After Talladega Superspeedway resulted in Carson Hocevar capturing his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory, the field next heads westward for a contest on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Joey Logano is the defending winner. The contest is the 11th points-paying race of the 2026 season.
Corey Heim will participate in his third Cup race of 2026 as driver of the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota. Chad Finchum, who led laps for the first time in his Cup Series career at Talladega, will return as pilot of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Carson Hocevar had just finished the cool-down lap after a crowd-pleasing breakthrough NASCAR Cup Series win, easing off the throttle as the emotions washed over him. “The start/finish line’s all yours,” his jubilant Spire Motorsports No. 77 team told him over the radio, and the 23-year-old Michigander made the most of one of the longest homestretches the sport has.
There’s a distinctive list of the all-time memorable NASCAR victory celebrations, each deserving of its own place in stock-car lore. The Kyle Busch bow. Alan Kulwicki’s Polish victory lap. Carl Edwards’ backflip. What Hocevar had in store stoked the already rabid Talladega Superspeedway throng into a frenzy, reaching instant-classic status and making a strong case for inclusion on that famed list.
Turns out, being the tallest driver in the NASCAR garage has its advantages. After breezing past the main grandstand facing the fans, he decided to get a better look. Hocevar pulled to the apron and positioned his 6-foot-4 frame where he could sit on the edge of the driver door. From there, he was able to remove the steering wheel, drop the clutch, quickly reattach the wheel and reach the throttle, ultimately making a slow pass with his No. 77 Chevrolet along the main straight in full, helmet-off view of the Talladega faithful. The crowd pop was palpable, but here again, Hocevar’s execution — on a day when so many things went right — ended up nearly flawless, all by design.
“I just wanted them to get as loud as possible. I felt like they would if they could see me seeing them,” Hocevar said after making his 91st Cup Series start a triumphant one. “Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I just wanted to make sure I soaked every bit of it in. I think I could tell you what everybody was wearing, where every seat was, where every 77 shirt was. I think I could have pointed it all out to you because I remember it so clearly right now. That means more than anything else to me, just that I know this has been a blur. I could tell you exactly just off Turn 4, it was like, I have it, to right now, I could tell you every second.”
Hocevar relished every moment that followed at Talladega, blocking out both the beer spray and the waning daylight in Victory Lane with wraparound shades and a cowboy hat after a sterling Sunday drive in the Jack Link’s 500. Joining him were country music artist Zac Brown, Miss Alabama and a sponsor-provided Sasquatch, but with plenty of extra company to share in the spoils. Deep rows of fans flanked both sides of the winner’s circle, where virtually every Spire employee who made the trip south participated in the fanfare.
Hocevar had already made a name for himself as a disruptor who quickly and confidently forged his own path into the sport’s top ranks, earning his “Hurricane” nickname. Though some of his peers in the Cup Series field have kept him at arm’s length — especially those who have found the business end of his front bumper — his arrival as the circuit’s newest winner and a budding star earned Talladega’s full embrace.
“It’s pretty odd, right?” said Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson. “To see some of the reactions inside the garage versus the whole grandstand going essentially ape-(expletive) up there, right? So it’s quite the juxtaposition, but that’s our guy, man. That’s our guy. We built the whole place around him now. We’re pot committed.”
The Midwestern kid’s journey to the center of the Talladega universe took him through a familiar career path — a late model prodigy who became a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series upstart. The gobs of natural talent put him on the radar of several team owners, and Dickerson made a major push to snap Hocevar up as his organization grew into its next phase. When full-time driver Corey LaJoie jumped to make a spot start in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet for a suspended Chase Elliott in 2023, Hocevar was promoted to make his Cup Series debut in Spire’s No. 7 Chevy at Worldwide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He won Rookie of the Year the next season under Spire’s watch.
To be sure, that talent needed some refinement, which would come with lessons learned the hard way and much-needed experience. Dickerson was willing to wait through both.
“The hardest part is finding guys that just stand on the gas and aren’t scared of the moment, and once you get to the Cup Series, you look beside you, those are all your heroes,” Dickerson said. “We’ve been saying to Carson all the time, it’s like, you’re in the video game now, right? So there is something about his je ne sais quoi that just lets him not really care what anybody else is saying or thinking and all that. Look, when he was running our [O’Reilly Auto Parts Series] car there and was running in the top five, we’re just like, ‘Who is this guy?’ We put him in the car at Gateway, as you guys remember, and it was right then and there, we’re just like, ‘we’ve got to get this kid in the car.’ I mean, we’ll put up with growing pains, we’ll put up with everything we can, and hopefully it’ll pay off. And I mean, sure as hell today it did.”
Ethan Smith | for NASCAR Digital Media
Fitting for the springtime bloom, NASCAR’s month of April rounds out with a pair of 23-year-old first-time winners, with Hocevar’s moment following Ty Gibbs’ Bristol Motor Speedway breakout two weeks earlier. Hocevar had inched closer to contending in the days since his rookie campaign, with a pair of runner-up finishes in 2025 and a near-miss in this year’s Daytona 500. In the “Great American Race,” he led at the start of the white-flag lap before his No. 77 was rooted out of line, a moment he said he’d replayed a thousand times in his head in the season opener’s wake.
