. 77. At that point, Blaney had the top racing lane to himself, free and clear.
But he didn’t stay there. He admittedly tried to block Hocevar from making a crossover to his inside and turned down out of the top groove. Hocevar, as is the norm, didn’t lift. He tagged Blaney’s left rear and the No. 12 spun.
Could Hocevar have backed out and avoided it? Yes. He wasn’t even necessarily obligated to, though it was still far enough from the end that he could have done so and still raced for the win. Certainly, that would have given him a few goodwill points if nothing else.
But Blaney could have held the top line, where he had more momentum. Blaney said after his crash that he was trying to turn down to protect the bottom. That puts some, if not most, of the fault at Blaney’s feet. All in all, from the standpoint that it was avoidable, it’s probably 70/30 on Blaney.
That’s not the popular answer. Hocevar is an extremely aggressive driver, and he doesn’t cut anyone any slack on track, ever. He’s caused a lot of incidents, and at the end of the day, the field won’t send any sympathy cards when someone does decide they’ve had enough and attempts to teach him a lesson. Fans of other drivers have no love for him.
Does Hocevar need to learn that there is a time to race and a time to back off? Definitely. It will make him a more successful driver. But objectively, Blaney turned down. Hocevar just didn’t try to avoid him when he did. Not a good look, but not an intentional incident either.
Where… did he come from?
On a night when Chase drivers held down most of the top-10 finishes, there was Josh Berry once again, right in the middle of things. Berry started 32nd after the qualifying rain-out, but a no-stop call at the competition caution turned his race around. Tire wear wasn’t much of a factor at all, and the handful of teams who took the same gamble all cashed in at that point in the race.
Berry was able to make it stick for the rest of the night. Once he had track position among the leaders, he held onto it for much of the night. He didn’t score points in the first stage, but he finished fourth in the second stage and from there, kept his nose clean and raced his way to a sixth-place result. He’s no longer in search of a 2027 ride, but he’s still got something to prove, and with his seventh top 10 in the last eight races, he’s certainly making his case.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
For the first time in 2026, a non-Toyota driver is the points leader as Larson passed a lackluster Denny Hamlin to take over the top spot by a single point.
With six races to go, who’s realistically still in title contention? Larson has heated up at the right time. Hamlin is still very much alive as well. He may be his own worst enemy, but Toyota as a whole has been outstanding on intermediate tracks, so he’s just a win away from a momentum shift.
Not that long ago, even making The Chase was in question for Logano. But he’s a very realistic title contender now in third, just 16 points behind Larson.
Christopher Bell is also very much a championship threat, as he is currently just a point behind Logano in fourth.
Fifth through seventh are still within striking distance but need everything to go right for the bulk of the stretch run to get back in it. Gibbs left Bristol 42 points behind, but in fifth, he only needs to climb over a few others to get there. Blaney needs to right the ship and right it now, but he’s 52 back, and with a couple of great weeks coupled with a couple of tough ones at the front, he could make a run. Reddick is still hanging in as well in seventh, 61 points behind, but he’ll need to end the year like he started it to get back in the conversation.
Even the rest of the top 10 seems like it’s a case of “better luck next year.” Hocevar has 85 markers to make up, ninth-place Chase Briscoe is 87 back, and Bubba Wallace is 92 behind in 10th. They can all absolutely improve their season finishes, but a title seems out of reach.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
First of all, will NASCAR issue any penalties for anything that happened on track or after the race?
It’s pretty unlikely that any driver will be cited for anything that happened during the race. Nothing looked blatantly intentional, and if NASCAR didn’t feel that William Sawalich’s obviously intentional wrecking of Corey Day in last week’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at WWTR warranted a penalty, then there was definitely nothing on Saturday that should.
As for the aftermath? NASCAR has been inconsistent on issuing penalties for post-race dust-ups. They’ve been reluctant to penalize drivers, but it would not be shocking to see something for the No. 77 crewmen who tackled Blaney to the ground (even though Blaney came up swinging). There’s also precedent for a fine to Gibbs for throwing a water bottle that struck a journalist (who happened to be one of Frontstretch‘s own) on pit road. So while Blaney and Hocevar may escape punishment, the incident may not be completely without consequence.
No matter what happens there, it’s a whole new week as the series heads to Kansas Speedway for Chase race number four. Kansas has proved to be pretty racy with the Next Gen car, putting up some excellent finishes in recent years.
Hamlin’s four wins lead all active drivers, with Larson and Logano hot on his heels with three apiece; however, Larson and Reddick each have two wins in the Next Gen car to lead the field.
Larson’s 5.8 average finish in the Next Gen era leads all drivers, and he’s shown some newfound speed recently. And if you want a dark horse who’s looked good at Kansas in the past, watch Alex Bowman. He’s had better speed than luck as of late, and he has six top 10s in eight Kansas races with an average finish of 10.9
How… did this race stack up?
Bristol delivered a solid race with some drama and a decent finish, thanks to a couple of late cautions.
What worked? The 750-horsepower package did make a difference. Passing was still hard — many passes took several laps to complete — but that worked out OK because drivers raced hard to make those passes. The faster car usually prevailed, but there were a few times when it didn’t stick.
Early tire calls mattered later on because track position could be gained by staying out, and it wasn’t immediately lost to cars on fresher tires, so starting in the back didn’t automatically kill a driver’s chances; just ask Blaney, who started deep in the field.
But let’s talk about those tires. They were the most disappointing part of the package that NASCAR brought because they didn’t wear out much at all. The ideal race tire wears predictably and fairly quickly. Staying out on older tires should be a bigger risk than it was on Saturday. Tires should last less than a full fuel run, certainly not longer than one.
Despite the dud tire, though, it was a decent race. Maybe not quite the Bristol night race of lore, but it was a step in the right direction for the Next Gen on a short track.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
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