NASCAR won't penalize Hocevar or Blaney for Bristol fight

NASCAR will not penalize either Carson Hocevar or Ryan Blaney for their post-race altercation on pit road on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“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,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “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.”

The fight on pit road started when Blaney left his hauler to confront Hocevar, who had spun him going into Turn 2 for second position with 43 laps to go. The crash knocked Blaney out of the race, but the Team Penske driver didn’t leave the track and vowed to the media outside the care center that something would happen before the night was over.

Blaney instigated the altercation by coming to pit road where Hoevar was parked and grabbing Hoevar, who then threw the first punches. Although he was initially pulled away from the Spire Motorsports driver, Blaney broke free, ducked underneath some of the people who had joined the ruckus, and got back to Hoevar. The two exchanged more blows before being separated for good.

NASCAR, however, is still reviewing the incident to determine whether it will assess any penalties against the crew members involved. Those would be announced later this week.

The last time NASCAR penalized a Cup Series driver for a fight was in 2024. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fined $75,000 for punching Kyle Busch in the garage at North Wilkesboro Speedway after an on-track incident in the All-Star Race.