Hocevar earns 1st Cup Series victory with last-lap pass at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Carson Hocevar ensured the Talladega Superspeedway fans who witnessed his first NASCAR Cup Series win would remember it.

After outdueling Chris Buescher with a last-lap pass Sunday, Hocevar celebrated with one of NASCAR's most unconventional victory laps. While sitting on the windowsill of his No. 77 Chevrolet to salute the crowd with fist pumps and waves, the lanky Hocevar managed to keep his left hand on the wheel while driving down the frontstretch.

He steered the car nose-first into the outside wall to perform a burnout before climbing onto the roof.

"He looked like Shamu hanging out the window," said Jeff Dickerson, a co-owner of Hocevar's Spire Motorsports car.

The unique revelry was appropriate for the rising star who has made headlines by angering veterans with aggressive moves.

"I've had this thought up for a while," Hoecvar said after becoming the 13th driver to earn his first Cup win at Talladega. "I've messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I was going to figure out how to do it. It took me a while.

"I'm so thankful. This is the biggest dream I've ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn't have done it any better way."

Hocevar joined Ty Gibbs (who won two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway), as the second first-time winner this season by winning his 91st start in NASCAR's premier series.

The 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan, used a drafting push from Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet to edge past Buescher's No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds.

Buescher had been getting drafting help from Erik Jones, who spun after contact from Hocevar while battling for second with seven laps remaining. Jones' No. 43 Toyota stalled to bring out the final yellow and set up a three-lap shootout in which Buescher and Hocevar ran side by side virtually all the way to the checkered flag.

"That was a fun race," Buescher said. "I felt really good where we were at coming off Turn 4. Felt like we were in a spot to take this Ford Mustang into victory lane. Man, it was close."

Bowman finished third (his best finish since missing four races with vertigo), followed by Chase Elliott and Zane Smith.

"To be blunt, it just feels good to get out of here without crashing," Bowman said. "I'm getting old and don't have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean."

Big wreck

With tight packs at nearly 200 mph, Talladega is known for massive wrecks, and some contact at the front involved 26 of the 40 cars in the field.

Bubba Wallace was leading on Lap 115 when he lost control of his No. 23 Toyota on a push by the No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson were among those eliminated from contention in the crash, along with Wallace, who finished outside the top 30 for the third time in five races.

"It's a bummer," said the 23XI Racing driver, who was making his 300th Cup start. "But we've got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. And we'll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better at being pushed and maybe not have that happen."

Mileage still matters

In an attempt to blunt the fuel conservation strategies that have become prevalent at superspeedways, NASCAR instituted a 98-lap first stage that covered more than half the race distance (which is typically the length of the final stage). The change resulted in an opening segment that ran for 85 minutes under green as drivers cautiously raced well below their maximum speeds to achieve optimum mileage.

They opened the second stage at full throttle, and the big pileup erupted only 10 laps later.

"It's frustrating," Logano said. "What do you want? Save fuel or crash? Pick one. That's what it feels like right now. You've got round bumpers on these things. The cars are unstable. And once everyone starts pushing and racing aggressive, it's going to happen. So until we fix that stuff, we're going to continue seeing it, unfortunately."

New deal

Points leader Tyler Reddick announced on the Fox prerace show that he had finalized a multi-year contract extension with 23XI Racing. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin recently had guaranteed the return of Reddick, who has 10 of his 13 career wins (including five this season) since joining 23XI Racing in 2023.

"Excited to have it all done and be able to continue building on what we've done," Reddick said. "Just really glad that myself and 23XI were able to get to a good place and get the deal done. So I'll be here for hopefully a long time."

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will race May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway, the lone stop this season at the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. Joey Logano won at Texas last year, the most recent Cup victory for the three-time series champion.

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