In his 91st start, Carson Hocevar captured the checkered flag for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. It was also Spire Motorsports’ first win as a team since the 2019 season.
Chris Buescher finished second, Alex Bowman third, Chase Elliott fourth, and Zane Smith fifth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson, and Kyle Busch filled out the remainder of the top ten.
After partially climbing from the car, Hocevar proceeded to drive the car down the front stretch while hanging out the window, and even drove it against the outside wall before burning it down — all while still hanging outside the race car. Fans of professional drifting may have seen moves like this before, but this was an exciting first for NASCAR.
“I feel like every time I get to see the crowd, but I never really get to hear them. I’ve had this thought up for a while, and I’ve messed it up every which way to be able to do it,” said Hocevar, clearly emotional. “I don’t care if it took me 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure out how to do it. I’m out of breath. I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream. 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 I can give my grandpa a trophy now. I wish my parents were here. Thanks to Jeff Dickerson (team owner). We rode the ‘Dente today, that’s for sure … I’m just so thankful.”
Hocevar is the 13th different driver to earn their first Cup win at Talladega, and the first since Bubba Wallace did it during the 2021 season. He also completes a trifecta of first-time winners this weekend, following Corey Day in the NASCAR O’Reilly race and Andy Jankowiak in the ARCA race.
Stage 1
Reddick led the race from pole position, and the field immediately went into fuel-save mode due to the extended 98-lap opening stage for this weekend.
The pack fanned out three-wide as the leaders ran at 50% throttle, saving fuel. During this portion of the race, Chad Finchum moved out front and led laps in the Cup Series for the first time of his career.
As the stage progressed, the pace picked up and the pack got very strung out as some attempted a one-stop strategy while others committed to pitting twice.
During the first round of stops, there were several penalties. Notably, Denny Hamlin was caught speeding and Chase Briscoe got hit with a safety violation for striking his own tire carrier. Austin Cindric also missed his pit stall and had to come back around.
While most of the field pitted a second time later in the stage, nine cars attempted to go all the way. It worked out, and Ryan Preece won Stage 1 over Keselowski, Logano, Buescher, Blaney, Berry, Reddick, Gragson, Gilliland, and Chastain.
Allmendinger, running 31st, secured the free pass by passing teammate Ty Dillon in the run to the finish line at the end of the stage.
Stage 2
Wallace, who pitted under green just before the end of Stage 1 by himself, had a quick stop and jumped into the lead. It was a different story for his teammate Reddick, who had to enter a closed pit due to being so light on fuel after one-stopping Stage 1.
Things got aggressive with fuel-saving no longer being a priority, and 17 laps into Stage 2, it all went wrong in a big way.
Wallace was leading the field and moved up to the middle to block. Chastain was surging as he, Blaney, and Logano were all connected. Wallace slid sideways after getting bumped hard from behind, which began a massive crash. At least 25 cars were involved, and the race was halted for cleanup.
Wallace, Logano, Blaney, Custer, Larson, Berry, Byron, and Keselowski were among those unable to continue.
The next run didn’t last long, as an already damaged Ty Gibbs blew a tire and slammed the wall, taking Michael McDowell with him.
The rest of the stage was a draft battle between the duo of Bell/Stenhouse and Chastain/Buescher. Chastain went on to win Stage 2, beating Bell, Buescher, Stenhouse, Gilliland, Preece, Ware, Bowman, Elliott, and Smith.
Stage 3
Buescher took the lead on pit road, and led the way at the restart with Bowman alongside.
On the restart, Buescher got to the bottom while Hocevar led the outside lane, and they remained like that for some time.
The next caution flew for debris from Reddick, who blew a tire in the middle of the pack.
It was Hocevar vs. Buescher at the front, and it continued that way until Hocevar slid down into Jones after a bad bump, sending the No. 43 and triggering a yellow.
On the ensuing restart, Hocevar and Buescher continued to battle for control of the race, and it was basically a shoving match for the final three laps with Hocevar prevailing.
Behind them, Ryan Preece, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, and Christopher Bell all crashed while battling inside the top ten.
Watch: Order up! Hocevar serves his first Cup win at Talladega
Talladega Cup results
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