Carson Hocevar might have started two new trends at Talladega Superspeedway.
No. 1, him winning races. And No. 2, whatever clever nickname folks give his celebration. (The Hocevar? Riding the ’Dente?)
The 23-year-old finally earned his first NASCAR Cup Series victory during the Jack Link’s 500 on April 26. He had numerous close calls over the past two seasons, including during this year’s Daytona 500.
And when he crossed the finish line at NASCAR’s largest oval, he executed a celebration he admits had been planned for a while.
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Hocevar hung out his window, with his foot on the gas pedal, his left arm steering and the car still moving. His right arm pumped in the air.
It took him a minute to figure out the logistics. Then, it took him a minute to figure out how to stop his No. 77 Chevrolet. Eventually, he rolled it into the wall and pressed the gas, doing a burnout.
“I’ve had this thought up for a while, and I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it,” Hocevar said. “I didn’t care if it took me 20 minutes or whatever. I was going to figure out how to do it.”
Here are three takeaways.
1. How Carson Hocevar pulled off first Cup Series win
With seven laps to go, a caution flag emerged for an Erik Jones spin after contact with Hocevar. The race restarted with three laps left and Chris Buescher and Hocevar up front.
On the final lap, Hocevar separated from Buescher and Alex Bowman coming out of Turn 4. Those two placed second and third, respectively.
“I’m so thankful,” Hocevar said. “This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of.”
He led 19 laps.
Hocevar now owns 19 top-10s in his Cup Series career. His best results of the season prior to Sunday were two fourth-place finishes at Atlanta and Darlington.
2. Talladega lives up to reputation with huge wreck
It wouldn’t be a Talladega race without a Big One.
This was a massive crash.
It began on Lap 115 with a bump that sent Bubba Wallace into the wall. That kicked off a chain reaction that affected most of the field and brought out a red flag. The Fox broadcast identified 26 involved cars.
“Everybody wrecked,” Ryan Blaney said.
Blaney’s day ended as a result of the pileup, as did Wallace’s, Kyle Larson’s, Joey Logano’s and Cole Custer’s.
“There was a big stack-up, and I was just in the middle of it,” Larson said. “… It was starting to get hairy there at the start of the stage, so I wasn’t surprised to get wrapped up in that crash.”
3. Next race on NASCAR schedule comes at Texas
As the calendar flips to May, NASCAR will leave the “pack racing” at Talladega and get back to another normal oval track where it’s spent much of the last two months.
Texas Motor Speedway will host the Würth 400 on May 3. The green flag will drop shortly after 3:30 p.m., and the race will air on FS1. It will feature 267 laps.
Texas measures in at 1½ miles around. This will be its only Cup Series event of the season.
Last spring, Joey Logano went to Victory Lane at the 30-year-old track.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR takeaways: Carson Hocevar invents celebration after first win
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
