RICK WARE RACING
Jack Link’s 500
Date: April 26, 2026
Event: Jack Link’s 500 (Round 10 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
Format: 188 laps, broken into three stages (98 laps/45 laps/45 laps)
Race Winner: Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Ryan Preece of RFK Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 36th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (35th with 85 points)
RWR Notes:
● Ware earned his third top-25 of the season and his fourth top-25 in 12 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.
● Ware finished seventh in Stage 2 to earn four bonus points.
Race Notes:
● Carson Hocevar won the Jack Link’s 500 to score his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. His margin over second-place Chris Buescher was .114 of a second.
● Hocevar is the 14th driver to score his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega. He joins Richard Brickhouse (September 1969), Dick Brooks (August 1973), Lennie Pond (August 1978), Ron Bouchard (August 1981), Bobby Hillin Jr. (July 1986), Davey Allison (May 1987), Phil Parsons (May 1988), Ken Schrader (July 1988), Brian Vickers (October 2006), Brad Keselowski (April 2009), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (May 2017) and Bubba Wallace (October 2021).
● This was Chevrolet’s 883rd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its second of the season. Chase Elliott won for the Bowtie Brigade March 29 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
● This was Chevrolet’s series-leading 46th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega. Chevrolet won its first race at Talladega on May 5, 1977 with NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 30 laps.
● Only 21 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Tyler Reddick remains the championship leader after Talladega with a 110-point advantage over second-place Denny Hamlin.
Sound Bites:
“Coming to the checkered flag, they’re all stacking up, and we’re all trying to go for it, trying to make a move. We had a super-fast Super.com Chevrolet all day, and we did a good job keeping her at the front. The cards just didn’t fall in our favor.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Super.com Chevrolet
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 on Sunday, May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