His control of Sunday’s situation — staving off the attacks from a hungry pack behind him — showed some of the poise that Hocevar is starting to incorporate into his craft. For crew chief Luke Lambert, that might be the once-missing piece to becoming a more complete racer.
“Being consistent with higher expectations is a bigger challenge, but what Carson has really done tremendously and made a huge step with this year is beginning to look like a veteran on the race track,” Lambert says. “He’s always looked like an amazing talent. He’s always had amazing car control, and he’s always been super-fast, but now he’s starting to look like a veteran, and when you combine his skill set and his talents with some experience and a mental approach to the race that considers that experience and putting in the work using that experience from the past, it becomes a dangerous combination for your competition.”
As for Hocevar’s no-hands post-race handling of the car that his crew so meticulously prepared for Sunday’s 500-miler, Lambert could only smile and shrug.
“He’s one of a kind, right?” Lambert said. “So I think that it’s fitting for him to have a celebration that we’ve never seen before.”
Hocevar hasn’t lacked for confidence on his rise to Cup Series relevance, and his approach to the late stages of Sunday’s race carried the same self-assurance. The No. 77 radio’s discussion of lane choice for the next-to-last restart had turned thorough. Tyler Green — an 18th-year veteran atop the spotters’ stand — recalled a recent Bristol race when the team opted against a front-row slot, with the goal of protecting their position. This time, Hocevar stopped the conversation short: “Winners choose front row,” he said, and Green knew then that his driver would be on offense.
Funny enough, during the last caution period and with one of the most crucial three-lap runs of his life about to unspool, Hocevar was the one telling Green to keep calm, take a breath — all before finishing things off with his trademark ferocity.
“We always joke: I always tell him to be easier, be smart, and usually he does the opposite, but he knows what he’s doing,” Green said. “He forces the issue a lot, but with his talent level, his 90% is a lot of guys’ 100% or 110%, so some of the things that people think are aggressive are under his control, and he’s able to take advantage of it and have a good time doing it at the same time.”
No one was having a better time of it Sunday than Hocevar, his dozens of Spire colleagues and his newest adoring friends in the Talladega bleachers. Plenty of racing careers have launched into the stratosphere from wins here, but for every springboard, there have been plenty of one-hit wonders who once tamed the biggest track on the circuit, then never won again.
Hocevar seems more likely to fall into the former category. The youngster rocketed to eighth place in the Cup Series standings Sunday, and he’s that much closer to realizing Dickerson’s vision for him as a championship contender in the next couple of years. Make the postseason, maybe catch a wave, and there’s the potential for more noise to be made, Dickerson says.
Sunday, he was left to marvel at the wonder of it all — the performance, the promise and the sight of his young buck half-hanging from his car and stirring the Talladega crowd into joyous, madcap commotion.
“No, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dickerson said. “We’re looking for him because we can’t find him, and then the guy’s out on the track acting like it’s Sea World out here, hanging out the (expletive) door. Man, these first ones. … I’ll remember this one till the day I die. That’s doing it in style. Awesome.”
The biggest and baddest track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule produced another thriller Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, leaving some drivers with excellent days and others with finishes to forget.
While Carson Hocevar scored an exhilarating first-career victory and delivered a celebration to remember, competitors behind him left with varied emotions. Let’s see who is on the upswing and who left feeling down following the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and ahead of Sunday’s Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
What happened: After a poor Kansas Speedway showing placed him near the rear of the field for Talladega, Smith stormed toward the front of the field and was in the hunt late in the running. The end result earned him his first top-five finish of 2026 and first since a third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway last fall. Smith has earned finishes of sixth (Daytona), seventh (EchoPark) and fifth in the three drafting-style races this season, proving his No. 38 team will be a force to be reckoned with when the series returns to EchoPark Speedway for the next drafting race in July.
What’s next: Smith’s numbers at Texas aren’t the most thrilling, with a 22.3 average finish in three starts, but he did earn his best finish there last fall with a 17th-place showing. The 1.5-mile ovals have been hit-or-miss for Smith so far this season, finishing 14th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but 32nd at Kansas.
Brittney King | NASCAR Digital Media
2. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Started: 24th
Finished: 7th
What happened: After weeks of answering questions about how poorly Trackhouse has performed, Chastain finally left the track with a good result to point to. His seventh-place result is his first top-10 finish since EchoPark in February, ending a seven-race stretch of finishes 16th or worse. Speaking of EchoPark, Chastain’s 22 laps led on Sunday are his most in a single race since the spring race at EchoPark … in February 2025. Thanks to winning Stage 2 and earning points in both stages, Chastain’s Talladega performance is a perfect momentum builder.
