NASCAR stars Carson Hocevar, Ryan Blaney brawl on pit road after Bristol night race
Joey Logano led the final seven laps Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway after seizing the lead from Carson Hocevar, who overshadowed the winner despite finishing third.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 a few inches taller than Blaney, responded with two overhand rights.The first punch 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 and knocked 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, so 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.”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, Bla...