NASCAR is planning to have a conversation with Ty Gibbs after he threw a water bottle towards a fight happening on pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Videos by FanBuzz
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will not receive a penalty for lobbing the bottle into the crowd immediately after Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney threw punches, but NASCAR will reiterate that this could put others in danger.
Gibbs stood near his No. 54 Toyota as the fight took place. He then launched a water bottle toward the crowd. It missed Blaney, Hocevar, crew members, and officials. However, the bottle hit a phone held by Frontstretch reporter Michael Massie, knocking it to the pavement.
ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ pic.twitter.com/sgIHntqjPw
— Asteroid (@Asteroid4914) September 20, 2026
"Didn't love that, but no penalty there either," said Mike Forde, NASCAR vice president of racing communications, on the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast.
"We do plan to have a conversation with Ty. I know it's kind of a heat of the moment thing and probably thought it was just kind of a funny thing to just to add to the moment.
"And he probably had some frustrations with the 77 as well. But obviously that could be dangerous if that hit in the wrong place, if the cap portion of that water bottle hit someone in the eye. That could be a dangerous situation."
Gibbs is far from the only NASCAR driver to stand nearby as a fight happened on pit road. Countless examples have occurred in the past. He just happened to be the only one to throw an object.
One example is Denny Hamlin, who stood nearby at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as officials broke up a fight between Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. Logano had his time as a bystander, as he calmly sipped a Coca-Cola as Ross Chastain punched Noah Gragson at Kansas Speedway in 2023.
Welcome 2026 inductee @TyGibbs #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/z0WzYZEKAx
— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) September 23, 2026
One driver who fully embraced his role as a bystander is Sam Mayer. He leaned against his car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2025 as Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez argued. As the camera panned toward him, Mayer pumped his arms in the air.
