Tempers “Flair,” On Saturday Night at Bristol

The third race of the 2026 NASCAR Chase for the Cup brought all three series to the high concrete banks of The Last Great Colosseum — the venerated Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.

This track has been the poster child for unpredictability when it comes to what to expect on race day. For lack of better adjectives for it, the track is downright bipolar. When the weather is hot, the surface is sticky, making it difficult to pass as the cars ride the preferred groove at the bottom. When the temps are cold or at least mild, the concrete behaves like an abrasive ice rink, wearing tires, but allowing the drivers to be able to push their equipment however hard they feel they can get away with. In either scenario, the only guarantee is that like most short track racing in the era of the NextGen chassis, there will be a ton of long green flag runs.

To counter Bristol’s unpredictable nature, NASCAR and Goodyear have worked on developing changes to the short track package and the tire compound to try and create the ideal conditions for the best and most entertaining on-track product for the fans. But truthfully, no amount of engineering, testing, or setup work can prepare for the conditions when the pressure is at its highest in the middle of the race.

Practice and qualifying were nixed due to rain, meaning the field would be set mathematically by NASCAR’s metric based on the previous week’s results. That gave Kyle Larson the pole with Joey Logano starting in second position. Those two would combine to lead the entirety of the opening stage.

The first 40 laps of stage one look like a parade. Drivers were riding the bottom line, not making moves. But all that changed after NASCAR called a competition caution at lap 41. When the green flag went back in the air, Joey Logano took the lead, which he carried the rest of the way to the stage break, claiming the crucial 10 points even with one “natural” caution at lap 94 when Erik Jones went for a solo spin in turn four.

In summary, the racing was much improved in the second and third green flag runs with more rubber sticking to the surface and more cars trying to run the high line. But, even with more side by side action, the long green flag runs made it to where strategy became important. Ryan Blaney’s team rolled the dice and stayed out during the stage break yellow, meaning he restarted as the leader. It paid off as Blaney dominated the second stanza from flag to flag, although it did not go the full distance. Cody Ware was caught in the middle three wide between Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr at the start/finish line. Hamlin made contact with Ware’s left rear quarter panel, turning him around for a yellow to end the stage prematurely per NASCAR’s new rule.

Blaney would start the third segment as the leader when the green dropped at lap 262. From that point, the race devolved into pure pandemonium. There were six cautions over the final 238 laps — making for a total of 10, which is a far cry from the 18 yellows last week at Worldwide Technology Raceway in St Louis.

In the middle of a green flag cycle, Riley Herbst went for a solo spin after making contact with Zane Smith coming off turn four, prompting a caution that may have just created the story of the night.

Ryan Blaney was coming to pit road when Herbst went around. He had passed the commitment line when he aborted, and was subsequently served a penalty that landed him at the tail end of the field and cycled Carson Hocevar to the lead.

With 69 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs, who restarted second, tried to shoot the gap and go three wide between Alex Bowman and Cole Custer after taking the lead from Hocevar off turn four. Gibbs’ sandwich went awry at the start/finish line as he made contact with Alex Bowman and sent him spinning. At lap 443, William Byron went around at the exit of turn two to bring about another slowdown. But, the biggest one came at lap 457.

Ryan Blaney passed Carson Hocevar for the second position coming off turn four, but apparently Carson took some exception to it as he promptly appeared to retaliate, putting his front bumper to Blaney’s left rear quarter panel. The contact turned Blaney, who already had a DNF last week due to an exploded brake rotor. Hocevar’s actions dealt Ryan a second straight DNF, all but ending his hopes for a championship. Naturally, Blaney was unhappy, leading to the highlight of the night. But first, the story of how the race ended needs to be told.

There were two more solo spins down the stretch that brought out cautions — Chase Elliott, who has also had an absolutely abysmal start to the chase, spun out and ran over some debris in the middle of the front stretch at lap 477. Nine laps later, Aj Allmendinger also went around, setting up an insane restart with nine to go.

