TALLADEGA, Ala. — The best way to survive Talladega: Finish first. The second-best way: Not even race Talladega at all.
Carson Hocevar chose the first route, claiming the Jack Links 500 on Sunday for his first career NASCAR Cup win. Hocevar outlasting both Buescher and one of the largest, by sheer numbers, wrecks in recent NASCAR history.
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Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, at the track for a sponsor event, escaped the carnage by not even climbing into a car at all. He happily offered up his perspective now that he’s a visitor, not a driver, at the beast of a track.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Johnson, a two-time Talladega winner, said a couple hours before the race. Johnson, clearly relieved at no longer having to deal with the “anxiety,” in his words, of racing at NASCAR’s largest and fastest track, pegged the challenge of racing at Talladega no matter what the year.
“Most races, you have tire fall-off and pit stops and other elements that you can focus on, and really control your own destiny,” he said. “But as we all know with the pack … anything can happen.”
On Sunday, pretty much everything did. A reworked, extra-long 98-lap first stage proceeded without incident, as most teams stayed at lower throttle to keep the stage a single-stop one. The result was one of the more placid stages of the entire season, a gentle tour around the plains of East Alabama.
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Ryan Preece led a parade of six Fords to the end of the first stage, edging out Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano for the stage win. The feeling all along both the inside and outside of the track’s 2.66 miles was that this was anyone’s race … and the track hadn’t yet begun to show its teeth.
The carnage kicked off 18 laps into the second stage, on Lap 116. Ross Chastain bumped Bubba Wallace from behind, setting off a massive wreck that decimated the field:
The crash involved 25 of the 40 cars in the field, including (deep breath): Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Joey Logano, William Byron, Jesse Love, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Joey Gase, Tyler Reddick, Cody Ware, Ty Gibbs, Chad Finchum, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar, Connor Zilisch, and Shane Van Gisbergen. Fortunately, all drivers were checked and released from the infield care center without incident.
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Tyler Reddick, who’s already won five races this season, saw his chances at a victory vaporize midway through the final stage, along with his front left wheel:
Twelve drivers won their first career race at Talladega, and Hocevar spent the final laps trying to join their number. The two-by-two racing dominated the last few laps, with Hocevar and Buescher dueling for the lead. A late spin from Erik Jones with seven laps remaining gave the field just three laps to settle the day in regulation.
Hocevar, on the low line, and Buescher, on the high one, dueled side by side through the final laps. Hocevar managed to hang on for the victory as cars spun behind him, claiming his first win at the Cup level.