{"id":942343,"date":"2026-10-22T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942343\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:56:09","slug":"who-won-the-last-nascar-race-at-talladega-hocevars-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942343\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Won the Last NASCAR Race at Talladega? Hocevar’s Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time the NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> visited Talladega Superspeedway, Carson Hocevar left with something he had been chasing since arriving in NASCAR\u2019s premier division: his first career victory.<\/p>\n

And he couldn\u2019t have picked a much more dramatic place to get it.<\/p>\n

Hocevar won the Jack Link\u2019s 500 on April 26, 2026, holding off Chris Buescher in a frantic finish at the 2.66-mile Alabama superspeedway. The 23-year-old Spire Motorsports driver crossed the finish line just 0.114 seconds ahead of Buescher, finally breaking through in his third full-time Cup Series season.<\/p>\n

Now, with NASCAR returning to Talladega for Sunday\u2019s YellaWood 500 on Oct. 25<\/a>, Hocevar heads back to the track where he celebrated the biggest moment of his career.<\/p>\n

Carson Hocevar Won His First NASCAR Cup Series Race at Talladega<\/p>\n

Hocevar\u2019s victory was hardly a straightforward afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 188-lap race featured 16 different leaders, 51 lead changes and a massive 26-car accident on Lap 115 that eliminated several contenders from the fight for the win.<\/p>\n

The crash began with contact between Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace near the front of the field, setting off a chain reaction that collected drivers including Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n

Hocevar survived the chaos and put himself in position when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

He led 19 of the final 37 laps and held off the field through three late restarts, eventually beating Buescher in a three-lap sprint to the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

For a driver whose aggressive racing style has attracted plenty of attention and criticism, the victory was a career-defining breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Hocevar made sure the celebration was memorable, too.<\/p>\n

Rather than simply completing a traditional victory lap, he perched himself on the window ledge of his moving No. 77 Chevrolet as he circled the track, soaking in the moment before celebrating with his team.<\/p>\n

It was an unusual scene, even by Talladega standards.<\/p>\n

Full Top 10 Results From the Last Talladega Cup Series Race<\/p>\n

Hocevar wasn\u2019t the only driver to leave Talladega with an impressive finish. Buescher recorded a career-best result at the track, while Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott put two Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets inside the top four.<\/p>\n

Here are the top 10 finishers from the April 26 race:<\/p>\n

FinishDriver1Carson Hocevar2Chris Buescher3Alex Bowman4Chase Elliott5Zane Smith6Ricky Stenhouse Jr.7Ross Chastain8Austin Cindric9Noah Gragson10Kyle Busch<\/p>\n

Ryan Preece won Stage 1, while Chastain claimed Stage 2.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell led a race-high 31 laps but finished 17th, another reminder of how quickly fortunes can change at Talladega.<\/p>\n

Hocevar will have an opportunity to make it two consecutive Talladega victories when the Cup Series returns Sunday, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

This time, however, he\u2019ll arrive as a proven Cup Series winner rather than a driver still searching for his first trip to Victory Lane<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Talladega Superspeedway, Carson Hocevar left with something he had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,26749,634,82],"class_list":["post-942343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carson-hocevar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}