Jack Link’s 500: Carson Hocevar earns first Cup Series win at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar successfully rode the ‘Dente to Victory Lane in the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, marking his first career win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The 23-year-old driver from Portage, Michigan, had his dreams finally come true as he spent the majority of the final stage battling for the lead. After 91 career starts in the Cup Series, Hocevar is now officially a winner at the premier level of stock car racing.

“Yeah, I feel like every time I’ve ever just seen the crowd, I never really got to hear them,” Hocevar said about his victory celebration. “I had this thought up for a while. I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I didn’t care if it took 20 minutes or whatever; I was going to figure out how to do it. It took a while. I’m out of breath.

“I am just so thankful. This is the biggest dream I have ever thought of. Thank you to everybody at Spire Motorsports, Jeff Dickerson and Chevrolet. I couldn’t have done it a better way. Hopefully my grandpa’s watching. My grandma passed away 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. I mean just unbelievable… it’s a dream.”

RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Kroger/Jack Link’s Ford had another impressive day at Talladega. Buescher traded the lead with Hocevar back and forth between Laps 148-188, with those two being the only drivers to lead in that span. The RFK driver ultimately settled for a second-place finish.

“We were pretty good,” Buescher said. “To have the day like we had today here and be in the hunt every stage and there at the end, I can’t thank everybody enough at Kroger and Jack Link’s and being here for their entitlement sponsor. This was a big race for us and we just couldn’t quite get this Mustang into Victory Lane. We came off Turn 4 and I felt really good about where we were at and the run that we were gonna be able to build. Stenhouse went to make a race-winning move and if we would have got clear of the 77, he would have gone for it and it may have been our drag race to the end. I don’t know, but it was a good race. It was good, strong racing all the way there to the end.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman was the driver behind Hocevar for the final laps of the Jack Link’s 500. The driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, who had missed a month due to vertigo, seemed relieved to get a good result in Alabama without incident.

“Just happy that we survived,” Bowman said. “I don’t have many big hits left in me, so coming home with a solid finish was nice. We found ourselves in a good spot and did what we could there at the end. Congratulations to Carson (Hocevar, race winner) and the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team. It’s cool to get the win for Team Chevy and the Hendrick Engine Shop. We did all we could, and glad we could push hard to get a Chevrolet into Victory Lane. It was a solid weekend and we’re looking forward to building off it.”

Results from the 2026 Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

One of the largest cautions in NASCAR Cup Series history happened on Lap 115, when a push gone wrong ended with 26 cars being involved. A chain reaction caused Ross Chastain to get into the rear of Bubba Wallace, who then spun into the outside wall on the backstretch as the field piled in.

Most drivers complained about the cars and how the noses and rear ends make it difficult to push and maintain the draft without wrecking.

Chris Buescher’s second-place finish was his 36th consecutive top-30 finish, which is the equivalent of a full Cup Series season. Buescher now joins Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano as the only active drivers to have ever accomplished that in their careers, according to statistician Daniel Céspedes.

The Jack Link’s 500 had 16 different drivers lead at least one lap, with one of those drivers being Garage 66’s Chad Finchum. Before this race, Garage 66 had only led two laps in the Cup Series. Finchum, who had never led a single lap in his career, led eight laps at Talladega.

Seven full-time drivers earned their best finish of the 2026 Cup Series season during this race, according to NASCAR Insights: Carson Hocevar (first), Chris Buescher (second), Alex Bowman (third), Zane Smith (sixth), Noah Gragson (ninth), Kyle Busch (10th) and Ty Dillon (13th).

Busch’s top-10 finish was also the first for Richard Childress Racing this year in the Cup Series.

Hocevar’s first win came just weeks apart after Ty Gibbs earned his first career Cup Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. According to statistician Daniel Céspedes, those two drivers are the fourth pair to earn their first wins within two weeks of each other since 2019. The most recent include:

• Chase Briscoe and Ross Chastain (2022)
• Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell (2021)
• Alex Bowman and Justin Haley (2019)

The Cup Series (Hocevar), O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (Corey Day) and ARCA Menards Series (Andy Jankowiak) all earned their first career race wins at Talladega this weekend.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Tyler Reddick	23.19	1st	14th	20.87	2nd
Ty Gibbs	13.32	11th	34th	11.99	14th
Chase Elliott	10.69	24th	4th	11.40	17th
Ryan Blaney	11.68	17th	37th	10.51	21st
Denny Hamlin	11.18	19th	15th	10.06	22nd

Week 4 of the GRID Ranking:

Week 4 of the GRID Ranking saw Tyler Reddick lose the lead to MotoGP rider Marco Bezzecchi. In the NASCAR Rating, Chase Elliott jumped two spots ahead of Denny Hamlin (fifth) and Ryan Blaney (fourth), with Ty Gibbs (second) and Tyler Reddick (first) remaining as the top two.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 Presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 3. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

 

GRID Network