What’s next: While Texas is plenty different from Talladega, perhaps this top-10 performance at ‘Dega can be the light switch that turns things around for the No. 1 team. Chastain has finished second in two of the last three Texas races, with at least one lap led in three of the last four in Fort Worth.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media
3. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Started: 34th
Finished: 10th
What happened: Finally, Busch erased the goose egg and earned his first top-10 finish of the season Sunday at Talladega. That was the result of a gritty effort by the No. 8 group at RCR, which had to repair a broken right-front toe link after significant contact to the Chevrolet during the “Big One” on Lap 115. Sunday’s race marked Busch’s first Talladega start without leading a lap since the fall of 2020, but his 10th-place finish is his best and first top 10 at the 2.66-mile superspeedway since winning with RCR in the 2023 spring race.
What’s next: The No. 8 team will show up to Texas Motor Speedway with some significant changes. After just 10 races with Jim Pohlman atop the pit box, Andy Street will take over as crew chief for Busch and Co. immediately, RCR announced Monday morning, as Pohlman shifts to a leadership role within the organization’s competition department. Busch’s Texas results have been mixed at best since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022, earning a ninth-place finish in 2024 but finishing 20th or worse with two DNFs in his three other attempts.
David Jensen | Getty Images
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
Started: 6th
Finished: 31st
What happened: Despite entering the weekend with high hopes and optimism, Keselowski left Talladega brokenhearted and empty-handed Sunday afternoon. The six-time Talladega winner was one of 26 drivers collected in the Lap 115 melee but was among the fortunate ones — contrary to what a 31st-place finish says — as he was able to continue after damage repair, taking the checkered flag 22 laps down.
What’s next: Texas has been kind to Keselowski in recent years, 2025’s DNF notwithstanding. Keselowski has two top fives and six top 10s in his last seven Fort Worth appearances, including a runner-up effort in 2024. Still, the 2012 Cup champion is looking for his first Texas triumph after 30 previous starts.
David Jensen | Getty Images
2. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Started: 9th
Finished: 34th
What happened: The lows in NASCAR tend to come quicker than the highs. Gibbs was the latest to learn that lesson Sunday after damage from the “Big One” led to another crash nine laps later when his right-front tire blew from a fender rub. The JGR racer earned his first Cup win just two weeks prior at Bristol and hadn’t finished worse than ninth since February. Alas, his miserable streak on drafting tracks continued after finishing 23rd in the Daytona 500 and crashing out to a 37th-place finish at EchoPark.
What’s next: Thankfully, Gibbs won’t have to worry about another drafting-style track until July. He will head to Texas, hoping his recent run of top 10s on traditional ovals picks up where he left off. In four prior Texas starts, Gibbs has a best finish of 13th with one DNF and five laps led.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
3. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
Started: 4th
Finished: 36th
What happened: If you’re going to wreck out, you’d might as well be leading the race. That was the case for Wallace, who was out front on Lap 115 when an errant shove from Chastain sent his Toyota out of control in front of the field, triggering the biggest multicar crash of the afternoon. His 36th-place result ends a streak of three consecutive top 10s at Talladega and marks his third finish of 34th or worse in the last five races.
What’s next: Wallace has either nailed it at Texas or … hasn’t. His 2023 performance at the 1.5-mile track was easily his best, winning pole position, leading 111 laps and ultimately finishing third, but that’s his only Texas top five in 11 starts. Wallace finished seventh there in 2024 but has otherwise finished 25th or worse in four of his last six Fort Worth showings.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — As a multi-time winner in the Cup Series, Chris Buescher knows the difficulty of going to Victory Lane at NASCAR’s top level.
The No. 17 RFK Racing driver found himself on the losing end of a back-and-forth duel for the win Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, falling short to Carson Hocevar, who scored his maiden triumph at the iconic venue.
Through a twist in the stages, a massive wreck in the second segment and losing his teammates in the closing laps, Buescher wheeled home his fifth career runner-up result — one that he’ll take following a stressful race.
“It was a good, hard race,” Buescher said. “I did have to (force to) make a move to try and win the race. Obviously, it just came a little bit sooner than we needed to take the momentum forward first. That’s racing.”
Near Buescher at the start/finish line was Alex Bowman.
Adversity has plagued the Tucson, Arizona native and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team all season, most notably as Bowman was ousted from the car for four races due to vertigo. But finally, Bowman put one on the board in 2026 with a third-place result and his first top-five run since Richmond Raceway last summer.
“It feels good,” Bowman said. “Things went our way there and obviously called the strategy correctly, and we’re able to stay up front there. Feels good to get a solid finish. It’s been hard just to finish races this year so glad to make that happen and happy for Carson getting his first one there.”
The final 20 laps were a side-by-side showdown of who in the second row could give the stronger push to the lane leader.
Buescher got plenty of help from the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota driven by Erik Jones. However, Jones was sent careening off the track with five laps to go after a body slam from Hocevar off Turn 4 as the No. 77 got squirrelly from a Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shove.
Buescher admitted that losing Jones on the final restart was a deterrent in returning to Victory Lane for the first time since Watkins Glen in 2024.
