The Biggest Winners and Losers From the Bristol Night Race

Joey Logano made a massive championship move, Carson Hocevar became the center of NASCAR again and Ryan Blaney watched one late block erase a night of dominance.

Bristol is supposed to create winners and losers.

Saturday night created them in spectacular fashion.

The obvious place to begin is Joey Logano. He won Stage 1, led 93 laps, scored 73 points and walked away with his third victory of the season. More importantly, the No. 22 erased most of what had been a 51-point deficit and now sits third in The Chase, only 16 points behind Kyle Larson.

Larson deserves just as much attention even without the trophy. He started first, finished second and left Bristol as the new championship leader. Larson is now the only driver to finish inside the top five in all three Chase races — fifth at Darlington, first at Gateway and second at Bristol. He leads Denny Hamlin by a single point with seven races remaining.

Carson Hocevar may have gained more attention than either of them.

Hocevar started fifth, led 39 laps and finished third after fighting for the victory late. Then he became one half of the biggest post-race confrontation NASCAR has seen in years. The reaction from Bristol's crowd was unmistakable, and NASCAR reported Sunday that Hocevar's merchandise site responded with a 12-percent discount for 12 hours — conveniently after his fight with the driver of the No. 12.

Here For The Speed has been talking about Hocevar's growing popularity for weeks, and Bristol only strengthened the argument. He has become one of those rare drivers capable of making himself part of the conversation whether he wins or not. Our post-race discussion focused heavily on how naturally he leans into the attention rather than retreating into corporate talking points.

Ty Gibbs also belongs on the positive side even though the result probably feels like a loss.

Gibbs led 120 laps and spent the closing portion fighting for the victory in a Kyle Busch-inspired M&M's Toyota. He got roughed up, survived a three-wide accident and kept putting himself back in position until his older tires finally gave up enough speed. Fifth doesn't tell the full story of how competitive the No. 54 was.

Josh Berry might be the most overlooked winner of the night. Berry started 32nd and finished sixth, gaining 26 positions at a track where passing looked extremely difficult through much of the race. He was the only non-Chase driver inside the top 11.

Then we get to Ryan Blaney.

Nobody lost more.

Blaney led 202 laps, won Stage 2 and appeared capable of giving Team Penske another Bristol victory. Instead, a commitment-line penalty forced him to recover track position before he fought back to second late in the race.

Then came Hocevar.

Blaney moved down to defend the bottom entering Turn 1 on Lap 458. Hocevar was already crossing underneath and didn't lift. Blaney hit the outside wall, his race ended immediately and he finished 33rd.

Instead of leaving Bristol in the middle of the championship battle, Blaney dropped three positions and is now sixth, 52 points behind Larson.

One decision changed his entire night.

Alex Bowman also left with very little to show for a promising race. He started sixth but was eliminated after getting caught in the three-wide incident involving Gibbs and Custer, finishing 35th.

Chase Briscoe suffered another significant championship setback. He finished 27th and continues moving in the wrong direction after entering The Chase as one of the drivers we thought had a realistic chance of climbing into the championship conversation.

Tyler Reddick's slide continued too. He started 20th, struggled immediately, fell off the lead lap during Stage 1 and eventually finished 18th, three laps down. A driver who looked like a serious title contender earlier in the season now sits increasingly far from the leaders.

Chase Elliott didn't have much fun either. He started 27th, spun on his own and finished 23rd, multiple laps behind the leaders.

And then there is Denny Hamlin.

Calling eighth place a losing result feels ridiculous.

But Hamlin came to Bristol with the championship lead and left without it. Larson now leads him by one.

The good news for Hamlin is that he keeps quietly accumulating respectable finishes while other contenders experience disasters. The bad news is that Logano, Bell and Larson are now all sitting within 17 points of one another at the top.

The Chase has gone from looking relatively predictable to being completely open.

Bristol did exactly what Bristol is supposed to do.

Somebody left with a trophy.

Somebody left with a bloody lip.

And several championship contenders left wondering how one Saturday night went wrong so quickly.