Carson Hocevar avoids Big One at Talladega, nabs 1st Cup Series win

Carson Hocevar told his fans on Instagram during the week he would win at Talladega Superspeedway.

He finally did his part to perfection on Sunday.

The Spire Motorsport driver recorded his first NASCAR Cup Series win, pulling away from Chris Buescher off the final turn in a three-lap shootout to win the wreck-ridden Jack Link's 500 in Talladega, Ala.

The high-speed, 188-lap drafting race was interrupted by a chaotic accident on Lap 115 in Stage 2 that eliminated many competitors, but the two drivers ran side-by-side until Erik Jones, running third, wrecked with seven laps left.

Hocevar's No. 77 Chevrolet then beat Buescher's No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds for his first Cup win in his 91st start, becoming the 13th driver to notch his first-ever victory at the Alabama track.

As cars wrecked coming to the final flag, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith navigated their way to finish third through fifth, respectively.

Hocevar celebrated by sitting on his Chevy's door, with his body halfway hanging out, and waved to the fans as he slowly drove by the flagstand then pointed the car nose-first against the wall and did a celebratory burnout.

But it took a moment or two to get it right.

"I've had this thought up for a while and I've messed it up every which way not to do it," said Hocevar, who led Chevy to its fifth win in the past nine starts at Talladega and second overall in 2026. "I didn't care if it took me 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure out how to do it."

The 23-year-old Portage, Mich., native took to the social media platform this week and told his fans a win was in store.

"I knew we were going to win, and we did," he said.

In typical Talladega fashion, the 2.66-mile superspeedway produced several different leaders moving back and forth, including Chad Finchum, making his second start in 2026, coming from the back in his No. 66 Ford along with Cody Ware and leading his first NASCAR laps as the race became 10 circuits old.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs led after the field pitted in three different large groups -- a wild session full of mistakes, which featured JGR teammates Denny Hamlin cited for speeding and Chase Briscoe for a safety violation as he roared the pits.

After the varying pit strategies and infractions played out in Stage 1, Ryan Preece's No. 60 took the checkers for the top points as RFK Racing led the charge. Teammates Brad Keselowski and Buescher were second and fourth, respectively, while Joey Logano was third, Ryan Blaney fifth and Josh Berry sixth -- all in Fords.

The Big One, Talladega's massive crash, occurred on Lap 115 in Stage 2 as the front of the pack got together when second-place Ross Chastain turned leader Bubba Wallace to start the season's biggest track mayhem by far.

While the front four cars of Chastain, Preece, Buescher and Christopher Bell all drove away unscathed as bedlam unfolded behind them, 26 cars were sent spinning and sliding in a wreck that forced a red-flag condition of nearly 10 minutes.

In hard two-wide racing to end Stage 2, Chastain held off Bell while Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland rounded out the first five under the checkers.

--Field Level Media