“Before the last caution, Erik Jones and the 43 was a fantastic pusher, had a ton of speed, and was hooking up really well,” Buescher said. “That was probably our race-winning move was having hm behind us. The 47 (Stenhouse) was strong too, but Jones behind us just kept better momentum up and when he got turned there, it really hurt our chances. Little lonely again up there without our RFK teammates or any friendlies around.”
Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media
While those in the rearview mirror were the difference for Buescher’s fate, what laid in front of Bowman, he said, determined his outcome.
“I think letting guys down in front of me when I restarted there from the front row was really kind of what sealed our fate,” Bowman said. “We needed Carson to get shoved out there and try to move up to block a run and open the bottom up. Other than that, like I was just wide open pushing Carson the best I could trying to give him that run, and also to try to get Chevrolet in Victory Lane and get the Hendrick engine shop a win just try to push like hell and glad it worked out.”
The fear of crashing at a track as fast as Talladega sticks in the back of the head of all competitors behind the wheel at the superspeedway. With the handful of times Bowman has been sidelined due to injury, there’s a greater reward for the 33-year-old veteran aside from the finish.
“The bigger relief for me is not to crash at a place like this,” Bowman said. “I don’t have many big hits left in me and I’m tired of crashing. I don’t think that you can be in the race car actively worried about crashing, but it’s just something you know that is a high possibility when you come to a speedway. You’re probably gonna hit some stuff pretty hard.”
The mental hurdle of getting back in the race car and having the confidence to complete the full mileage of a Cup event is the next step in the big-picture process for Bowman to return to the level he expects.
There’s a long road ahead for Bowman who is just looking to piece together in respectable 2026 campaign as Sunday’s third-place result leaves him still 36th in Cup points after six starts.
“I would say the mental side of these last two months has been tough just with how the season started, how last year ended, and then kind of getting kicked while you’re down,” Bowman said. “So, yeah, it feels good to have a solid run. A win would feel better and hopefully we can grab one of those somewhere along the way this year.”
The “Big One” struck on Lap 115 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
A large, multicar crash was triggered at the front of the field when race leader Bubba Wallace received a strong bump from Ross Chastain at the end of the back straightaway. The shove sent Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota sideways toward the outside SAFER barrier directly in front of Cole Custer. Custer came down the track in avoidance, but the three-wide pack convened together, creating a smoke screen of carnage through Turn 3.
Among the many involved were Connor Zilisch, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez, William Byron, Carson Hocevar, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson. Kyle Busch, Josh Berry and Shane van Gisbergen also received damage in the melee.
“Got wrecked there, unfortunately,” Wallace said after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “Our Xfinity Toyota Camry was a little unstable getting pushed, but manageable. Maybe that hard of a hit was too much, and so unfortunately, we wiped out a bunch of cars. Got to debrief, figure out how to be better. Just kind of riding around, not doing much in the first stage and nothing to show for it at Talladega, unfortunately. This is a place we come to with a lot of confidence, and it is what it is. We will put this one behind us and go on to Texas and have some fun.”
Officially, 26 of the 40 cars were collected in the incident. Another of those was Joey Logano, a three-time Cup Series champion and three-time Talladega winner.
“You have round bumpers and unstable cars and cars that you’re able to pop the (air) bubble real easy and get to each other’s bumper,” Logano said. “But when you get there, you’ve got to be careful because they’re not stable. When you get two basketballs against each other, it’s not gonna push straight. It’s frustrating.”
Larson, the two-time and defending Cup Series champion, had nowhere to go when the accident began.
“They just checked up hard and then, yeah, then I saw smoke and all of it,” Larson said. “So yeah, that was just a big wreck. I mean, I didn’t hit anything too hard. But a lot of cars, it seemed like. Deemed like it started from the front of the field. So yeah, unfortunate.”
The first stage featured multiple fuel-saving strategies, so some drivers began Stage 2 conserving fuel, while others raced all out.
“It was definitely more savings than I anticipated there in that first stage,” Larson said. “But then, yeah, the intensity was just way more in the next one. So yeah, I don’t know where you find the middle ground.”
Tyler Reddick, who earlier Sunday announced a contract extension with 23XI Racing, was also involved in the crash. Reddick won five of the season’s opening nine races, including last week’s race at Kansas Speedway. Despite damage from the crash and an additional impact at Lap 182 after cutting a right-front tire, Reddick and the No. 45 team recovered to finish 15th.
The race was red-flagged at Lap 116 to clear debris from the racing surface. All drivers who were unable to continue were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team repaired its Chevrolet for a 10th-place finish.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Fitting for his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, Carson Hocevar turned in an ultra-original victory celebration sitting on the window ledge of his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet while driving around the massive 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway, soaking up the emotions that will forever define and reward his first victory lap.
The huge crowd loved the unique celebration, and the 23-year-old Michigan native deservedly soaked it all in after earning a 0.114-second victory over RFK Racing veteran Chris Buescher in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at the iconic Talladega track, completing a solid, no-holds-barred three-lap run to the checkered flag for his first trophy in NASCAR’s premier series.
