Carson Hocevar elevated his racing status to new heights and became a first-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner after winning the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 26.
The 23-year-old Hocevar from Portage, Michigan, led eight times for 19 of 188 scheduled laps. He took the green flag from 12th place and managed through the event’s first stage period, spanning 98 laps, with fuel management being the primary conversation at the start.
Despite securing no stage points throughout the event’s first two stage periods, he survived a 26-car pileup in the early stages of the second stage period. He then cycled his way up into the top-three mark when the final stage period commenced with 38 laps remaining. After leading for the first time with 37 laps remaining, he spent the remainder of the event dueling against Chris Buescher and managing the draft in front of a stacked field of 20 competitors.
After bumping and sending Erik Jones for a spin to draw a late-race caution with seven laps remaining, Hocevar continued to duel against Buescher for the lead during a three-lap shootout. Then on the final lap, Hocevar capitalized on a strong push from Alex Bowman to storm ahead of Buescher through the frontstretch’s tri-oval and beat Buescher to achieve his first-ever victory in his 91st start in the Cup Series division.
The event’s starting lineup was determined by a qualifying metric formula after rain canceled the qualifying session on Saturday, April 25. Tyler Reddick, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Kansas Speedway and the series’ points leader, was awarded the pole position, and he shared the front row with Kyle Larson.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Larson rocketed with an early advantage from the inside lane as he then transitioned from the inside to the outside lane from the first two turns and entering the backstretch. Denny Hamlin capitalized on Larson’s move to move into the lead as he was drafted by teammate Chase Briscoe from the inside lane through the backstretch. As the field fanned out three lanes deep within the pack, Hamlin led the first lap.
After Hamlin led the second lap, teammate Briscoe made a move to Hamlin’s right side to challenge him for the lead. Meanwhile, both were racing three lanes deep as Austin Dillon launched a charge from the outside lane towards the outside wall while he was being drafted by Ross Chastain. Briscoe managed to briefly muscle ahead to lead the fourth lap while transitioning from the outside to the middle lane to maintain the drafted momentum, but he was challenged by Austin Dillon towards the outside wall. Amid Dillon’s challenges, Briscoe defensively kept Dillon in front of him as he led the fifth lap mark over teammate Hamlin and Larson.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, all 40 starters were separated by more than two seconds of each other as Chad Finchum stormed his way to the lead over Briscoe, Cody Ware, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon, respectively. Despite being challenged by Briscoe from the middle lane and Ware from the outside lane, Finchum maintained the lead over the next four laps before he motored away from the three-wide action by Lap 15. Finchum proceeded to lead an eight-car breakaway from the pack over the next two laps before he dropped to eighth by Lap 18. Hamlin then reassumed the top spot and led an eight-car breakaway that included teammates Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, Cody Ware, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon, respectively, by Lap 20.
At the Lap 30 mark, a majority of the field raced in single-line formation towards the inside lane while all were managing their navigation within the draft and their fuel mileage throughout the first stage period. With the field separated in three drafting groups, Hamlinm who has led since Lap 18, continued to lead over Briscoe, Gibbs, Nemechek, Ware, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, AJ Allmendinger and Josh Berry, respectively. Behind, Finchum, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Jesse Love, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell trailed in the top 20, respectively, while notables Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, rookie Connor Zilisch, Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick trailed outside of the top-20 mark.
Then on Lap 40, a first wave of green flag pit stops commenced as the leader Hamlin, Briscoe, Gibbs, Nemechek, Cody Ware, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon pitted their respective entries for two fresh tires and fuel. This occurred a lap after Ty Dillon pitted all by himself.
Shortly after, Hamlin was forced to drive through pit road a second time after he was penalized for speeding while entering pit road. Teammate Briscoe was also penalized for a safety violation after he slid through his pit box and hit his tire carrier. Amid the early pit scrambles, Ryan Preece cycled to the lead as he led teammate/owner Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland, respectively.
