Joey Logano won in Bristol, and he should have had the spotlight. Instead, the post-race brawl between Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney took over instantly. In the chaos and the debates online, one question popped up. Will NASCAR intervene after this brawl? Well, the debate isn’t just limited to the NASCAR community now, as Roger Penske’s IndyCar driver has chimed in with his opinion.

As comments and videos keep pouring in about the incident, some comments are drawing more traction than others, just like Roger Penske’s IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin. And he feels that NASCAR is going to milk the brawl for marketing but will rule this with an old precedent.

“They’ll replay the fight all week on social, get there social numbers up and then fine them both a tonne at the end of the week and say bad bad boys 😂😂 make it make sense,” the No.3 Penske IndyCar driver wrote on X. 

McLaughlin’s thought is the same one that most of us have after seeing everything that went down between Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar on pit road after the checkered flag at Bristol.

On lap 458, Ty Gibbs was leading the race in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota while Ryan Blaney in his No. 12 Penske Ford was battling Carson Hocevar in the No. 77 Spire Chevrolet for 2nd. Blaney was on the inside line and moved up the track on the entry to the start-finish stretch to block Hocevar, who was dominant on the outside line all night long. And next thing you know, the No. 12 car was sent spinning into the wall.

Blaney moved up across Hocevar, and the Spire No. 77 driver attempted to cut back inside to overtake Blaney and instead nudged the No. 12 Penske’s left rear, sending Blaney into the outside wall for a DNF. 

Hocevar finished the race in 3rd and went down pit road and got out of his car with the warning that Blaney was approaching him. Blaney appeared agitated and raised his hands towards Hocevar, who immediately threw a right hook before both drivers’ crews and NASCAR officials attempted to separate the scuffling drivers. 

There was a lot of back and forth between the two camps. Despite being restrained, Blaney broke free and lunged toward Hocevar, landing a punch until he was swarmed by officials again.

The incident can be seen through the lens of multiple journalists and was even shown live on the broadcast while Joey Logano celebrated his victory. As more of the incident keeps coming to light, NASCAR is currently trending on X, and the organizers themselves have tried to share the footage and make as much content out of it as possible. 

While NASCAR continues to get clicks, the question McLaughlin raises appears even clearer. How will NASCAR react to this fight, and will they penalize the drivers involved in it?

But there is reason for this speculation as to what happens next because, unlike the NFL, NASCAR doesn’t have fixed fines and penalties for such incidents. While there are those calling for a penalty, the likes of incoming full-time 23XI driver, this year’s Brickyard 400 winner, Corey Heim, feel otherwise. 

“Nobody should be fined, ever,” wrote Heim on X. “Unless it’s a cheap shot.” And Hocevar who’s has history with the 23XI Racing driver, seemed to agree with his rival’s take and reposted Heim’s comment. 

There are three ways that NASCAR could go here: either they set a new precedent altogether, or they follow the same course they did for the last two such incidents. Albeit, both those decisions and situations were different. 

The last time NASCAR saw a similar brawl was when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. promised payback after being wrecked out by Kyle Busch during the 2024 All-Star race at North Wilkesboro. Stenhouse waited for Busch and confronted him before throwing punches. Busch was cleared of any escalation by NASCAR, while Stenhouse Jr. was fined $75,000 and multiple members of his crew were suspended. 

Before that, it was Ross Chastain who threw a punch at Noah Gragson in Kansas in 2023. Chastain’s aggressive driving was at the center of discussion in the garage, and in that particular race he drove Gragson into the outside wall. Gragson was agitated by the 29th-place finish and walked straight up to Chastain, holding his race suit while swearing at him. When Gragson refused to let go, Chastain threw a punch before NASCAR officials stepped in. 

That incident went without penalty, with NASCAR citing the emotional aspect of racing as the reason tempers boiled over. In Stenhouse Jr.’s case, it seemed too premeditated because he waited for the Busch for a long time, while Chastain’s didn’t seem like a planned one. 

What happens to Hocevar and Blaney next will be completely dependent on how NASCAR breaks down the incident and the brawl. But it’s clear that after getting the most out of the content, if NASCAR were to fine either driver, the fans would be left dissatisfied.