BRISTOL, TN. | September 19, 2026 – Joey Logano went from fourth to first, passing Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson with six laps to go to pull off a dramatic win in the annual Bristol Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hocevar and Gibbs were battling side-by-side after a restart with nine laps to go and made contact that allowed Larson to close up to their bumpers. With all three cars taking the middle or top lane, it opened up the bottom for Logano, who drove his Mustang by all of them coming off turn four.
It capped a great night for the three-time Cup Series champion as he won the first stage and finished third in the second. Logano scored 73 points on the night, which allowed him to go from sixth to third in the Chase standings and cut his deficit from 51 points to 16 with seven races remaining.
The win is Logano’s third of the season, marking the eighth time in his career he’s won at least three races in one year. It also extends Mustang's hot streak, which has seen Ford drivers win four of the last six and six of the last 10 Cup races.
Josh Berry continued his recent string of strong performances as he finished sixth while Ryan Preece made it three Fords in the top 10 as he ran 10th.
The race also featured an incident between Ford’s Ryan Blaney and Hocevar. Blaney had just passed Hocevar for second with 43 laps to go, but the two cars made contact and resulted in Blaney hitting the wall. That ended his night with a 33rd place finish after winning the second stage and leading a race-high 202 laps. As a result, Blaney is now in sixth place in the Chase standings, 52 points behind Larson, who took over the top spot by one point over Denny Hamlin.
The Chase continues next week at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 27 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM, HBO Max).
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:
1st – Joey Logano
6th – Josh Berry
10th – Ryan Preece
11th – Austin Cindric
13th – Chris Buescher
15th – Brad Keselowski
16th – Noah Gragson
19th – Todd Gilliland
28th – Zane Smith
33rd – Ryan Blaney
37th – Josh Bilicki
FORD DRIVERS IN THE CHASE STANDINGS (7 RACES REMAINING):
3rd – Joey Logano (-16 behind leader Kyle Larson)
6th – Ryan Blaney (-52)
11th – Austin Cindric (-116)
14th – Ryan Preece (-124)
15th – Chris Buescher (-124)
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEWS – HOW DID YOU GET TO VICTORY LANE?
“I love NASCAR racing. This is so much frickin’ fun and to watch to be a part of it is electric. Being here at Bristol. Hearing the fans scream and yell. What else can you want?”
YOU WANTED TO MAKE A STATEMENT, SO HOW MEANINGFUL IS IT TO WIN?
“It’s huge. We’re in the hunt now. We’re right where we need to be. We had a solid run last week and capitalized again with huge points again tonight, so we’re there.”
HAVE THE SEAS EVER PARTED LIKE THAT FOR YOU?
“Come on, Bristol. I hear you down here. That was awesome. We had a good race car. Team Penske put together a great car. We led the first stage there and you know it’s gonna get aggressive there at the end and we were in the right place at the right time.” THE BOOS ARE COMING DOWN. “That’s alright. There are a lot of 22 guys out there, too. For the haters, baby.”
YOU SAID COMING INTO THE WEEKEND THAT YOU JUST HAD TO GET 20 POINTS BACK. YOU ARE NOW 16. DID YOU IMAGINE THIS RUN FROM THE 22 TEAM?
“I did. Our cars have been good and have been getting better. Paul has been doing good. Joe’s been awesome. The pit crew has been good. I’ve got a great team. We’ve got a team that knows how to win championships. I thought there for a minute I was like, ‘OK, I might just finish third or fourth here tonight,’ and then they all kind of worked their way up and I was like, ‘Well, Merry Christmas to me.’ I got a gift there. There’s nothing like the Bristol Night Race. This is just the coolest experience as a race car driver being in front of all you fans down here, hearing everyone scream and cheer – sometimes boo, that’s alright. It’s pretty awesome.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 WABASH Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU SEE THERE?
“We got crashed.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE?
“I don’t know. Understand who was beneath me, I guess. I mean, I protected. I protected pretty early and he just kept coming left and never lifted and crashed me.”
ANOTHER INCIDENT WITH THE 77. ARE YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING TO HIM?
“Yes. Something is gonna happen.”
ARE YOU GOING TO TALK TO HIM TONIGHT?
“Yeah, probably.”
WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? “
I don’t know yet.”
WAS YOUR CAR HAMPERED BY NOT BEING ABLE TO RUN THE OUTSIDE AS GOOD AS THE INSIDE?
“It probably preferred the bottom. The top was kind of a crush and not as good as I wanted to be up there, but we were still making it work, but I never got to finish the race.”
DID YOU FEEL THE CONTACT CAME AS YOU WERE PROTECTING OR AFTER?
“I have no idea. I just felt like he didn’t lift. I left him plenty of room for a lap before that. I didn’t chop him. I didn’t run him into the fence or nothing like I easily could have. I protected the bottom and he just decided he wanted to be there and didn’t lift and wrecked me.”
HAS IT GONE ON TOO LONG?
“Yeah. I haven’t had a problem with him for probably a year and a half, but it’s getting old.”
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT?
“We were committed and then I got told to go back on the racetrack and it was a knee-jerk reaction. I did it and I shouldn’t have done it.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 WURTH Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
ARE YOU SURPRISED ABOUT THE POST-RACE INCIDENT WITH BLANEY AND HOCEVAR?
“I didn’t really see exactly what happened, but I don’t think that’s gonna be the last time that happens.”
IS THAT A LONG TIME COMING?
“Yeah, I would say so. I didn’t really see the accident to see what actually caused it, but it was a long time coming.”
ANOTHER REALLY GOOD RACE FOR YOU GUYS.
“Our car was honestly really strong. We were pretty tight early and took a swing at it and then the car was really strong from there on. I got a little damage coming through the lap traffic. I haven’t looked at it yet. The 42, I was going by him on the outside and the 42 decided to block me, instead of running the bottom like the 10 laps before. I ran into him and got a little nose damage. I don’t know if that hurt it, but, all in all, a good car. I would have loved a top five, but we’ll keep it going next week.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Body Guard by Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“I thought we maximized our day. An untimely caution almost locked us, but P10.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“We kind of hurt our own day, but got saved with staying out there with a long run, but we had a pretty decent Menards Ford Mustang, just not able to capitalize. A lot of those cautions at the end got us cycled around on tires and all that. It’s good to salvage some decent points, but I thought we had a bit more today.”