On Lap 44, another wave of competitors, primarily Chevrolet drivers, led by Ross Chastain, pitted for service under green. The lead group, primarily Ford competitors led by Preeece, pitted on Lap 47. But as this wave entered pit road, Cindric missed his pit stall and was forced to cycle around the track for another lap before returning to pit road. Another small pack of competitors that included Tyler Reddick pitted during the next lap. Riley Herbst and Chad Finchum were both penalized for speeding on pit road. Zane Smith was also penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.
Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs, who overtook Chastain through the tri-oval, cycled to the lead. Gibbs, who led the first stage’s halfway mark on Lap 49, proceeded to lead the Lap 50 mark over Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Allmendinger, Chastain, Gilliland, Larson, Logano, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney, respectively, while the top-30 competitors were separated by within two seconds.
At the Lap 60 mark, the top-21 competitors were separated by less than two seconds while the top 30 were separated by two seconds. The competitor who was leading was Ty Gibbs, who has led since Lap 49, as he led over Michael McDowell, Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Cody Ware, Allmendinger, Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch and Christopher Bell, respectively. By then, Hamlin and Briscoe, both of whom were mired in 36th and 37th, respectively, lined up in front of teammate Gibbs in the draft to remain on the lead lap category. In addition, Austin Cindric, who had to cycle around the track a second time to pit after he initially missed his pit stall, trailed the lead by more than 32 seconds in 35th place.
Over the next seven laps, Gibbs multi-tasked as he maintained the lead over the field while also keeping teammates Hamlin and Briscoe in front of him as the latter two were trying to remain on the lead lap. Gibbs along with Hamlin, Allmendinger and Nemechek would then peel off the track to pit for a second time by Lap 68, which allowed Austin Dillon to cycle to lead in front of the pack. A wave of Chevrolet competitors led by the leader Dillon pitted under green on Lap 69 as Bell cycled to the lead.
Bell, who opted to keep teammate Briscoe racing in front of him in the draft as Briscoe was trying to remain on the lead lap, led through Lap 82 before he was forced to shove Briscoe out of the draft and pin the latter a lap down. Bell then picked up teammates Gibbs and Hamlin in the draft, with Gibbs trying to remain on the lead lap while Hamlin was trying to avoid losing a second lap to the leaders. With Bell leading, Byron was racing in second place while van Gisbergen, Bowman Erik Jones, Preece, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano and Keselowski were scored in the top 10, respectively.
The top-five competitors, that were racing more than eight seconds ahead of sixth-place Preece, pitted by Lap 88, which included Bell, Byron, van Gisbergen, Bowman and Erik Jones while Chase Elliott also pitted with the group. Their moves allowed Preece to cycle to the lead and he proceeded to lead at the event’s halfway mark on Lap 94 while Ford teammates Buescher, Logano, Keselowski, Josh Berry, Blaney and Noah Gragson trailed in the top seven, respectively.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 98, Preece, who led since Lap 88 and was initially concerned about not having enough fuel to reach the first stage’s conclusion, fended off late challenges from teammates Keselowski and Buescher along with Logano to capture his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Keselowski, Logano, Buescher, Blaney, Berry, Reddick, Gragson, Gilliland and Chastain were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event featured 17 lead changes for 10 different leaders while 30 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap, not including Briscoe, Cindric and Hamlin.
Under the event’s first stage break period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Preece pitted for service while the rest that included Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Carson Hocevar, Bowman, Larson and Reddick, the latter of whom pitted for fuel a lap after the first stage period concluded, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Wallace, who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion but elected to pit for fuel with the field, exited pit road first ahead of Chastain, Logano, Cole Custer, Blaney, Keselowski, Todd Gilliland, Preece, Buescher and Bell. Hocevar, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse and Reddick pitted as the break progressed, which allowed Wallace to cycle to the overall lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 104 as Wallace and Chastain occupied the front row over Custer, Logano, Preece and Blaney. At the start, Wallace and Chastain dueled for the lead through the first two turns before the outside lane led by Wallace gained a brief advantage. Despite being drafted by Logano, Wallace was drawn in a side-by-side battle with Chastain entering Turns 3 and 4 as Chastain barely led the next lap over Wallace. As the field fanned out three lanes deep, Wallace, who got loose while being drafted by Logano through Turns 3 and 4, managed to lead Lap 106 and Chastain reassumed command over the next four laps before Logano was then drafted to the lead by teammate Blaney.
