Stock Car Scoop: Talladega Delivers Three Races With Three New Winners
Frontstretch Podcast Network
Frontstretch Podcast NetworkApr 27, 2026
Stock Car Scoop: Talladega Delivers Three Races With Three New Winners
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Concept
superspeedway drafting
At tracks like Talladega, cars race close together to go faster using the air between them. That can help you win, but it also makes it easier for things to go wrong and turn into a big wreck.
Talladega is a big NASCAR track where cars often run in tight groups. Because of the way the track and aerodynamics work, it’s common to see dramatic moves—and sometimes huge crashes.
In stock car racing, a bump draft is when one car pushes another by getting right up next to it. That push can make the lead car harder to control, and if the cars get out of sync, it can cause a big crash.
A multi-car wreck is when a crash involves a lot of cars, not just one. On fast tracks with cars running close together, one mistake can quickly pull others into the same problem.
“On the lead lap” means you’re still in the same lap as the front of the race. After a big crash, some cars fall a lap behind, and that changes how they can race for position.
Super speedway races are NASCAR races on the biggest tracks. Because the cars are so fast and closely packed, wind and drafting (slipstreaming) matter a lot, and crashes can spread quickly.
NASCAR splits the race into stages. The stage lengths decide when the race breaks and restarts, which changes how teams plan fuel and timing their pit stops.
Pit cycles are basically when teams decide to come in for service and then how they line up again on track. The timing matters a lot because it can decide who gets the best position later.
A caution is when NASCAR slows everyone down because there’s a problem on the track. It often leads to a restart later, which can completely change who has the advantage.
A late race restart happens when the race is restarted after a caution close to the finish. Since there’s not much time left, the restart can decide the winner because everyone is fighting for position right away.
Dale Earnhardt is a legendary NASCAR driver from the past. The hosts are using him as a reference point because the celebration style sounds similar to something Earnhardt did years ago.
A burnout is when the driver forces the tires to spin and smoke up the rubber. People do it for celebration because it looks dramatic, and it also shows the driver can control the car’s grip while accelerating.
A first-time winner means it’s the driver’s first career win. The hosts are pointing out that this season has had multiple drivers get their first victory, which makes the moments feel bigger.
“Call his shot” means a driver confidently says (or strongly implies) they’re going to win. The hosts are comparing who’s done that and who hasn’t.
Topic
schedule was just flopped
The hosts mean that if things had played out a little differently, the “first win” could have happened to a different driver. In racing, timing and luck matter a lot.
A victory lap is what a driver does after winning—usually driving around the track to celebrate and let the crowd see it. It’s a common tradition in racing.
On an oval race track, the front stretch is the main straight where cars go fastest. It’s also where fans and cameras tend to see the most dramatic moments.
A “Cup race” is NASCAR’s top-level series. Getting your first win there is a huge milestone—like finally achieving the goal you’ve been working toward.
Term
Carson
The hosts mention “Carson” as part of the talk about drivers still chasing their first win. But the clip doesn’t explain what Carson specifically refers to, so it may need clarification.
At tracks like Talladega, teams have to guess how far the car will go on a tank of gas. If they run out sooner than expected, the driver has to slow down or coast, and that can cost them positions and even lead to penalties.
“Chevy” is shorthand for Chevrolet. In NASCAR, different manufacturers compete, and fans often track which brand seems to have the advantage in a given race.
Finishing in the top 10 is considered a good day in NASCAR. It usually means you stayed out of trouble and earned a solid points result even if you didn’t win.
Talladega is a track where the whole field tends to bunch up. When cars run close together, accidents and strategy swings can happen late, so a “less expected” driver can still end up winning.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford. It’s designed to be fun to drive and is also used in racing. When someone talks about it as a “pick,” they’re usually saying they think it could do well in a race.
A “dark horse pick” is a prediction for a driver who isn’t the obvious favorite but has a plausible path to winning. On superspeedways like Talladega, dark-horse picks often hinge on drafting position, timing of pit strategy, and surviving late-race wrecks.
Pack racing is when lots of cars stay together in a tight group. That makes races more chaotic—drivers can get caught up in the same wreck and standings can change quickly.
Texas Motor Speedway is the next NASCAR stop they’re previewing. The track is about 1.5 miles long, which affects how the cars race and how drafting works.
