He was really riding the ‘dente!
Carson Hocevar won his first NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday in the Jack Link’s 500.
The Spire Motorsports driver lined up alongside Chris Buescher for a final restart with three laps to go. The pair traded the lead all the way through turn 4 on the final lap, when Buescher lost the push he was getting from the cars behind him as they started pulling out of line to take their shot, while Alex Bowman stayed stuck on Hocevar’s bumper onto the front straight.
The win came in Hocevar’s 91st start in the series. He celebrated by managing to drive his Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente-sponsored car while sitting on the door windowsill and waving the the grandstands, before nosing it up against the outside wall and doing a burnout.
“I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of,” Hocevar said. “Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it in any better way. Hopefully my grandpa’s watching. My grandma died last year, so I’m so thankful that I can give my grandpa a trophy now. Wish my parents were here.”
Buescher managed to snag second at the end, followed by Bowman, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith.
The race was the first at Talladega with a new stage length format designed to keep drivers from slowing the pace to save fuel in the second half of the race. The first stage was the longest at 98 laps, which most teams ran with two stops, but a group of Fords led by Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Buescher stretched their tanks and skipped the second stop to lead the stage.
The second 45-lap stage saw “the big one” when Ross Chastain got into the back of leader Bubba Wallace and spun him to cause a wreck that collected 26 cars, knocking several out of the race for good.
The win jumped Hocevar from 12th to 8th in the season standings, which are led by Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway on May 3.
