Author Archives: PressBox

NASCAR plans to meet with Ty Gibbs in Kansas after Friday night’s Bristol race, where he threw a water bottle toward the pit-road crowd during a post-race melee. NASCAR officials said the bottle could have caused serious injury and said it struck a media member, though some social media claims about damage from the incident were not definitively confirmed.

The altercation began after late contact between Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar. Hocevar landed two punches as crew members, officials and others rushed in. Gibbs did not join the fight, but his bottle toss drew attention and sparked discussion about whether he should be fined.

NASCAR said Monday that it had completed its review and would not penalize Blaney, Hocevar or any crew members involved. Vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said NASCAR would not meet with Blaney or Hocevar, and added that Blaney handled the situation well publicly. On the track, Gibbs finished fifth in his M&M’s-themed car honoring Kyle Busch and moved up to fifth in the standings, while Hocevar finished third and Blaney fell to sixth.

Joey Logano’s Bristol night-race win tightened the NASCAR Chase and produced the weekend’s biggest drama, as Ryan Blaney crashed with Carson Hocevar, then fought him on pit road after contact sent Blaney into the wall and wrecked his car. Logano charged from fourth to first on the final restart for his third win of the season and 40th career Cup Series victory, cutting his championship deficit to 16 points.

Kyle Larson added to the title fight by finishing second at Bristol and taking the points lead for the first time this season, moving one point ahead of Denny Hamlin. Hamlin, the regular-season champion and betting favorite after leading a series-high 880 laps and winning four races in the regular season, had started the 10-race Chase 25 points ahead of Blaney after the standings reset. Christopher Bell stayed in the hunt at 17 points back, while all 16 drivers remained in contention after three Chase races.

Blaney fell from second to sixth in the standings after finishing 33rd at Bristol, and he said the Chase may be beyond saving if a driver posts multiple finishes outside the top 30. NASCAR reviewed the Blaney-Hocevar incident and did not expect penalties, with officials set to discuss it at their weekly postrace meeting. The series next headed to Kansas Speedway, where Larson has two wins and three runner-up finishes in Next Gen races, and the next three races were scheduled on intermediate tracks.

Goodyear brought familiar Racing Eagle tire setups to Kansas Speedway for NASCAR’s Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series this weekend, with both series running combinations already used at the track earlier this season. For the Cup Series, teams used the same left-side and right-side tires from the spring race at Kansas, including the right-side tire introduced there last fall. Goodyear NASCAR product manager Rick Heinrich said the tire had created different strategy options, and that teams had more data from recent use at Darlington and Indianapolis in July. It marked the third Cup race at Kansas with that setup and the eighth time Goodyear used it this season.

The Craftsman Truck Series also ran a setup that had previously been used at Texas and Michigan. The truck tire package included inner liners, which Goodyear said are standard at tracks one mile and longer. Kansas was the second race of the Truck Series Chase.

Cup teams had 11 sets of tires for the weekend, while Truck teams had five. The Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 was scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, and the Truck Series Race to Stop Suicide 200 was set for Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.