Then on Lap 114, the caution flew when Wallace, who was leading amid a stack-up as the bumping and intensity towards the front escalated, was bumped by Chastain exiting the backstretch. The bump caused Wallace to lose control as he spun in front of Custer and wrecked against the outside wall entering Turn 3. It also ignited a pileup that involved nearly the entire field, 26 competitors in total, while Preece, Buescher, Chastain and Bell were among select flew who barely escaped the carnage with no contact involved. The carnage was enough to draw the event in a red flag period for nine minutes and 58 seconds. When the red flag lifted and the field led by Preece proceeded under a cautious pace, some led by Preece pitted for service while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 121 featured Bell and Chastain dueling for the lead in front of a lead lap field of 20 competitors for a full lap. Chastain, who was being drafted by Gilliland on the inside lane, led the next lap while Bell, who was being drafted by Buescher from the outside lane, fought back in a side-by-side duel. Chastain then muscled ahead and went in defensive model by blocking both Gilliland and Bell from the inside and outside lanes during the next lap.
On Lap 123, the caution returned when Gibbs, who was trying to continue after being involved in the Big One earlier, blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the Turns 3 and 4 outside wall as he also collected Michael McDowell in the process. Compared to his earlier involvement in the Big One, Gibbs’ latest incident eliminated from further contention.
As the event restarted on Lap 129, Chastain received a strong push from Gilliland to motor ahead from the inside lane through the first two turns. Chastain then quickly went on defensive mode as he transitioned from the inside to outside lane to stall Bell’s forwarding progress through the backstretch. Amid Bell’s charge through the tri-oval, both he and Chastain dueled for the lead during the next lap as Bell was being pushed by Stenhouse while Chastain was being drafted by Buescher. The top-18 competitors would run within eight-tenths of a second to one another as both Bell and Chastain continued to duel and swap the lead by Lap 135.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 143, Chastain, who overtook Bell, edged Bell by 0.034 seconds to claim his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Bell, Buescher, Stenhouse, Gilliland, Preece, Cody Ware, Bowman, Elliott and Zane Smith were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event featured 33 lead changes for 14 different leaders while 20 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Chastain returned to pit road for service while Gragson remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, van Gisbergen was penalized for speeding on pit road. Once Gragson pitted, Buescher, who exited pit road first, cycled to the lead. Meanwhile, Cindric was awarded the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap after he was the first competitor scored a lap down when the second stage period concluded.
With 38 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Buescher and Bowman occupied the front row in front of Hocevar, Stenhouse, Erik Jones and Cody Ware. At the start, Buescher launched ahead from the outside lane and he maintained the lead through the first two turns while Hocevar came storming behind Buescher. The outside lane led by Buescher maintained the top momentum through the backstretch before Buescher blocked Hocevar entering Turn 3. Hocevar then darted alongside Buesche’rs right side and dueled with Buescher while being drafted by Erik Jones during the next lap.
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, the top-20 competitors were separated by nine-tenths of a second as both Buescher and Hocevar dueled in front of two-stacked lanes through every turn and straightaway. While Hocevar had the advantageous lane from the outside as he was being drafted by Erik Jones, Buescher kept within reach from the inside lane as he was being drafted by Bowman and Stenhouse. By then, Elliott, Preece, Ware and Austin Dillon were scored in the top 10 while Zane Smith, Gilliland, Chastain, Nemechek, Bell, Suarez, Reddick, Cindric, Kyle Busch, van Gisbergen, Allmendinger and Gragson were all within reach and on the lead lap category.
