NASCAR Cup Series Highlights | 2026 Talladega Superspeedway

Runaway and Ballos is in the wall. They're all wrecking. This is the big one. That's the whole field. Speed and surprises. To me, that's talenting. You know, there are a lot of guys that need to win. We know that this is wide open. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain. The list goes on and on and on, but it's so hard to make it line up, to have everything go your way. The rules have changed a little bit with the stage links. We don't know what that's going to entail and bring. Sit back, hang on, enjoy, relax if you can. Things are going to get interesting. Now they approach the start line and the green flag waves. And don't forget what qualifying canceled yesterday. They haven't been in these cars one time this weekend. Hope it turns. Well, and right now, at the beginning of this race, you're going to probably feel the car bottom out when you get to the other end of the racetrack, down here in three and four. Big bump where the haulers go across the racetrack. You'll see them come up on that right there. So there it is. Big patch going across the racetrack. But these cars are going to bottom out a little bit. The drivers, I always was on edge just a little bit because I wasn't real sure what my car was going to do. And you know you have to hold it wide open. Down the short chute into the 18-degree banking of the tri-oval. And the track flattens out as you get to the start-finish line. Yeah, you see that third lane right there already starting to form up top. A whole bunch of cars up in the top. And I think as we see what these strategies are going to be for everybody to try to put themselves in a position as to what they want to do, it's going to all start to unfold. So you see Austin Dillon. Austin Dillon's pulling them, but the opportunity is coming for somebody in front of him. Do I go up there and block it and take the ride? Yeah, and those guys have come from the back of the pack. Ross Chastain and a lot of those cars up in that top lane, Austin Dillon all started towards the back of this pack, 24th for Ross Chastain. So they've made their way to the front quickly. Austin Dillon from 18th to 5th on the outside with a pack of Chevys behind him. Here he comes. He wants to lead this thing. And you see two teammates down on the bottom down there and you see Chase Briscoe actually pull out. I don't think that was on purpose. Either Denny got loose getting into the corner or something and he moved up to keep from running him over. Seven drivers have raced away from the field. It includes three of the Joe Gibbs Toyotas plus John Hunter Nemechek, both of the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets plus Cody Ware. Yeah, that's... And you can go and talk about all the strategy and all the things that happened in the cat-and-mouse game and the repositioning of everything, but that's the part that I was excited about for today. We were like, oh, man, now we're gonna see what we saw before, and then all of a sudden, these seven or eight cars out front that decided to pick up the pace, they have forced the whole field now to pick up the pace and all that fuel saving is out the window. Well, Mike, to you guys' point, I don't remember a race that I've had more conversations with the crew chiefs about having to be fluid today, having to change plans, adjust midstream as they go. One of those, Ryan Preece's crew chief, Derek Finley, he told me today we may have to be more reactive than we've ever been before. Take a listen to this radio. His plans may be getting ready to change. Well, Mike, one strategy that I know that a team or a crew chief doesn't ever want to hear is what's going on with the 45 of Tyler Reddick right now. Just a few laps ago, take a listen to what he radioed to the team as the pace started to pick up. I don't know, it's just doing some weird stuff. It's doing weird stuff at that higher pace. Power kind of going in and out. Eight cars come to pit road. And that moves the Fords to the front of the pack, led by Ryan Preece and his team owner, Brad Keselowski in the six. I see a lot of smoke out of that 19 car right there. And, Mike, they did exactly what we anticipated, fuel and two tires. Denny Hamlin, too fast entering pit road. Well, this is exactly what we talked about getting to pit road. You cannot speed getting on to pit road. Another penalty, a safety violation on Chase Briscoe. Yeah, this is great. He was that first box, came in and slid. I saw it was a long, long stop. And watch this. See, he's on the outside. Oh, man, hits the tire. Wipes out the carrier. Guy's back up on his feet. But he totally missed the box coming in. Yeah, this is definitely quite the diabolical situation for Joe Gibbs Racing. Just a disaster on that first pit stop. Two of their four cars having trouble. Briscoe had trouble on a green flag stop at Daytona in the season opener. Trackhouse and Hendrick in while the Fords continue to run long. Kyle Larson stopped. Right sides. And they're going for four. Well, it's hard. Let's go, let's go, let's go. And this is the cooperation