Carson Hocevar gets first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega in Jack Links 500
· Yahoo Sports
TALLADEGA — Carson Hocevar is a winner at Talladega Superspeedway.
Visit bettingx.bond for more information.
Hocevar picked up his first NASCAR Cup Series win in the Jack Links 500 on Sunday, April 26 at the track in east Alabama over Chris Buescher.
A crash from the front with Bubba Wallace on lap 115 took out four contenders and left just 20 cars on the lead lap. By the end, just 21 cars were on the lead lap and eight cars did not finish the race after a late spin from Erik Jones.
NASCAR Cup Series gets back to action on May 3 at 2:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1 from Texas Motor Speedway.
New stage lengths see new strategies
The spring race was the first to see a 98-lap first stage, with the second and third stage moving to 45 laps each. It forced teams to make two stops in the first stage, with some teams using varying strategies on when they came down pit lane. Some teams split it into even thirds while others tried to gain an advantage later in the race by waiting to make the second stop closer to the end of the stage, getting a shorter pit stop between the stages. The stage went green the whole time but five cautions in the second half of the race didn't allow for the strategies to be fully played out.
Lap 115 accident takes out contenders
Bubba Wallace got turned from the lead on lap 115 and collected at least eight cars and took out Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Wallace, Logano and Blaney are previous winners at the track and were near the front at the time of the accident. The crash left just 20 cars on the lead lap, meaning half the field was either behind or out of the race with more than 70 laps to go in the race. With 20 to go, seven cars were out and another 10 were at least one lap down including Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, who were leading early.
Early mistake costs Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin led more than 20 laps ahead of the first set of green flag pitstops and was apart of the first group to head down to pit road. Hamlin had a clean stop but was hit with a speeding penalty, putting him one lap down. After serving his penalty, Hamlin was down a lap. He narrowly avoided going two laps down thanks to teammate Christopher Bell not passing him with the lead pack and was able to stay just one lap down at the end of the first stage. Hamlin wasn't able to get back to the lead lap until late in the race, thanks to a late caution.
Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times and USA TODAY Network. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Carson Hocevar wins NASCAR's Jack Links 500 at Talladega Superspeedway