With 28 laps remaining, the caution returned due to debris on the track. The debris was a right-front tire carcass that came off of Reddick’s entry after Reddick, who was racing within the mid-pack region, went up the track and hit the outside wall in Turn 2 after he blew a right-front tire. At the moment of caution, Buescher was ruled the leader over Hocevar while Bowman, Erik Jones and Stenhouse were scored in the top five, respectively.
The next restart with 22 laps remaining featured Hocevar outdueling Buescher and muscling ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch. When the field cycled back to the ti-oval, Buescher came storming back from the outside lane and he led the next lap while he was being drafted by Erik Jones. While dueling with Buescher, Hocevar was being pushed from Chevrolet teammates Bowman and Austin Dillon from the inside lane, though Buescher led with 20 laps remaining.
Over the next three laps, Buescher went on defensive mode and transitioned from the outside to the inside lane through every turn and straightaway to keep Hocevar tucked in behind him through the draft. Hocevar then drew alongside Buescher’s right side with 17 laps remaining and both dueled in front of two-stacked lanes for the next lap. With the top-20 competitors separated by seven-tenths of a second, Hocevar was barely ahead over Buescher as the event reached its final 15-lap mark.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Buescher and Hocevar remained dead even for the lead in front of Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Elliott, Bowman and the stacked field of 20 competitors. Buescher and Hocevar continued to both duel and swap the lead over the next two laps in front of the field racing two lanes deep. Shortly after, Erik Jones, who was racing in third place, was bumped on the right side by Hocevar and sent for a spin towards the infield and the pit road entrance. The caution then flew during the next lap after Jones got his damaged entry stuck in the tri-oval’s grass. At the moment of caution, Buescher was ruled the leader over Hocevar while Stenhouse, Bowman and Austin Dillon were racing in the top five.
With three laps remaining, the event restarted as Hocevar and Buescher dueled in front of Bowman, Stenhouse and the field through the first two turns. With the field stacked up in two-line formation through the backstretch, Hocevar appeared to have an early advantage from the inside lane through the first two turns, but Buescher stormed back with the advantage and with drafting help from Stenhouse through the backstretch. Hocevar, however, fought back and drew alongside Buescher as Hocevar led the next lap. The latter two continued to duel dead even before Hocevar motored ahead with a strong push by Bowman entering Turn 3.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hocevar and Buescher, the latter of whom started the final lap after receiving a strong push by Stenhouse through the frontstretch’s tri-oval, remained dead even for the lead in front of a field of 20 competitors. As both continued to duel through the first two turns, Buescher started to motor ahead with a strong push by Stenhouse and Elliott through the backstretch, but Hocevar drew back alongside Buescher with a push by Bowman.
Then as the field approached the frontstretch’s tri-oval, a multi-car wreck ignited when Preece, who was battling for a top-five spot, got bumped by van Gisbergen as both wrecked along with Bell and Austin Dillon towards the outside wall. Meanwhile, Buescher briefly got loose while being pushed from Stenhouse. This allowed Hocevar to motor his No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead with drafting help from Bowman. With Buescher unable to regain his momentum, Hocevar proceeded to claim the checkered flag for his first career victory by 0.114 seconds.
With the victory, Hocevar, who sat on the driver’s side while piloting his entry during a victory lap celebration in front of the fans and did a nosed burnout on the frontstretch, became the 208th competitor overall to win the Cup Series division , the second first-time winner of the 2026 season and the 13th competitor to achieve a first Cup career victory at Talladega. He also recorded the second career victory for Spire Motorsports and the first for crew chief Luke Lambert since the latter won at Phoenix Raceway in March 2017.
Carson Hocevar’s Cup victory capped off a week of first-time winners at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. A day prior, Andy Jankowiak celebrated his first ARCA Menards Series career victory while Corey Day achieved his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career win, both of which also occurred on last-lap passes.
