Joey Logano zoomed to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway, slipping by a tense Carson Hocevar-Ty Gibbs battle and emerging from late chaos to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: Bristol
Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 93 of the 500 laps on the 0.533-mile track. His third win of the season was his third at Bristol and the 40th of his Cup Series career, but even he was surprised at the outcome.
“I’ve got a great team. We’ve got a team that knows how to win championships,” Logano said. “I thought there for a minute, I was like, OK, I might just finish third or fourth here tonight, but all kind of worked our way up and I was like, well, merry Christmas to me. I got a gift there.”
SHOP: Winner gear
Polesitter Kyle Larson finished second in the third of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, unofficially taking the lead in the Cup Series standings. Hocevar wound up third, with Christopher Bell fourth and Gibbs completing the top five.
Ryan Blaney led a race-high 202 laps in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford but crashed after contact from Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with 43 laps remaining. He finished last among the 16 Chase-eligible drivers in 33rd place, then waited to confront and slug it out with Hocevar in a post-race fight on pit road.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to wreck him,” Hocevar said post-race. “It just looked like to me I got a run and kind of went left and he spun; I spun him. There wasn’t a whole lot of talking. He just kind of said one thing and then went after me, and I wasn’t going to take it.”
The Cup Series’ next race is the Hollywood Casino 400, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Blaney captures Stage 2 honors after Ware caution
Ryan Blaney powered to a Stage 2 win in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series showdown at Bristol Motor Speedway, sealing a Team Penske sweep of the stages in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race (live on USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Blaney has led 119 of the 250 laps in the race’s first half in Penske’s No. 12 Ford, and the stage victory helps his cause in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. A total of 500 laps make up the complete scheduled distance in the third of 10 postseason races.
MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Blaney clinch Stage 2 win
Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was second at the halfway point. Stage 1 winner and Penske teammate Joey Logano placed third at the stage intermission with Josh Berry fourth and defending race winner Christopher Bell completing the top five.
Stage 2 went green all the way until Cody Ware’s spin after a jam-up with Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended the stage with two laps remaining in the scheduled length.
Three Chase contenders fell off the pace through the first half, dropping from the lead lap: Daniel Suárez in 18th, Chase Elliott in 25th and Tyler Reddick two laps down in 28th. The other Chase hopefuls occupied 13 of the top 14 spots at halfway.
Logano holds off Larson, rolls to Stage 1 victory
Joey Logano won the opening stage of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series event, holding off polesitter Kyle Larson and setting the early tone in Bristol Motor Speedway’s annual Bass Pro Shops Night Race (live on USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 81 of the 125 laps in Stage 1, adding 10 points to his total in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Logano, a two-time Bristol winner, went the entire stage without pitting, taking the top spot from Larson in the first pit-stop exchange.
Larson placed second at the end of Stage 1 in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Series points leader Denny Hamlin, making his 750th Cup Series start, was third, with Ross Chastain fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.
Chase contender Tyler Reddick started 20th but faded after the green flag, going one lap down and losing 13 spots before a competition caution period on Lap 40. He ended Stage 1 in 33rd.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Logano win Stage 1
The only other yellow flag in the stage was prompted by Erik Jones’ solo spin on Lap 95, and both cautions set a mix of pit strategies in motion.
Stage 2 is set to end on Lap 250, with 500 making up the complete scheduled distance in the third of 10 postseason races.
This story will be updated.