The 2026 Jack Links 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
Do we even need an intro? I mean, it's Talladega, which means big ones, young guns, and a whole lotta fun. Let's see what Alabama has in store for us this spring.
Stage 1 was a little crazy, but not as crazy as what we're going to see in some of the later stages. On lap 10, of all people, Chad Finchum took the lead (What the heck?!). Then Denny Hamlin received a speeding penalty, while Austin Cindric missed his stall and ended up driving right on through pit road. After both rounds of pit stops end, Ryan Preece emerges victorious in the first stage.
In stage 2, everything was going fine, until it wasn't. Ross Chastain gave Bubba Wallace a bad bump, which sent the 23 car into the outside barrier in front of the field, triggering possibly the biggest big one I have ever seen. A shocking total of 27 cars were involved in the incident. These cars were:
- Austin Cindric
- Austin Dillon
- Chase Briscoe
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Daniel Suarez
- Kyle Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Blaney
- Noah Gragson
- Josh Berry
- Joey Logano
- Bubba Wallace
- Jesse Love
- William Byron
- Cole Custer
- Chad Finchum
- Erik Jones
- Joey Gase
- Tyler Reddick
- Cody Ware
- Ty Gibbs
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Michael McDowell
- Carson Hocevar
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Connor Zilisch
After we finally got going again, Ty Gibbs got a flat tire in turn 3, and went straight into the wall, collecting Michael McDowell along the way. Not a lot happened after that, and Ross Chastain won stage 2.
After stage 3 got underway, the yellow came out again for Tyler Reddick who had a shredded tire. Then, a few laps later, Erik Jones spun in turn 4 and ended up stuck in the grass in the tri-oval.
3 laps to decide our winner. Things went smoothly, and on the last lap, it was Hocevar and Buescher fighting up front, Ryan Preece got loose and spun in the tri-oval, collecting a few others, but Carson Hocevar got a good push from Alex Bowman, and he also got victory number 1.
So, if you paid attention to the cover image on this article, you may have seen Hocevar's crazy celebration. Don't ask me what he was thinking there.