Joey Logano somehow emerged victorious at Bristol Motor Speedway. As Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar ran each other up the track on the final restart Logano slipped by to take the win.
Logano was met with boos from the crowd, which he acknowledged during his post-race interview.
“Come on, Bristol. I hear you down here. I had a really good race car. Team Penske put together a great car. We were able to win the first stage there, and you know it’s going to get aggressive at the end and right place, right time.”
He later added: “I thought there for a minute, I was like, okay, I might just finish third or fourth here tonight, but it all kind of worked our way up and I was like, well, Merry Christmas to me. I got a gift there.
“There is nothing like the Bristol Night Race, man. This is just the coolest experience as a race car driver, being in front of all you fans down here, hearing everyone screaming, cheering, sometimes booing. That’s all right. It’s pretty awesome.”
Watch: Logano wins Bristol as Larson edges Hocevar for second
Kyle Larson finished second, Carson Hocevar third, Christopher Bell fourth, and Ty Gibbs fifth.
Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, and Ryan Preece filled out the remainder of the top ten.
After the race, Hocevar faced an angry Ryan Blaney on pit road, who had wrecked out of the race after contact from Hocevar in the battle for second. He grabbed Hocevar, who responded with punches and an all-out brawl ensued.
Watch: From on-track to fight, this is what happened between Blaney and Hocevar
Stages 1 & 2
Larson led the way from pole position, and Reddick was struggling mightily as he slipped down to last among the 16 Chase drivers. He even fell a lap down by the Lap 40 competition caution.
The Penske trio stayed out, as did Buescher and Briscoe, while most of the field filed down pit road.
Logano led the race until the first natural yellow, triggered by a spinning Erik Jones.
It was once again a split decision on pitting, with Logano leading the group that stayed out, and Blaney leading the group that came in.
Logano went on to win Stage 1 without making a single stop, followed by Larson, Hamlin, Chastain, Gibbs, Blaney, Cindric, Hocevar, Keselowski, and Wallace.
Logano finally pitted, and he had to restart 15th as 14 cars stayed out ahead of him and Larson.
The second stage looked like it was going to go incident-free, causing a lot of cars to fall a lap down. Blaney had lapped cars all the way inside the top 15 before the next yellow, for a spinning Cody Ware.
Blaney won Stage 2 under caution, followed by Gibbs, Logano, Berry, Bell, Wallace, Hocevar, Byron, Larson, and Buescher.
Stage 3
Most of the decisive action came in the final stage. Blaney held the lead, while Larson crinkled his nose in the pits after running into the back of Byron.
They kept things clean until a round of green-flag pit stops, with most of the field cycling through. Gibbs took control of the race until he pitted with just over 110 laps to go.
However, Blaney ran long, leaving just himself and Hocevar on the lead lap.
Right as Blaney pitted, Riley Herbst wrecked heavily, triggering a caution. Blaney was penalised for a commitment-line violation as he drove back onto the track, which dropped him to ninth after wave-arounds.
Suddenly, Hocevar was leading the race with fresher tires than those around him, and Gibbs behind.
Hocevar held a two-second advantage at one point, but Gibbs quickly ran him down after lapped traffic appeared. But right as Gibbs took the lead, he tried to split the lapped cars of Custer and Bowman, who squeezed him. Bowman crashed and Gibbs suffered some minor damage.
Despite that, Gibbs held the lead. Hocevar tried to keep up, and bobbled while running second. That allowed Blaney to pass him, only for Hocevar to cut back under him. Blaney attempted to block, Hocevar didn’t lift, and the result was Blaney crashing into the outside wall.
That incident led to the post-race brawl between the two drivers, with Hocevar throwing punches during the confrontation.
There were a couple more restarts for single-car incidents in the pack, but the final restart was remarkable. Larson had a chance to take the lead as Gibbs and Hocevar ran up the track in a side-by-side battle.
However, it was Logano who ultimately took advantage, surging into the lead and never looking back.
Bristol was Logano’s 40th career win, and he was stunned at how it all played out. Larson took over the championship lead as well, one point clear of Hamlin. Logano is now third, just 16 points behind.
| 1 | 22 | Ford | 500 | 6 | 73 | ||||
| 2 | 5 | Chevrolet | 500 | 1.248 | 7 | 47 | |||
| 3 | 77 | Chevrolet | 500 | 0.005 | 9 | 41 | |||
| 4 | 20 | Toyota | 500 | 0.241 | 10 | 39 | |||
| 5 | 54 | Toyota | 500 | 0.143 | 8 | 47 | |||
| 6 |
J. Berry Wood Brothers Racing |
21 | Ford | 500 | 0.321 | 9 | 38 | ||
| 7 | 23 | Toyota | 500 | 0.700 | 9 | 36 | |||
| 8 | 11 | Toyota | 500 | 0.328 | 9 | 37 | |||
| 9 | 24 | Chevrolet | 500 | 0.263 | 12 | 31 | |||
| 10 | 60 | Ford | 500 | 0.456 | 11 | 27 | |||
| 11 | 2 | Ford | 500 | 0.144 | 9 | 30 | |||
| 12 | 1 | Chevrolet | 500 | 7.348 | 8 | 32 | |||
| 13 | 17 | Ford | 499 | 1 Lap | 7 | 25 | |||
| 14 | 7 | Chevrolet | 498 | 1 Lap | 9 | 23 | |||
| 15 | 6 | Ford | 498 | 0.408 | 7 | 24 | |||
| 16 | 4 | Ford | 498 | 1.937 | 8 | 21 | |||
| 17 | 3 | Chevrolet | 498 | 0.371 | 9 | 20 | |||
| 18 | 45 | Toyota | 497 | 1 Lap | 7 | 19 | |||
| 19 | 34 | Ford | 497 | 1.188 | 10 | 18 | |||
| 20 | 97 | Chevrolet | 497 | 0.340 | 11 | 17 | |||
| 21 | 71 | Chevrolet | 497 | 0.092 | 9 | 16 | |||
| 22 | 16 | Chevrolet | 497 | 1.143 | 10 | 15 | |||
| 23 | 9 | Chevrolet | 497 | 0.966 | 9 | 14 | |||
| 24 |
C. Zilisch TrackHouse Racing |
88 | Chevrolet | 496 | 1 Lap | 8 | 13 | ||
| 25 | 42 | Toyota | 495 | 1 Lap | 10 | 12 | |||
| 26 | 41 | Chevrolet | 495 | 0.149 | 9 | 11 | |||
| 27 | 19 | Toyota | 494 | 1 Lap | 8 | 10 | Suspension | ||
| 28 | 38 | Ford | 494 | 57.879 | 11 | 9 | |||
| 29 | 33 | Chevrolet | 494 | 0.727 | 14 | ||||
| 30 | 47 | Chevrolet | 490 | 4 Laps | 10 | 7 | |||
| 31 | 51 | Chevrolet | 489 | 1 Lap | 12 | 6 | |||
| 32 | 43 | Toyota | 483 | 6 Laps | 11 | 5 | |||
| 33 | 12 | Ford | 457 | 26 Laps | 7 | 19 | Accident | ||
| 34 | 35 | Toyota | 432 | 25 Laps | 12 | 3 | Suspension | ||
| 35 | 48 | Chevrolet | 428 | 4 Laps | 9 | 2 | Accident | ||
| 36 | 10 | Chevrolet | 402 | 26 Laps | 12 | 1 | |||
| 37 | 66 | Ford | 338 | 64 Laps | 11 | Suspension |