that we've seen in the past out of the Fords. They've done a good job. They missed it, right? They missed it in Daytona this year and learned from their mistake. Whoa, four or five wide getting on to pit road. Well, the thing you see right here, there are some Chevrolets and a Toyota right there mixed in with this group. So that's a lot of cars to get to pit road right there. Sendrick just got a big bump. Yeah, he missed his pit. Missed it. Noah Gregson got into the back of him and he was unable to get to his pit stop. Yeah, it's not every day that you come down pit road three wide. You see another mistake in the first pit box right here. Didn't get the fuel in it all the way. We saw three different strategies and Al came back on the racetrack right together. Another mistake. Daniel Suarez started to leave his pit. They went, no, no, no. Made him back up, tightened the wheel, and away he goes. Yeah, and Austin Sendrick back on pit road now from missing his pit box all by himself. So another situation. And those are the mistakes you see. Again, no practice coming on to pit road. We saw some of that. Saw speeding. The fundamentals is what will bite you at this place with all this hectic, crazy stuff going on. All right. I can't believe the number of problems we've had on this first pit stop. It's the pit crews and it's the drivers. I can, Mike. I mean, it puts the pressure on them. And you drop the ball right with the fundamental things. You overlook them. Wait a minute. You haven't heard all of it. Zane Smith uncontrolled tire. Riley Herbst speeding. Daniel Dye speeding. Chad Fincham speeding. Miscommunication on the number 60 car of Ryan Preece as well. The plan was two tires and to wait on fuel. They have been having some radio issues today, though, with static and things popping up in the driver's ear. Something happened when he was sitting in the pit stall. He thought it was time to go. Crew chief, though, just radioed to him and said, we think we're okay, but we are going to be in max save right now. Max save as he tried to calm down Ryan Preece. And the five car, Kyle Larson, also trouble with the handoff on the fuel can. There's some concern about if that car has enough to make it to the end. He's in max save as well. We saw his stop going to break. We're going to hear it is again. Watch the fueler with the second can. I don't think he's going to get it connected here. No, it's the first can's hung up. See, it's hung up in between the can. And here's their radio. We had a really bad fuel exchange. We had a really hard target. Save what you can. Win what you can. That is Ryan Preece's radio. Derek Finley, the crew chief. Nervous about fuel making it to the end of this stage, Kevin. Yeah, and that is not a comfortable position as a driver. When you're in that car, they're telling you to run 80%. And also go get all the stage points. Yeah, which one is it? To lead. And his boss goes to the front, Brad Keselowski. To the outside of Preece. Ryan Blaney with him. Hold on to it. Reddick's a little bit out of control back there. Car got loose behind Ty Dillon trying to push him. Some energy coming on the outside. Yeah, you see that outside lane is formed up right there. But I'm not sure it's going to be enough to overcome these cars on the bottom of the racetrack. All right, they're separated coming off of this for the final time here. Separation, look out! Joey Logano, Josh Berry trying to make something happen there on the inside. Yeah, and for whatever reason, Buescher stayed up on the racetrack and gave Logano the bottom like that. And he took it. Green and white checker in the air, and Ryan Preece is going to win the stage. Over Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Fords in the top six spots. Well, Mike, just to update Tyler, Reddick coming down to top off. Really nothing to lose for those guys. He had to pit before the pit lane opened. I went and looked at Billy Scott, and I said, was it that close on fuel? And his eyes got really big. And he said, yeah, we were that close. So they couldn't even make it under yellow rolling around once more before they came down for their first pit stop. Top off here. He's going to have to go to the back. Keep in mind, also, Bubba Wallace pitted with four laps to go in that stage. So he had fresh tires and a full load of fuel, able to do that and do no tires on that stop and get out front. So the drivers that stopped to top off, including Reddick, were William Byron, Noah Gregson, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Zane Smith, and Ricky Stenhouse. Those were the lead lap drivers that topped off. That just gives them insurance to make it 42 laps to the end of the next stage. That's right. These last two stages are only 45 laps each. So if things go right, you can make it without a fuel stop. Stage two, green flag. The aggression level is getting ready to go way up, Clint. As we see the first two cars right there in both rows pushing really hard. And who's that guy pushing? We haven't seen much of him this year. That's a three-time champion in that 22 car. A big day for him. Big