It marks the second time in the last three races a driver earned his first career victory, matching the work of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I’ve had this thought up for a while,” Hocevar said of his winning salute. “And I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. And I don’t care if I took me 20 minutes or whatever I was going to figure out how to do it.
“I’m just so thankful,” he said, the grandstand crowd roaring in approval. “This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it any better way. Hopefully, my grandfather is watching. My grandmother died last year, and I’m just so thankful I can give my grandfather a trophy now. Just unbelievable, I’m just so thankful. I knew we were going to win. I really did.”
Over the three years he’s competed full-time in the Cup Series, Hocevar has taken some criticism for his bold — at times imprudent — driving style. But on Sunday, Hocevar proved his mettle in the big leagues leading 19 of the final 37 laps in the 188-lap classic and holding the field off on three late race restarts.
Said the runner-up Buescher, who also scored his career-best finish at Talladega: “That was a fun race all the way until the end. Man, it was close. … awesome day and it was a good race.”
Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, a two-time Talladega winner, finished fourth in the No. 9 Chevrolet with Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith rallying to an impressive fifth-place finish in the No. 38 Ford, also setting the fastest lap of the race.
Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr., another former Talladega winner, finished sixth, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, Front Row’s Noah Gragson and two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, whose 10th-place showing Sunday was the first top 10 of the season for the venerable Richard Childress Racing team.
There were 16 leaders and 51 lead changes on the day, with JGR’s Christopher Bell leading a race-high 31 laps despite finishing 17th. RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece and Ross Chastain were the race’s two stage winners.
Half the field — literally — was eliminated from legitimate winning contention in a wild 26-car melee in Turn 3 on Lap 115 that included championship leader Tyler Reddick among the two dozen collected. And it all started up front.
Contact between the front cars of leader Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain triggered the chain reaction incident and brought out a 10-minute red flag stoppage. A handful of those involved — including 23XI Racing’s Wallace and fellow past Talladega winners and Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano — were no longer able to continue, but a sizable number of those involved were able to return to the track.
“Got wrecked there, unfortunately,” Wallace offered in an understatement after leading three times on the day. “Our Xfinity Toyota Camry was a little unstable getting pushed, but manageable. Maybe that hard of a hit was too much, so unfortunately, we wiped out a bunch of cars. “Got to debrief, got to be better. Just kind of riding around, not doing much in the first stage — nothing to show for it at Talladega. Unfortunate, it is a place we come to with a lot of confidence, and it is what it is. We will put this one behind us and go on to Texas and have some fun.”
Blaney was equally as frustrated, but like so many of those caught up in the incident, also philosophical about the close-quarter brand of speedway racing that has so often produced NASCAR’s version of the “Big One.”
“I feel like we all just got pinballing off each other there,” Blaney said. “It’s not like there’s any blame on anybody. It’s what this thing is. We see each other. We all just kind of get bumping and banging, and one guy eventually gets turned with the car being as unstable as it is. It definitely stinks to be out early.”
A five-time race winner this season, Reddick was also among those whose cars suffered damage in the massive mid-race incident. Hoping to win his fifth race from pole position this season, instead, the Californian had to recover from damage in both the big accidents and then again after his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota clipped the wall with 27 to go.
He stayed on the lead lap and managed a 14th-place finish in the 40-car field and maintains a commanding lead atop the Cup Series championship standings, 110 points over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin — one of Reddick’s 23XI Racing team owners.
The caution waved for the final time at Lap 182 when Erik Jones spun from third place exiting Turn 4. Contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to Hocevar sent Hocevar left into Jones, whose No. 43 Toyota spun multiple times through pit entry before getting stuck in the infield grass, necessitating the yellow flag.
The Cup Series moves west for its annual stop at Texas Motor Speedway next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Joey Logano is the defending race winner.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Stage 2 recap
Ross Chastain held on to win Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway after a segment dotted by incidents.
Chastain won the frame over Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece, Cody Ware, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith at Lap 143.
Intense racing at the beginning of Stage 2 led to the “Big One” at Lap 115 of Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500.
An errant push from Chastain to then-leader Bubba Wallace sent Wallace’s car sideways in front of the field, creating calamity at the end of the backstretch that collected 26 vehicles. Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Kyle Busch were all among the drivers involved in the first major incident of the event.
A mix of fuel strategies led some drivers to go all out, while others attempted to save fuel to reach the end of Stage 2. Drivers were racing three- and four-wide when chaos ensued, leading to race-car carnage.
The race resumed at Lap 121 with Chastain and Christopher Bell leading the way with 20 cars on the lead lap.
The caution waved for the third time in Sunday’s race at Lap 124 when Gibbs crashed for the second time. His No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota cut a right-front tire due to damage from the multicar crash nine laps earlier exiting Turn 4. His vehicle veered up the race track and into the SAFER barrier in front of Michael McDowell, who also incurred damage in the incident.
Stage 1 recap
Ryan Preece won a hectic Stage 1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Preece crossed the start/finish line ahead of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry, Tyler Reddick, Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and Ross Chastain as Fords collected eight of the top 10 positions in the opening 98-lap stage.
