NASCAR Cup Series
Talladega Superspeedway
Round of Eight: Race Two
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
October 19, 2025
Hocevar Leads Chevrolet with Top-10 Finish at Talladega Superspeedway
- In an overtime finish, it was Carson Hocevar that led Chevrolet with a sixth-place finish in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway – earning is ninth top-10 result of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
- In his 400th career NASCAR Cup Series start, Kyle Larson was in contention for his first superspeedway win when he fell just short on fuel on the final lap – ultimately resulting in a 26th-place finish. Leaning on a strong points cushion heading into the weekend, the 33-year-old Elk Grove, California, native will enter the Round of Eight elimination race ranked fourth in the playoff standings and 36-points above the cutline as the Team Chevy driver continues his pursuit for his second career championship in NASCAR’s premier series.
- Looking for a playoff upset, Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell topped Saturday’s qualifying session to earn the pole position for today’s 188-lap race. Electing the outside lane to take the green flag, McDowell edged out the field to lead the first lap of the race as a third lane quickly developed. Leading the bottom lane was Kyle Busch, who found the top position by Lap Four as a tight battle ensued among the leaders. In typical speedway fashion, there was a shuffle throughout the top of the leaderboard, but with fellow Team Chevy driver, Shane van Gisbergen, in tow, Busch took over the top position once again by Lap 17. Sitting in lead, Busch was among the group to hit pit road at Lap 45 for a 4.8-second fuel-only stop, but a pit road speeding penalty forced the No. 8 Chevrolet back to pit road for a pass through penalty. Once the first green-flag pit cycle was complete, calamity ensued in the closing laps that ended in a multi-car accident at the front of the pack. Among those collected included Team Chevy playoff contender, Chase Elliott, with the damage ultimately taking the No. 9 team out of contention for the remainder of the race.
- Despite a setback in running position after a late-stage pit road penalty, Kyle Busch quickly found his way back to the front for much of the next 60-lap run – ending Stage Two with a combined 26-laps led (second-most of the race at the conclusion of the stage). Team Chevy playoff drivers, Kyle Larson and William Byron, made their presence known in the second stage – collecting second- and fourth-place points, respectively.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
6th – Carson Hocevar
Chevrolet’s season statistics with 34 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
Wins: 14
Poles: 12
Top-Fives: 61
Top 10s: 136
Stage Wins: 25
UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of Eight will conclude at Martinsville Speedway with the Xfinity 500 on Sunday, October 26, at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 13th
“It’s not often you can leave Talladega in one piece and have a fairly uneventful day so that feels good. We had a pretty good Busch Light Hunting Chevrolet today. It was a little tight when I was trying to follow the car in front of me really close, but overall, it was pretty comfortable to drive. We’ll take 13th place and move on to Martinsville next weekend.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 27th
“We had a fast No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE® (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate) Chevrolet this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, so great effort by everyone at RCR and ECR for all of the preparation leading into the race. We ended up with damage in a Stage 2 wreck and it put us behind. We weren’t able to recover and settled for 27th. It’s a shame but that’s how these speedway races go sometimes.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 26th
You were a little tight on fuel, when did it start sputtering on you?
“It was flashing at me through (turns) one and two. I was just hoping that maybe we could make it, but midway down the back, it started stumbling and I just got out of the way. It’s unfortunate. I’d rather have a bigger points cushion heading into next weekend, but we’ll regroup and focus on Martinsville (Speedway).”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 19th
“We had a fast No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet today at Talladega Superspeedway. We qualified up front, the car drove great and we led laps. I gambled on the top line at the end and it didn’t payoff. We still have two races left in 2025 to get our Richard Childress Racing machine back to victory lane and that remains the focus.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage One.
Finished: 40th
Elliott on the accident that ended the No. 9 Chevrolet team’s day in Stage One:
“I saw someone get turned sideways. I was trying to get slowed up like normal. I ended up getting turned sideways into some other cars, and then they slid back into me. I’m not really sure… I hate it. I felt like we had ourselves in a good spot before the pit cycle. I didn’t feel like we executed the cycle very well and that put us back in the back again. I’m not sure if that would have helped us miss the wreck or not. Obviously, all of that is very circumstantial, but nonetheless, it is what it is. I can’t change it now, so we’re just all eyes on Martinsville (Speedway) and we’ll try to go there and get a win.”
Did you feel the energy coming at the end of the stage, or did it just come out of nowhere?
“The energy was definitely picking up. Pretty much everything after the pit cycle was getting pretty crazy, so I wasn’t super surprised by it. Maybe I should have got out… I wasn’t going to get any points where I was out. We were right on that cusp of if your lane really goes forward and catches the back part of the top-10, but it probably wasn’t worth the risk at the end of the day. It was really wild from the get-go. Even when we were saving fuel, we were running four-wide and getting a lot of confidence up.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage One.
Finished: 37th
What was the view from your seat?
“I feel alright, it just knocked the air out of me. As I stopped, it felt like the car was catching on fire, so I got out and tried to get my breath back. I feel OK now, probably just going to be sore from a hard hit for the whole body.
I am proud of this No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team. We got it up front there. You get to the front and hope that maybe you’ll run to the end of the stage. I think we were leading there. Joey (Logano) was doing a really good job of pushing me in the right areas. I felt like we could kind of direct both lines. Obviously, Noah (Gragson) was next to me, and it looked like Noah got turned getting into the corner and it turned me straight into the fence. It’s disappointing, but it’s part of this racing. At least we were up front a little bit there. You always expect the worst here (at Talladega Superspeedway) and hope for the best, but today we got the worst.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 25th
“Certainly, a finish would have helped us be a little bit closer on the points side of things. We just lost control of the race. We just couldn’t get the pushes going the way we needed to on the bottom lane. We got the outside lane clear down in front of us, and then the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) ran out of fuel there on the backstretch and that kind of broke up the energy a little bit more. We just couldn’t get it linked back together. It was just wrong place, wrong time. I felt like we were in a good spot where I was on the bottom, but we just couldn’t get linked up.”
Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 22nd
“We had our United Rentals Chevrolet in position for the win in the closing laps, being the second car in the outside lane. The No. 17 must have got tight and went wide into the corner, but we were connected and I was pushing like heck. By the time I looked in the mirror, the No. 77 was already inside. It sucks because we were going to have a shot at it. On the overtime restart, we couldn’t make ground up. I’m proud of everyone on this No. 33 team, everyone at RCR and ECR though. We made improvements in our five Cup Series starts together this season and proved that we can race well on Sundays. Really grateful to Richard Childress for the opportunity.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage One.
Finished: 38th
Stenhouse Jr. on the accident that ended the No. 47 Chevrolet team’s day early in Stage One:
“I didn’t see anything but the No. 4 (Noah Gragson), unfortunately. We were leading that top lane. I felt like I did everything I needed for our team there; got off pit road really well and saved a lot of fuel. We were battling for a top-10 coming to the stage end. Maybe the No. 43 (Erik Jones), for some reason, pushed the No. 4 in the corner. I felt like it was a little early for that. I think up to that point, everyone was racing hard, but weren’t putting anybody in bad spots. It just looked like he got him on the right-rear side of the bumper and spun him there.”
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