Joey Logano wins NASCAR race at Bristol as Carson Hocevar, Ryan Blaney fight afterward

Joey Logano [AP Photo]

Joey Logano won the Cup Series race Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, while the driver he passed for the win stole the show with old-school NASCAR feuding and fisticuffs.

Carson Hocevar, a brash 23-year-old who has earned the ire of veterans with his aggressive driving, traded punches in the pits with Ryan Blaney after they were involved in an incident while racing for second with 41 laps left.

Hocevar stopped his car after finishing third and was greeted by a shove from Blaney.

The 6-foot-4 Hocevar, who stands several inches taller than Blaney, responded with two overhand rights. The first knocked off Blaney’s hat, and the second connected with Blaney’s left cheek.

Blaney fell to the pavement and then scrambled to his feet and out of a crew member’s hold while Hocevar raised his arms and pointed at him. Blaney charged and threw a wild left that knocked off Hocevar’s hat. They then were separated by team members as Blaney continued to yell at Hocevar.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of talking,” Hocevar said. “He just kind of said one thing and then went after me, and I wasn’t going to take it. I got ran into a lot for the win. That was for second, and he wants to come fight. They got an old-school Bristol show here.”

The contact between the drivers started shortly after Blaney took second with an outside pass of Hocevar, who immediately slid his No. 77 Chevrolet down the track. Blaney moved low to block, and Hocevar stayed in the accelerator to knock the No. 12 Ford into a spin that ended in the inside wall.

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

Blaney, who led a race-high 202 laps despite starting 29th, was already frustrated after falling into heavy traffic because of a penalty for a pit lane violation with just over 100 laps remaining. His rally was cut short by the crash that dropped him to sixth in the Chase standings with his second consecutive finish outside the top 30.

In an interview during the race, Blaney said, “I tried to protect the bottom, he crossed and never lifted, and I got crashed.”

When asked which driver was at fault, Blaney said, “I don’t (expletive) know. Each person is going to say they did nothing wrong.”

Kyle Larson finished second to move into the Chase lead by a point over Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell was fourth, followed by Ty Gibbs, who led 120 laps before finishing fifth.

Gibbs and Hocevar exchanged the lead four times in the final 100 laps. Their battle for first after a restart with nine laps remaining opened the door for Logano, who zipped past Hocevar and led the final seven laps.

With his 40th career victory and third this season, Logano became the winningest NASCAR driver for Team Penske and moved into third place in the Chase points standings. MDT/AP