Reddick, who started from the pole position, raced down pit road before it opened under the stage break and was forced to restart from the rear of the field to begin Stage 2. Additional trouble came to Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe as the trio was all trapped one lap down.
The extended first stage resulted in a mixed bag of strategies. The top nine drivers were able to complete the 98-lap stage by making just one pit stop, while the rest of the field pitted at least twice.
The first round of pit stops in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway resulted in multiple penalties for contending drivers.
Denny Hamlin led the first multicar group to pit road on Lap 41 of the 98-lap first stage in the Jack Link’s 500 as eight cars peeled to pit road. However, Hamlin was too fast entering pit road and had to serve a pass-through penalty for his mistake. Chase Briscoe, the series’ most recent Talladega winner and Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, was also penalized for a safety violation during his Lap 41 pit stop for contacting a crewman and sliding through his pit stall. Briscoe fell off the lead lap after serving his pass-through penalty.
The next major group of cars didn’t hit pit road until Lap 45, when multiple Chevrolets led the way, and Lap 47, when a Ford-heavy pack hit pit lane. Team Penske driver Austin Cindric missed his pit stall on Lap 47 and was forced to come back to the pits on the next lap with polesitter Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suárez and Riley Herbst.
Herbst, Chad Finchum and Daniel Dye were all penalized for speeding during their respective trips to pit road. Zane Smith, driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, was penalized for an uncontrolled tire by his pit crew.
Herbst was penalized twice more before the end of Stage 1 — once for speeding on his second trip to pit road at Lap 81 and again at Lap 95 for passing below the yellow line, which is out of bounds at Talladega.
After starting 38th, Finchum stormed to the front of the field to lead his first laps in the Cup Series on Lap 10. His No. 66 Ford took the lead on Lap 10 and paced the field for eight laps before pulling aside to let Denny Hamlin retake the lead, allowing Finchum to save fuel once again.
Reddick, who announced a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing before Sunday’s race, reported a potential power issue before Lap 30 in his No. 45 Toyota. Reddick started on pole after qualifying was rained out Saturday and was running 39th when he radioed his concerns.
NOTE: Post-race inspection concluded without issue in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. The Nos. 8 & 38 cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
Tyler Reddick signed a multiyear extension to remain with 23XI Racing as driver of its No. 45 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series, he announced on the FOX pre-race show ahead of Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Reddick, 30, has driven for the team co-owned by racer Denny Hamlin and basketball superstar Michael Jordan since 2023. Reddick made history to start 2026, becoming the first driver in NASCAR history to win each of the year’s first three races.
Now a Daytona 500 champion, Reddick has won five of the opening nine races of 2026, becoming the fourth driver and first since seven-time champion and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt in 1987 to achieve the feat.
Hamlin was bullish on signing Reddick to the team in 2022, when Reddick was still competing for Richard Childress Racing. Although the original agreement was scheduled to begin in 2024, Reddick began racing for 23XI Racing in 2023 when the organization reached an agreement with RCR to release Reddick from his contract and replace Kurt Busch in the No. 45 car.
“Franchise drivers don’t come around that often,” Hamlin said in 2022. “And so if there’s ever one that you feel like you can grab, you go after it.”
Reddick is a two-time champion in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, winning his first title in 2018 with JR Motorsports before earning his second in 2019 with RCR.
The California native moved into the Cup Series on a full-time basis with RCR in 2020, earning his first win in July 2022 at Road America, nine days before his initial contract announcement with 23XI Racing.
Reddick has won 13 Cup races, with multiple wins in four of the past five seasons, the exception coming in a winless 2025. Reddick also won the 2024 Regular Season Championship and earned his 2,000th lap led in the Cup Series in a March 22 win at Darlington Raceway.
In addition to his Cup success, Reddick also has 10 wins in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition and three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victories.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Tyler Reddick is well aware of “vibe change.” As quickly as race fans cheer on a team’s big success, they often suffer fatigue of it as well. With five wins in the opening nine races of the season, the 23XI Racing driver smiled Saturday when asked about the reception he currently receives.
He’ll start his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota from pole position in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), going for his second Talladega victory.
“It is weird to be in this spot. I will say that,’’ Reddick allowed. “There’s certainly a lot of noise out there, a lot of speculations, but for me, it’s easy to not get caught up in it because we know what we’re doing, we know how we’re doing it, when we’ve been successful with it.
“So, yeah, I feel bad for those that are tired of it,’’ he added, noting what a challenge his winless 2025 season had been for the team.
“We are enjoying it. We want to keep winning and doing the things that we’re doing. Yeah, I don’t feel bad because I remember how I felt all of last year. I know how my team felt about last year, and so we don’t want to go back to not winning, and we’re going to keep working really hard to find ways to get to victory lane.”
“I found out last year, it’s really hard just to win any race, and so for us to put together like we have and start the year strong like, it’s hard to do, but we’re really thankful that it’s happened, and certainly, I think, with how last year went for us at no point are we like, ‘we’re good.’ I think if anything, we’re hungrier now than we were to start the year to just keep after it and keep winning races.”
