NASCAR has confirmed that officials will be having a talk with Ty Gibbs at Kansas this weekend as a result of the infamous fight between Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney at Bristol. Huh?
Gibbs was caught on camera watching the fight with an amused look on his face and tossing a water bottle toward the fracas, which knocked a reporter’s camera out of his hand.
“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 on Tuesday’s edition 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.”
However, Blaney and Hocevar are in the clear this weekend. Despite the ferocity of the altercation, which involved several punches thrown, Forde said NASCAR feels the tension has already been diffused, based on Blaney’s appearance on the “Actions Detrimental” podcast, during which he took part of the blame for the wreck that led to the fight and didn’t have an issue with Hocevar punching him in defense as he approached him.
“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.”
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell had already confirmed that Blaney and Hocevar wouldn’t be penalized and that he’s fine with drivers policing themselves, as long as they don’t use their cars as weapons.
“We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion,” O’Donnell said.