They’re reminding listeners about their live show time on YouTube. It’s not about car mechanics—just when to watch the next episode.
LIVE
Thank you very much for watching this video.
Three races this weekend at the Talladega Super Speedway. We have three first time winners.
I am Eric Schneck and this week I am solo hosting the stock car scoop. In a few minutes
though, I will be joined by Dalton Hopkins and Michael Massey who have been covering
all of the action for front stretch.com at the Talladega Super Speedway. But before we
bring on Dalton and Michael, let's of course break down the weekend for stock car scoop.
First off, Andy Jay took home his first career in the Arca series victory by winning a very
entertaining Arca series race. Of course, we had Squirrel Magnutt and Cleetus McFarlane
in the field. Cleetus finished second. Fantastic race by Isabella Rubesto. Really good Arca
race. Andy Jay took home his first victory there. Following the very entertaining Arca
race, the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts series, I will get the hang of that eventually, said,
hey, hold my beer. Let me show you a good show. And they tackled the Talladega Super Speedway
where Payday, Corey Day, took home his first NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts series victory at
Talladega Super Speedway. Another fantastic race. And last but most certainly, not least,
Carson Hosebar said, not so fast boys. And he took the checkered flag at Talladega for
his first cup series victory. And he followed it up with a celebration for the ages. But that's
not all that happened at Talladega on Sunday. Let's go ahead and start off with the big one.
Lap 115, Bubba Wallace got a significant bump draft from Ross Chastain. Bubba Wallace lost
control of his Toyota while leading, mind you, and in which triggered the big one. 26 cars
involved altogether in the big one. Not good. Heavy hitters included Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney,
Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Brad Kosolowski, William Byron and others. The race was entirely
different after the big one. I think there was, after it was all said and done, 20 cars left
like on the lead lap after the big one with, you know, so many of the heavy hitters gone due
to the accident. So major accident at Talladega. Bubba Wallace jokingly took claim for the incident.
The bump draft he got from Ross was significant. It lifted his rear tires off the ground. He didn't
have any control to kick off that accident. So just the nature of super speedway racing in
the next generation, right? NASCAR is working to fix it. But right now, you still have those kind
of not best bump drafts when you get someone really hitting the Toyota. It just doesn't always
work the best. But speaking of changes NASCAR made this weekend, NASCAR introduced the different
stage lengths this weekend at Talladega. And personally, and I saw some, some mentioning,
see my rabbit jumping around in the background. You'll see, I did see some folks online kind
of poo poo this idea. And even poo poo would happen today. But I personally enjoyed it. Stage
one was a longer stage. I think it was 98 laps in total with stage two and three being 45 laps.
And I thought stage one was really good. Was it, you know, balls to the wall racing? No.
Um, it was still, you know, stage one, next gen racing, right? But it wasn't crazy fuel savings,
like we saw before. We saw shuffling of the teams and the alliances working together
to try to get together. We saw pit road speeding incidents. Denny spent on pit road
during the opening portion of this and was behind the eight ball all day. He did finally get his
lap back when it took him like all day to do so. I really enjoyed stage one with all of the different
strategies and pit cycles and things like that. And then the intensity absolutely got ratcheted
up for stage two and stage three. Stage two is where we saw the big one that I just spoke about.
26 cars involved. And the race to the finish was great, you know, so is it the,
is it super speedway racing we know and love? And I think everybody has a favorite
era of super speedway racing. No, but, but was it better than most super speedway races in the
right direction NASCAR? Good job. All right, now let's wrap up with what everybody wants to talk
about. Probably maybe, I don't know. And that would be Carson Hosevar scoring his first NASCAR Cup
Series win in, I don't want to say dramatic fashion because it wasn't like a harrowing,
crazy crash field, you know, last lap or anything like that. But there was a caution
with, I believe, like five to go due to Eric Jones getting spun into the infield,
which did cause a late race restart. Hosevar held off for his first Cup Series win with
Chris Buscher finishing second. The story of the race victory is probably not so much Hosevar
crossing the finish line first, but that will be a story as the years go on probably. But what
we will probably hear and see the most of over the internet over the next 24 hours concerning
this race besides the big one is Carson Hosevar's post race celebration. If you are not aware,
Mr. Hosevar is quite tall and he hung out the side of his car a lot when Dale Earnhardt hung out the
side of his car and cleaned his windshield back in the 80s. Something similar to that,
he hung out the side of his car and drove, looked like he was getting ready to hit the wall,
the inside wall for a second, but he finally got control and then drove around the track hanging
out the side of his car waving to the fans. Then he put the car into the wall and did a burnout
while hanging on the, hanging out of the side. Then he jumped on the roof pumped.
