Hauler Talk: NASCAR will meet with Gibbs but not Blaney, Hocevar after Bristol
Jeff Curry | Getty Images
The review of the Carson Hocevar-Ryan Blaney altercation at Bristol Motor Speedway has concluded with no penalties, but NASCAR still has unfinished business.
NASCAR Cup Series officials will meet with Ty Gibbs after the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing driver hurled a water bottle that struck a media member in the fracas Saturday night.
RELATED: Blaney, Hocevar trade punches on pit road | Everything that happened in Bristol skirmish
"I know it was kind of a heat-of-the-moment thing, and he probably thought it was just kind of a funny thing to add to the moment," NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said Tuesday during the latest episode of the "Hauler Talk" podcast. "He probably had some frustrations with (Hocevar) as well. But obviously that could be dangerous if that hit someone in the wrong place. If the cap portion of that water bottle hit someone in the eye, that could be a dangerous situation. So we plan to have a conversation this weekend in Kansas with Ty Gibbs, but no penalty."
There will be no sit-down this weekend between NASCAR officials, Blaney and Hocevar. Forde said Blaney's appearance on the "Actions Detrimental" podcast helped convince NASCAR executives there was no tension to defuse.
"Several of our folks did listen to it or at least see some of the clips, and there were comments in the debrief meetings that they thought Ryan handled it really well and spoke very eloquently and professionally," Forde said. "We feel he gets it, so talking with him further about what happened, we don't think it's totally necessary."
MORE: Blaney vs. Hocevar had all the earmarks of classic feud
NASCAR announced Monday that there would be no penalties for Blaney or Hocevar, but that the actions of crew members still were being evaluated.
Forde said the review resulted in no punishments Tuesday.
"We looked at it as they were trying to break it up vs. trying to get involved," Forde said. "A lot of these crew members are DI athletes. They're just coming off a football field as recently as last year, and we do not want them to be involved in any crew member to driver contact in any way. If they're trying to break it up in a good way, we'll take that into account. But if they're laying their hands in a violent manner, that's when we're going to step in."