“I feel like every time I’ve ever, just to see the crowd and I really got to hear them, I’ve had to start up for a while and I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it,” Hocevar said on the frontstretch on FOX. He continued, “I would care if it took me 20 minutes or whatever. I was gonna figure out how to do it. It took me a while. I’m out of breath. I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody! I couldn’t have done it in any better way. Hopefully, my grandpa’s watching. My grandma died last year, so I’m so thankful that I can give my grandpa a trophy now. We rode the ‘dente today, that’s for sure.
Hocevar capped off his interview by stating: “I posted on Instagram that I didn’t really care we were gonna win, and we won. I’m just so thankful. I knew we were gonna win. I really did.”
Chris Buescher, who led 22 laps compared to Hocevar’s 19, settled in the runner-up spot for his second top-three result at Talladega and his first top-five result of the 2026 season. Despite ending up one position shy of winning for the first time both of this season and at Talladega after leading the penultimate lap, Buescher was pleased with posting a strong result as his previous highest-finishing result of the 2026 season with sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.
“[I’m] Really proud of everybody,” Buescher said. “That was a fun race all the way there at the end. We had that backboard going. [I] Felt really good where we were at coming off Turn 4 and felt like we were in a spot to take this Kroger/Jack Link’s Ford Mustang into Victory Lane. Man, it was close. Proud of everybody. It was an awesome day. Solid execution. It was a good race for us,” he emphasized, adding, “It really was. It was clean. I’d say we probably needed [Erik] Jones behind us. He was really strong and was giving us excellent runs. When we lost him, it was a little lonely up there. Excellent job by everybody. I was proud of our group and what we did. We’ve been leading the last three times we’ve been here, I guess, so we’re getting closer.”
Like Buescher, Alex Bowman was also left pleased with posting a strong result at Talladega, with the latter ending up in third place for his first top-five result of the 2026 season. Bowman, who missed four races throughout the entire month of March due to a Vertigo diagnosis, had finished no higher than 18th, which occurred last weekend at Kansas Speedway.
“To be blunt, it just feels good to get out of here without crashing,” Bowman said. “I’m getting old and don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean. I felt like we played the race the best we could with kind of the situations we were given and had a good day on pit road. A good day for us. Excited to turn things around a little bit. Hopefully, we can keep that going next week.”
Chase Elliott and Zane Smith finished in the top five while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in the final running order, respectively. Notably, Denny Hamlin, who cycled back on the lead lap prior to the three-lap shootout, settled in 15th while Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, Austin Dillon and Shane van Gisbergen, all of whom wrecked on the final lap, finished 17th through 20th, respectively.
There were 52 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The event featured six cautions for 30 laps. In addition, 21 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 10th event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick, who finished 14th at Talladega, continues to lead the standings by 110 points over Denny Hamlin, 140 over Ryan Blaney, 144 over Chase Elliott and 162 over Ty Gibbs.
Results:
- Carson Hocevar, 19 laps led
- Chris Buescher, 22 laps led
- Alex Bowman
- Chase Elliott
- Zane Smith
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps led
- Ross Chastain, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Austin Cindric
- Noah Gragson, two laps led
- Kyle Busch
- Todd Gilliland
- Daniel Suarez
- Ty Dillon
- Tyler Reddick, two laps led
- Denny Hamlin, 28 laps led
- AJ Allmendinger
- Christopher Bell, 31 laps led
- Ryan Preece, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Austin Dillon, five laps led
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Cody Ware
- John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
- Erik Jones, one lap down
- Daniel Dye, two laps down
- Riley Herbst, two laps down
- Connor Zilisch, three laps down
- Jesse love, three laps down
- Chad Finchum, six laps down, eight laps led
- Chase Briscoe, eight laps down, three laps led
- Joey Gase, 11 laps down
- Brad Keselowski, 22 laps down, one lap led
- Michael McDowell, 39 laps down
- Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
- Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident, 17 laps led
- William Byron – OUT, Accident
- Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, three laps led
- Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident
- Cole Custer – OUT, Accident,
- Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, three laps led
- Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 3, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