Hocevar and Gibbs appeared to be the two that would be battling for the win on the final lap when they made contact that got Carson sideways in the middle of the frontstretch. The slowdown and melee allowed Kyle Larson, who was lurking back in third, to sneak into the picture and make things tight down the backstretch. In that stackup, Joey Logano, who had been methodically keeping himself near the front after winning the first stage, seemingly came out of nowhere, making the pass for the lead at the bottom in turn three.

“Every lap you have to make up your mind whether or not you want to run the top or the bottom. That decision is often driven by what you see in the windshield or the rear view mirror. I saw they {Gibbs and Hocevar} were side by side for the lead. I thought Larson was going to go to the bottom and then he went up, so I decided to do the opposite and go to the bottom hoping they’d wash each other up. That’s what happened. It came full circle from last week where we just got beat at the end and could not do anything about it”, said Logano of the moment.

In the end, Logano, who lost out to Kyle Larson in the closing laps a week ago, took the win, marking his third in the last 10 races. The victory, paired with a great points day last week at WWTR, pulled Joey to within 16 points of new leader Kyle Larson, making Logano a legitimate threat to potentially win the championship — something he would love to do in order to silence his critics that say he could only win titles under the old playoff format.

“We started this thing 70 some odd points behind three weeks ago and we are now teens away”, said Logano. “I am super proud of the team for being able to execute these first three races. It makes up for last week where we led a lot of laps and could not make it happen. This one came full circle. I was in the right place at the right time and drove in underneath them and was able to finish it off. It is funny how racing works sometimes from one week to another.”

“We keep throwing around this average of 40 points that we think it is going to take. It may take more, it may take less. I just want to keep scoring more and get all I can. We can complicate it and say you have to have a goal, but really if you just do your best out there and get as many points as you can, you can see where you stack up. There’s no more ‘you need to be so many points above the cut line’. You just have to keep yourself in the game, and there is a lot of racing still to go from here”, said Logano of his sudden rise through the standings and what they need to do in order to win the championship.

As good/big of a win as it was for Logano, it will be overshadowed by the biggest story to come from the night. After the Southern 500 two weeks ago at Darlington, NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell doubled down on earlier comments he made after assuming the office back in April — stating that he is ok with drivers settling their disputes with each other off the track (AKA physically fighting) so long as crew members don’t get involved. After what went down in the pits postrace between Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar, O’Donnell will likely have to re-evaluate if he still stands by that idea.

Blaney was interviewed after he climbed out of his car, during which he said “Something will happen”. After the cooldown lap, Blaney came over and attempted to throw a punch. Hocevar landed two blows in the fracas before the two were separated. But, that fight will no doubt be all over every form of media possible. NASCAR will also no doubt market it as their best publicity in a long time. Two questions have to be posed now — now that Hocevar has had someone finally come at him over his antics, has he learned his lesson, and is this the last time we will see these two tangle?

Aside from Logano winning, the other Chase drivers finished scattered after a chaotic day. Larson ended up in P2, Hocevar came across third, Christopher Bell was fourth, Ty Gibbs held on for a top five, Bubba Wallace ended up P7, points leader Denny Hamlin came home eighth, William Byron was ninth, and Ryan Preece was scored 10th.

Among those chase drivers outside the top 10, Austin Cindric crossed the line in 11th, Chris Buescher was 13th, Daniel Suárez finished 14th, Tyler Reddick was 18th, Chase Elliott ended up 23rd, Chase Briscoe came home 27th, and by virtue of his DNF Blaney was given 33rd.

With Bristol in the rear view, we say goodbye to the era of “America’s Night Race” being in the NASCAR ‘postseason’. The event returns to its original August date for the 2027 season. But, in more present terms, the Chase rolls on next week at Kansas Speedway with the Hollywood Casino 400. The Green flag is scheduled to drop at 3:00 PM on the USA network.