I know we've seen obviously two first time winners this year or just this weekend rather
with Andy Jay and Corey Day and Ty Gibbs won just a few weeks ago. This celebration beats
everything they did. This is one of the coolest NASCAR celebrations in my opinion,
and I've been watching for a while that I've personally ever seen. Very, very, very cool.
A lot of talk after the fact was that NASCAR was going to be the no fun police and not allowed
this celebration. Again, Steve O'Donnell came out and said, hey, not so fast. I am cool with it.
Maybe this is a new fun NASCAR. We will see. All right. Hey, that's enough for me for now.
Let's go track side with Dalton Hopkins and Michael Massey and get their thoughts from this
weekend at Talladega Super Speedway. It's another first time winner in Carson Hosts of R. He wins
at Talladega Super Speedway. It's finally, finally does it. He finally gets his first win
two weeks after Ty Gibbs also finally got his first win. Meaning, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm Dalton Hopkins with Front Stretch. This is Michael Massey. And thank you for watching
Stockcar Scoot, by the way, because that's where this is appearing. So, but yeah, we have a lot
to react to because this was a, I mean, look, it's Talladega, right? It's kind of always chaotic,
honestly. Carson Hosts of R got his first win. But he called it shot. He did, which was a little
scary to me. Yeah. Like going into today, I kind of had a feeling we're here in the Cup Series
Garages, by the way. Talladega doesn't have lights. Yeah. So it's just darkness out there. But
just to feel like maybe two minutes ago, Carson Hosts of R's all or was driving away right in
front of us. And you can't help but feel like that this was going to happen eventually.
And I think it's really eerie that after all those starts, Carson just wakes up during this
week one day and is like, Hosts, we're going to win this week. And then he does. It's a little
scary how he did that. Yeah. I mean, like we've seen Denny Hamlin call his shot before, but those
were like tracks where he's historically been good at and won at. This, you know, even if you're
going to Talladega, I mean, you don't see Brad Keselowski call on his shot, even though he's won
six times here. So it is interesting. And it completes a weekend, a first time winners with
Andy Jacobiak win the arc a race, every day winning the rally race. That's true. I didn't even think
about that. And so Carson, it's first time Talladega. Yeah. So something cool. Complete sweep
of first time winners. I didn't even think about that. I didn't even notice. And entering this season,
I think a lot of people, there was debate about who would get their first win first,
Ty Gibbs or Carson Hosts of R. And now we've seen them both do it. And really, if the schedule was
just flopped, then Carson would die at first. Yeah. Honestly, I think it was, it was only a matter
of time for both of them. Yeah, that, man, that kind of reminds me of a 21 when in the fall,
when it was Tate Fogelman, Brandon Brown, and Bubba Wallace all winning in the same weekend.
That was a neat weekend. And then we have, now we have this one. Thankfully, I don't think anybody's
going to spark any political controversy like it did with Brandon Brown. I think we're in the
clear with that one. Yeah. The crowd did go wild today. The crowd did go wild. And for good reason.
Look, like Carson, I think, I think it's fair to say that people do like Carson Hosts of R. He's a
fan favorite. Yes. He's tripled some feathers along the way and people, some drivers, maybe not like
him. Fans may not like him, but he gets out of the car. Well, doesn't get out of the car actually.
He wins the race and he does arguably, I mean, I don't know. I don't think I've seen a better one.
He does arguably the coolest celebratory burnout, whatever you want to call it, celebratory victory
lap. I think I've ever seen in my entire life in any motorsport. That was pretty cool. And then he
gets, uh, who was it that he got on this, on his car? They said who, but I wasn't familiar with,
but anyways, he's got a passenger because it's the wall. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. He's driving it
like with his legs. I mean, well, yes, but he's driving it with his legs. He's got both, he's
come, he's driving across the front stretch at Talladega, both arms, like leaning out of the
car, waving to the crowd, driving it with like, or yeah, driving it with his hands a little bit.