One of the most dynamic competitors in the sport’s history, however, Busch is currently enduring an unusual 102-race winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series dating back to his last trophy on June 4, 2023, at Gateway (Madison, Ill.). Not only does the statistic continually motivate him, but it has given him an unusual opportunity to set an example of grace and persistence for his children.
The father of two, including up-and-coming racer, 10-year-old son Brexton, knows his kiddos are watching him at work and the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet is showing them how to react and prevail in both the challenging times as well as the victory circle moments. A two-time Talladega winner, he will start Sunday’s race ranked 27th in the championship standings and still looking to earn his first top-10 of the year.
His passion should never be doubted, however. And that ethos, he hopes to pass along.
“It’s frustrating,’’ Busch said of those who would question his effort or dedication. “Because I feel like I’ve done nothing except positive things in the time in which I’ve been at RCR. The last four years, I’ve done nothing but work as hard as I could possibly do. There’s a lot of great people there, and a lot of smart people there as well, in [team owner] Richard [Childress] and Mike [Dillon] and all those guys have given us all the resources and tools to go out there and succeed. It’s just not quite come together with the results of winning.
“The first year it did, but it’s trickled off since then. But there’s nothing that stands out to me other than going there to win races and be competitive. I’m raising a little racer myself. Brexton sees every single weekend. He’s around. He sees me go home and I’m watching SMT film or I’m looking at data or being at team meetings.
“I’m doing all I can on my side to help further develop the team, and it’s for me to show him there’s a lot of work that goes into this. It doesn’t just come easy. You’ve got to pour it in to get the result out of it.
“Yeah, we want to win and be successful. Brexton doesn’t really remember the days of me being out there winning all the time, winning all the races and [him] being thrown up in the air. That was a little before his memory time. Lennox too. I won those three races in ’23, and she was a baby. Trust me, this is my life, our lives and everything we’ve known and now another generation coming in.
Busch won pole position for February’s Daytona 500 and has a pair of victories at Talladega (Spring, 2008 and 2023) — leading laps in 14 of the last 15 races at the big track.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
KESELOWSKI’S DEGA LEGACY
RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski’s six Talladega Superspeedway wins are most among active drivers and second all-time to only the late Dale Earnhardt’s 10-trophy total. But it’s been since 2021 that the 2012 series champ last celebrated in Dega’s Victory Lane. He has had three runner-up showings since, including both 2024 races.
The former champion scored his career-first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega in his track debut in Spring 2009. And, Keselowski fully concedes, he feels a special affinity for the place and enjoys watching historic YouTube videos of the races here.
“When I watch them, I think about how cool it is that I get to race here and get to compete on the same track and the success that you have and get to the same record book as those that were behind you,’’ Keselowski said. “That feels really cool.
“Talladega is a storied track. There’s so much history here. I don’t really necessarily get caught up too much in the pageantry, although I do think it’s cool, as much as I get caught up in the idea of being able to race where legends have raced before me and hopefully adding my name to a record book beside them.”
JONES AND TALLADEGA APPROACH
Even though the change to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship format has eliminated the win-and-in playoff strategy, Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones insists the emphasis on points racing doesn’t change the way he goes about competing. Particularly at places such as Talladega Superspeedway.
Jones, who scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at a drafting track, the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 2018, enters Sunday’s race 24th in the championship points standings — 63 points behind 16th-place Daniel Suárez in the final points position that would advance to the playoffs.
“We approach all these races pretty aggressive in the last handful years, because this has been our only great shot to try to win our way in the playoffs,’’ said Jones, driver of the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota. “So, I think if anything, it makes it more aggressive because the stage points are probably more important than ever. The finishes are great, but if you can go and earn top-three stage points in both stages, and even if you get wrecked out at the end, you’re still going to have a decent day, so I think that’s our focus.
“The stage lengths are probably a bigger change than anything. That first stage is a bit confusing, length on some strategies and things that guys can do. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, but I think as far as the aggression side, I think it will be just as high as ever for stage points.”
TALLADEGA RACE NUGGETS
The last 11 Talladega NASCAR Cup Series races have been won by different drivers, the longest such current streak of any track. … The winner led 10 laps or fewer in the last 10 Talladega races. … Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch has finished on the lead lap the last 10 Talladega races. Should he do so on Sunday, he would tie the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt with 11. … Eight of the last 12 Talladega races have been decided by a last-lap pass. … A stage winner has gone on to win the race only once this season — Ryan Blaney at Phoenix. … Drivers have combined for only six DNFs through the last five races, which is the fewest for a five-race span in NASCAR history. … The 54 total caution flags this season are the fewest through nine races since 2012.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Crown-jewel trophies and remnants of the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 sit inside 23XI Racing’s Airspeed shop in Huntersville, North Carolina.
Tyler Reddick is the NASCAR Cup Series points leader, while Bubba Wallace stays in perennial contention for a championship.
