Bass Pro Shops Night Race: Logano steals Bristol win; Blaney, Hocevar fight post-race

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Team Penske’s Joey Logano won at Bristol Motor Speedway for the third time in his NASCAR Cup Series career after being in the right place at the right time during a fierce battle in the closing laps of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.

Logano restarted fourth and was able to capitalize as Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson were all trading paint and positions at the track known as “The Last Great Colosseum.” From there, Logano, who led 93 of 500 laps and won Stage 1, set sail to earn his 40th career victory in the Cup Series.

“I love NASCAR racing,” Logano said. “This is so much frickin’ fun and to watch; to be a part of it is electric. Being here at Bristol. Hearing the fans scream and yell. What else can you want? It’s huge. We’re in the hunt now. We’re right where we need to be. We had a solid run last week and capitalized again with huge points again tonight, so we’re there.”

This was also Logano’s 496th start with Penske, breaking the all-time team record set by Rusty Wallace. In addition to his starts, Logano’s 38th career win with Penske broke the 37-win record also set by Wallace.

Larson, who was on the oldest tires among the leaders, held strong inside the top three through the multiple restarts during the final stage. When Gibbs and Hocevar were using each other up, Larson was able to get by them to finish second, his third consecutive top-five finish to start The Chase.

With his impressive start to the postseason, Larson is now leading the Cup Series standings for the first time in 2026.

“It was just a good fight all around for the No. 5 HendrickCars.Com Chevrolet team,” Larson said. “I don’t think we were a top-five car, but we did a great night executing tonight and that’s what it takes. We didn’t have the best car tonight, but we still came home with a top-two finish. We weren’t too hot there in the second stage, and really the majority of the final stage, but I’m proud of the pit call and the fight we had to hang on there. We got good stage points early, so we’ll take it and try to have more days like today. I’m happy with the effort, and we’ll go to Kansas (Speedway) and continue to go to work.”

Larson’s one-point lead is a result of earning the Xfinity Fastest Lap, where a driver receives one point for setting the fastest lap of a race.

Results from the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway are listed below:

Ryan Blaney & Carson Hocevar Throw Punches

Despite 500 laps of short-track racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, a lot of the action happened post-race when an altercation broke out between 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney and Spire Motorsports star Carson Hocevar.

While battling for second, Blaney and Hocevar made contact that sent Blaney into the wall, ending his race after leading a race-high 202 of 500 laps.

A very frustrated Blaney, who finished 33rd, confronted Hocevar after the race, which led to punches being thrown and landed by both drivers.

Hocevar finished third after a strong race. Despite finishing third, most of the questions post-race were about his altercation.

Before his fight, Blaney was also interviewed and felt frustration about getting wrecked. He also added to the NASCAR Swear Jar.

At this time, there have been no fines or point penalties given out after the post-race altercation.

Honoring Kyle Busch

The 2026 Bass Pro Shops Night Race was the first Bristol Motor Speedway race weekend without a Busch brother in the NASCAR Cup Series field since August 2000. Bristol was one of Kyle Busch’s best race tracks, earning an impressive 23 wins across all three national series at the Tennessee short track. Busch, who passed away in May 2026, was honored in multiple ways.

To start, M&M’s, a long-time sponsor of Busch when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota, made their return to NASCAR for the first time since Busch’s JGR departure in 2022. A special scheme was created for Ty Gibbs, a driver who grew up watching Busch race for his grandfather’s team for 15 years. The scheme on the No. 54 M&M’s Toyota was made up of photos of Busch throughout his racing career and personal life, including wins and photos of him with his wife Samantha, his son Brexton and his daughter Lennix.

Fans in the stands were also given Busch rally towels to wave on Lap 18, out of respect for the driver who won 56 races driving the No. 18 JGR Toyota. In addition to the rally towels, there was a Busch tribute painted on the track.

The Busch family was also in attendance as Samantha gave a pre-race speech to the crowd in Thunder Valley.

Gibbs, who earned his first Cup Series win at Bristol earlier in the season, was one of the favorites (third-best betting odds) to win.

Gibbs led 120 of 500 laps and looked to be the driver who was going to visit Victory Lane before multiple late-race cautions derailed his chances of becoming the first back-to-back winner at Bristol since 2009.

Gibbs finished fifth which was his fourth consecutive top 10 at “The Last Great Colosseum.”

“I don’t know,” Gibbs said. “It just sucks. The M&M’s Camry was a fun time tonight. I just tried to stay up too high in (Turns) 1 and 2, and tried to block the 77 (Carson Hocevar) from getting a run — and the 5 (Kyle Larson) snuck in there and got us all bottled up. Just unfortunate, but we will keep going.”

Other Race Facts

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace was the only driver during the Bass Pro Shops Night Race to spend all 500 laps inside the top 15 running positions. Wallace ultimately finished seventh in his No. 23 OUTLAW LIGHT Toyota.

“Just kind of ran our own race,” Wallace said. “Had a couple of close calls, but for the most part our OUTLAW LIGHT Toyota team did a good job all night. We were seventh to 10th when we come here and we were on the front side of that tonight, so we are making improvements. I really appreciate the work on the short track program. Just wanted more. I started licking my chops there at the end, but just a little bit too far. All in all, pretty good. Excited for the next three weeks, mile-and-a-halves. Toyotas are super strong, and get some separation and get away from the hornets’ nest that I feel like we’ve been in for the last month or so, and get some Toyotas back on top and back in Victory Lane.”

Josh Berry ended up finishing in sixth after starting 32nd. His ninth top-10 finish of the 2026 season is a new career-high for the current Wood Brothers Racing driver and future Legacy Motor Club driver.

Despite an eighth-place finish for Denny Hamlin, he is no longer the NASCAR Cup Series points leader for the first time since Sonoma Raceway in June.

“We just have to get to running a little bit better,” Hamlin said. “Today, I thought early on — in the first stage — I really liked my National Debt Relief Toyota. I thought we had a car that would contend for the win, and then second stage, when we took the stage points in Stage 1 that put us to the back, and once we lost track position, it just wasn’t quite as good. I think the track changed on us as well. Then we got caught by that caution, so that was unfortunate. It is the way it is, but we move on.”

Chase Driver Bristol Results

• Joey Logano (1st)
• Kyle Larson (2nd)
• Carson Hocevar (3rd)
• Christopher Bell (4th)
• Ty Gibbs (5th)
• Bubba Wallace (7th)
• Denny Hamlin (8th)
• William Byron (9th)
• Ryan Preece (10th)
• Austin Cindric (11th)
• Chris Buescher (13th)
• Daniel Suárez (14th)
• Tyler Reddick (18th)
• Chase Elliott (23rd)
• Chase Briscoe (27th)
• Ryan Blaney (33rd)

Chase Standings Post-Bristol

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Denny Hamlin	13.16	5th	8th	N/A	N/A
Tyler Reddick	12.69	8th	18th	N/A	N/A
Christopher Bell	11.21	14th	4th	N/A	N/A
Ty Gibbs	10.57	19th	5th	N/A	N/A
Ryan Blaney	9.51	27th	33rd	N/A	N/A

Week 25 of the GRID Ranking:

*Week 25 of the GRID Ranking will be updated after MotoGP’s Austrian Grand Prix.*

Week 25 of the NASCAR Rating saw Denny Hamlin continue to lead, while Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs’ strong performances helped them.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 27. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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