The 2026 Autotrader 400 at Echopark Speedway
As we come of the Super Bowl of motorsport, we travel to the peach state of Georgia, to see what will happen in just the second race of an incredible season. Tyler Reddick is fresh off his Daytona fame, but Chase Elliott showed potential last week and finished 4th even after getting spun into a wall. Can Tyler Reddick pull off some new season magic? Or can Chase Elliott show his home crowd what he's made of? We've got it all right down here.
For the start of the race, it was mostly Tyler Reddick leading the field until Brad Keselowski took control of the pack on lap 27. Then, when lap 32 rolled around, Hocevar reported a flat right-front tire on his Chevy, which resulted in him taking his 77 car to pit road. Then the Fords gained the lead of the race, with Logano in front. But ultimately the Penske no. 2 car of Austin Cindric would take the crown in stage 1.
Kyle Larson and William Byron would lead the field on the restart, with their other Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott having a slow pit stop, and the teammate of our stage 1 winner, Ryan Blaney, was penalized for speeding. Then, on lap 71, Bubba Wallace overtook Larson for the lead, but then a huge crashed occurred on lap 82. Josh Berry tagged the JGR Toyota of Ty Gibbs, causing his 54 car to go head-on into the wall. After being slightly propelled backwards from the impact, Gibbs made contact with Berry, sending him into the wall, ending the days of the two competitors.
After the incident, Hocevar was rewarded the free pass while Todd Gilliland was penalized for speeding on pit road. Later, on lap 103, Austin Dillon spun after contact from Riley Herbst, sending his 35 up the track as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. nailed Herbst's Toyota. BJ Mcleod also piled up behind the two. Stenhouse suffered significant damage, ending his day right then and there.
After that conundrum, more trouble occurred in Hampton when Kyle Busch tried to move up in front of the 4 of Noah Gragson but misjudged the space and instead sent his Chevy spinning into the inside barriers. He will visit the infield care center and hope for a better one next time.
The end of stage 2 was action-packed and the way I see it-controversial. Coming off of turn 4, Kyle Larson didn't see the 97 of SVG, and the two Chevys made contact, sending SVG through the grass and Larson out of contention for the win. But get this, Bubba Wallace won the stage, yet Byron crossed the line first. Then they say that a caution was thrown before the finish line, but Byron was still ahead at the time of caution! So, I'm just going to say based on my observations, your stage two winner is William Byron.
Welcome to stage 3, lap 200, SVG slides through the grass again. Unless it's a road course, need I say more? After Tyler Reddick settles in first, Blaney slides up in front of the Toyota, leaving a space for his teammate Austin Cindric to get through. On lap 224, Denny Hamlin got loose on the exit of turn 4, causing a multi-car pile-up that involved Tyler Reddick, Wiliam Byron, Michael McDowell, and others. The on lap 239, Joey Logano tried to get down in front of Hocevar but spun his Ford through the grass.
After Bubba Wallace too the lead from Christopher Bell on lap 249, chaos erupted. William Byron had made contact with the wall earlier, and something must have broken on his Chevy, because he started drifting back until he was hit by Cody Ware, causing a huge pile-up in turn 3. With 4 laps to go, the red flag flies.
In our first OT, Carson Hocevar got the 'Be Aggressive' mindset and tried to make the middle work as soon as he could, turning Bell into the outside fence. OT number 2 coming up.
On the restart, Wallace was able to take the lead from Hocevar, but with the help of Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick was able to take the inside line to get around the battling duo of Wallace and Hocevar. How about we add another win sticker on that 45 machine, eh?
Back-to-back wins for Reddick, how about that? Let's see what he can pull off at Cota, as the next week approaches.