As the team continues to age into NASCAR’s top level, it seems to be checking all boxes at a rapid rate.
However, its third full-time driver, Riley Herbst, has yet to get a taste of glory and add to the early lore of the sixth-year organization.
In 53 starts, Herbst has just three top-10 results and has yet to break through for a top five in his Cup career. But according to Herbst’s teammates, the No. 35 Toyota driver hasn’t crumbled mentally and remains an important piece for 23XI.
“Riley’s an incredible human being,” Wallace said Saturday at Talladega. “A lot of fun to be around through the good times, through the bad times. I’m jealous of his mindset. When he struggles or qualifies bad, he’s gonna go back and learn and try it again tomorrow. It’s just like, damn, I wish I could be that calm about it. He has a super-calm demeanor. Just has a great head on his shoulders.
“This is my two cents that Riley Herbst came into the Cup Series to a team that is continuing to trend upwards with really fast cars, really great people. This sport is hard. The Cup Series is freaking hard. When you jump into a winning organization, you are looked at as you need to win as well, and as a rookie, super hard to do unless you’re [Shane van Gisbergen] on a road course that none of us have ever been to. It’s just tough.”
Since making his top-level debut in 2023, Herbst has shown quick bursts of his skill. He scored a top 10 in his maiden Cup start in the Daytona 500 with Rick Ware Racing and also picked up a ninth-place finish in the fall Talladega race.
After a discouraging 26.4 average finish in 2025, the Las Vegas native has chipped his 2026 average finish down to 23.3 and has found some speed in the No. 35 Toyota with a fourth-place qualifying effort at Bristol and a top-15 run at Kansas.
23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin has been high on Herbst since bringing him to the organization and credits Herbst’s family for how Riley has managed his mentality so far.
“One of the things I admire with Riley is that even on the tough days, he’s got a very positive attitude,” Hamlin said. “Shout out to his parents for raising a good kid because he’s one of the best, one of the most humble kids that you can possibly find in the Cup Series. I’m really proud to see what he’s starting to do and how the performance is obviously improving as we would expect at this point. So I think that he’s doing a great job and he’s going to position himself nicely.”
Reddick, who enters Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a whopping 105-point advantage at the top of the Cup standings, understands Herbst’s growing pains.
Both drivers had successful careers in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Herbst won three times while Reddick was a two-time series titleholder. But to get to where Reddick is now, he had to overcome two winless campaigns with Richard Childress Racing before finally breaking through in 2022 at Road America and winning 12 races since.
“I remember my first year in Cup. It was brutal,” Reddick said. “You go from being able to contend for race wins on a consistent basis, you go from thinking you’re pretty good at, getting to pit road, getting off pit road, all the things that kind of come with it, restarts, you name it. You come in the Cup Series feeling pretty good, and you get to learn really quick just how deep the field is in the Cup side. It’s easy to get down when you have rough stretches, and I think he’s handled all that really well.
“I’m glad that me and Bubba and when Corey (Heim) runs, were able to help answer questions, be there. I think for him, when he’s able to see me and Bubba go out there at times and find things in our cars, it helps give him the confidence to help begin that search, whether that’s through his inputs or getting his car closer to what he wants to do that too. He’s doing all the right stuff back at Airspeed, and it’s been fun working with him and getting to know him better throughout this process.”
Sunday’s race at Talladega offers an opportunity for Herbst to shock the Cup field and score his first career victory. One that won’t give him immediate title contention, but a vital building block for a team and driver still trying to find their base at the Cup level. With some help from his teammates on a drafting track and the continued support internally at 23XI, the ceiling is still very high for the 26-year old.
“He shows up every day with a smile on his face, ready to learn, ready to work and figure it the hell out, and I appreciate that about him so much,” Wallace said. “Somebody like him, can do whatever the hell he wants. He wants to be driving race cars. He wants to continue to better his craft and I got nothing but respect for him.”
Specifically, I have been given the honor of leading NASCAR as its newest CEO. In addition, Ben Kennedy has been named NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer.
Before anything else, I want to say thank you to Jim France. Jim is a racer through and through. He’s led NASCAR with passion, steadiness, and a deep love for this sport during some of the most challenging and important years in our history. We’re all better because of his leadership.
We have much work ahead of us. I say ‘we’ because I cannot do this alone. I’m lucky to have a fantastic group working with me, and the best team of consultants in the world — you, the race fan. Your voice will be as important as ever.
I am fired up.
I am fired up for what’s ahead …
For the green flag to wave on Talladega … for the Coca-Cola 600, and Memorial Day Weekend in the greatest country in the world … for cars and trucks to roar past aircraft carriers in San Diego … for a Cup Series points race at North Wilkesboro 30 years in the making … for The Chase, and the championship dreams for a special 16 — or 12 or 10 –drivers … for Homestead and those dreams becoming reality under a warm South Florida sky … and for a future the will be shaped by you, for you, the race fan.
This is my 31st season at NASCAR. But my promise to you is that I will wake up each morning like it’s Day 1 — energized to preserve and grow the sport we all love so much.