And then he turns it a little bit and he hits the wall. Honestly, it could have been like,
that could have been bad. Yeah. It was, it was sketchy. It was, it didn't look too good. He
has permission from Steve O'Donnell. Yeah. He was like, I don't know, Steve, like, yeah,
because Steve O'Donnell was in the press or he was in the media center. He was like, I don't know,
Steve, like, is it, is it, is this still legal? We still good? And I think Steve, I didn't see
his response because it was non-verbal, but from what it's, Carl's reaction was, it looked like he
was like, it was a thumbs up. Like, I guess he was good. So man, okay. I don't know. I think that's
might want to revisit that in the future, but we'll see. Like regardless, it was a really cool
moment. That's going to, that's going to be etched in Taodega history forever. Yeah. I think it was
a really cool weekend. And just for him, you can tell it meant a lot. Like this is a guy that's
thought about winning his first cup race, not just in the time he's been in cup since he was a
kid. I mean, I think he was like you and me playing NASCAR video games. Yeah. Just imagining
himself doing this one day. Imagine what his celebration would be like. So it's a guy that's,
he's lived his dream now at this point. And it's, it's the first of many wins.
But he wasn't the only guy that they could have won today. There was a lot of,
there was a number of, I think at one point, I think I tweeted this, I want to say it was about
like 30, maybe 25 laps to go. Six of the top 13 guys were people who were still looking for a
first win at Carson, of course, being one of them. But yeah, you had Zane Smith. I think it was
fifth. I think he finished fifth today. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Like Ryan Priest won a stage
early. Yeah. Ryan Priest ran well. I know that he wasn't really in content. He was never really
attention to win, but Chad Fincham. Yeah. Fincham led laps. He led laps today. He said it felt like a
win. We talked to him afterwards. It felt like a win. So I talked to Carl Long, you can check this
out. You can check out both these videos on frontstretch.com, but I talked to Carl Long
afterward. And the reason why they were so, I mean, obviously he got to the lead. I think it,
it wasn't a secret. Everyone else was going half throttle or at least like 60% throttle.
And they were not, they were going full throttle. Well, they did not know how far they could go
on fuel. They thought they could go 45 laps, but it turns out they can only, they ran out
after 42 laps. So that's why he actually got caught with a speeding penalty entering pit road
because he was coasting. He ran out of gas. Chad Fincham did. So that's awesome. Yeah. Good day
for those guys. And on top of that, I mean, Noel Gregson finished ninth. He's the guy that could
have got out there and won his first race. But then you also had a number of guys that
it would have been their first win in a while. Alex Bowman, he pushes host of our to the win.
He hasn't won in two years at this point. And it was just really cool to see him running up
there again. Eric Jones looked like he was going to win for the first time in a couple years.
He gets spun late. It's just a shame to what happened. Chris Buescher. Chris Buescher looked
like he was on his, he was going, I mean, I thought he had a shot. I thought it was going to win.
What hurt him was that it was a Chevy pushing him. It was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He said Eric Jones
was a great pusher. And when he lost Jones, it was just him in a sea of Chevy's. And like that,
that was pretty much the race right there for Buescher. Kyle Busch. He wasn't in contention
for the win, I wouldn't say. Yeah, no, definitely not. But yeah, I talked to him post race. He,
look, let's be honest, he wasn't really in contention to win, but he got to get to top 10.
It's the first top 10 for Richard Childress Racing. So that's kind of a big deal.
But for him, it's like, and he even said it himself, he's like, look, it's a super speedway.
So it's, you kind of have to take you with a grain of salt. It's not like they're going to go to
Texas next week and lead laps and finish fifth. They still got some work to do.
Yeah. His teammate Austin Dillon is another one that was up there in the top five for a lot of
today. He got wrecked late. Cody Ware, he got wrecked late. That's the thing.
Talladega is the great equalizer. And you saw so many of these guys. And the big one that happened
earlier took out so many good, you know, typical Talladega winners, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano,
that, you know, by the time they were kind of weeded out, it kind of opened the doors for
a first time winner. And we got one. We got one in Josefar.
Yeah. I think it was more, at that point, it was kind of more likely than not that we were
going to get a first time winner. I mean, if not a first time winner, then somebody who hadn't
wanted a while, like you like to get it out. And it really was going, it really was looking like
that for the longest time. And also, I just want to say, by the way, you know, we're talking about
this, but I can't help but notice they know the PR, we did a PRC yesterday after the O'Reilly race
and we made our picks. Looks like my pick won. No, I thought Joey Logano was your pick. No, no,
we had a pick and a dark horse pick. And Carson Hosevar was my dark horse pick. But
I even said this guy was my original pick. I don't know. There's no, I don't know. I said
Carson Hosevar. Okay, okay. You got it this time. I win. Your guys were out. They did not finish
the race. My pick of Fred Kizlowski beat your pick of Joey Logano. Did he? Yes, he finished
like a couple laps. Neither one of them even finished. Did Brad even finish? I think Fred
rode around for a while. It was like 22 laps down. Yeah. But yeah, so you were right to step up.
I'll give you credit for that. I know. But we probably talked too much about this.
We'll let you guys bash the racing. Yeah, we got it. He put out an article. Yeah,
Massey put out an article about what the driver said about some of the racing that they didn't
like. So check that out. But yeah, we'll give it back to Eric and you guys, thanks for watching.
Keep on the keep it on. All right, we are back. Thank you very much, Dalton and Michael. I appreciate
it very much. And I did want to say, and I mentioned to the boys in our front stretch slack channel
late earlier this afternoon, fantastic reporting this weekend. I'm always partial,
front stretch always has fantastic reporting. But I really, really enjoyed all of our content
that came out of Talladega this weekend. If you haven't already,
check the website out, check our social media channels, you owe it to yourself to do so front
stretch.com. All right, looking at the points coming out of Talladega, not too many major
shake ups. Chase Elliott, that will first off Tyler Reddick, still your point series leader,
Denny Hamlin in second, Ryan Blaney in third, top three have not changed. Chase Elliott
up into the fourth position. He's up two spots. Ty Gibbs dropped four, Kyle Larson dropped four.
Ty Gibbs was not involved in the big one. However, he was involved in his own accident.
Actually, he was involved in the big one, but he was able to return. And then promptly got into
his own solo accident. Hard, hard hit from Ty Gibbs, but he is okay. Him and Kyle Larson dropped
four spots to five and six. Buscher and Hosevar up four spots of ease. Buscher is now in seventh.
Hosevar is in eighth. Christopher Bagel up a spot to ninth. And bad Brad Kazalowski down
to 10th in points. So there's your top 10 points. Reddick, Hamlin, Blaney, Elliott, Gibbs, Larson,
Buscher, Hosevar, Bell, Kazalowski, Byron, sorry, Byron's 11th. So there's your top 11 in points.
So no real major shake ups. The most anybody dropped is four positions. Ricky Stenhouse went
up five to 25th, but that's, you know, not near playoff ranking, right? So not really too much
moving around in the top 10, top 15 in points next week. Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas. I know
Texas gets a bad rap. However, I enjoy it. I I'm a Texas truther. I like Texas. So
the NASCAR Cup Series tackles the one and a half mile of Texas motor speedway that should
hopefully be a good race. As always, happy hour live Tuesdays at 730 here on the front stretch
YouTube channel. You owe it to yourself to check it out. It's fantastic. Thank you for listening
to this solo episode of the stock car scoop. My little boy had to do some solo dating tonight,
which threw my schedule off. So hence the solo scooping tonight. Next week, we should return
to our normally scheduled co-hosts with our trackside boys. So for me tonight, for Dalton
and Michael, thank you for checking out another episode of the stock car scoop. See you
About this episode
Talladega delivered a weekend of first-time winners across multiple series: Andy Jay won the ARCA race, Corey Day took the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win, and Carson Hocevar finally broke through for his first Cup victory. The Cup race was defined by a massive 26-car wreck after Bubba Wallace’s loss of control following a bump draft from Ross Chastain, reshaping the field. NASCAR also tweaked stage lengths, and Hocevar’s wild, wall-hugging victory celebration sparked “no fun police” debate. Points barely shifted, setting up Texas next.