opportunity. We need a win bad. Four wide. Turns one and two and all the way down the back. In the wall. Right in front of the pack. Blaney's around. Logano's around. They're all wrecking. This is the big one. That's the home field. Four cars were in front of that crash. One car, McDowell, was behind it. I mean, there's only four cars that are not in this crash. It's a parking lot down here. Priest comes to the line. With Buescher. Chastain. And Christopher Bell. Here's Erik Jones coming across. And Michael McDowell. Everybody else was either in it or had to scatter to avoid contact. A lot of cars coming by with a little bit of damage. You see a bunch of them. Daniel Suarez driving backwards right here. Bubba out of the car. Chastain goes up. He moves up into the middle lane in front of Blaney. That checks them all up. And as they get to Bubba, you've got the inertia. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 cars all slamming into Bubba Wallace. And as soon as they touched him, he was already in trouble in my opinion. That car was loose. We saw it several times. And as soon as they touched him, away it went. Wrecked the whole field. That's a big one. Yeah, I mean, you take that inertia clear back to Sendrick back there in the bright yellow car. Watch this. As they get to him, you see Chastain getting in. See them four cars pull away? It was actually three cars. But they pulled right up to the bumper of the one car. And as they collectively got to him, they all hit the 23 is basically what happens. In real time, at speed. You see just how little anyone has time to react. From onboard Joey Logano. All right, let's get back to it. Halfway through stage number two. Pace car pulls off. Ross Chastain inside of Christopher Bell. Chevy versus Toyota on this restart. Two Fords behind the front row. Gilliland and Buescher. As things stay pretty orderly. Yeah, and we haven't said Todd Gilliland's name all day. Right down there on the bottom lane. Pushing Ross Chastain. And look, too, behind him. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That 47 car on your inside. Certainly capable of finding victory lane on a super speedway. Quite a bit of Chevys up here. Three Fords. One Toyota. This is a scenario where I believe strength in numbers. And when I mean strength in numbers, that manufacturer battle. Where we can work together in this limited field that we have. And we can really help one another. That's a great point. And when you said the key word right there. Limited field. And when you knock those numbers down. And the energy of the pack is not as great as it is when we've got all the cars in the race. Then it becomes a little bit more difficult to pass. If you can have some strategy like that where everybody can get together, you can make more ground. And fend people off just by sheer numbers. And that certainly lends to the Chevrolets from what I saw in the top ten. But what happens inside the helmet when you have a big pileup like this? They put the red flag out. Everybody gets a chance to reset, reboot, rethink what they're going to do next. How does it change the mindset? It changes your strategy. Your mindset is, now I've got to find a new dancing partner. Look at Christopher Bell in that 20 car. Right there on the list. He's the only, well, now Reddick's up here in tenth. But he needs to try to find some new friends. Somebody to work with. Because you know those Chevrolets are going to spit you out. And that Ford behind you as soon as possible with a Ford behind him as a teammate. Well, and the other thing is, you become way more confident if you're these guys. Because you missed what's in trouble. Hard hit in the wall for Ty Gibbs. I'm wondering if that car, that had a lot of damage on the front. It almost looked like a right front failure. Thankfully he is okay. That's as hard a hit as you can have, isn't it? Be able to see him. I think there he is at the right side of your screen. You see the damage already on the front. The tire let go. See it go down on the right front. Blew it right front. And since the 20 did not pit, nobody could take the wave around. So here we come for the restart. 14 to go in stage two. Now you see that bottom lane did a nice job getting connected. Now they're starting to come disconnected right there on the bottom lane. Top two cars doing a nice job. Chastain always an aggressive blocker. They do a good job of moving. Figuring out where the energy is coming from. Well, and at this point, Clint, you have to take advantage of what just happened today. I think you're going to see Ross Chastain pretty much throw caution to the wind. Not that he doesn't always do that. Chris Buescher going to put Christopher Bell up top by himself. And puts himself in front of a Ford with Helvey Gilliland behind him. Good scenario for Buescher. Good move. Ford pushing a Chevy and a Chevy pushing a Toyota for the stage win. How's this going to turn out? I'm calling it off at two. I want that gap back. I'm talking about sitting house. Now Bell goes to the inside. That was probably a good move for Bell. But he's going to get a big push. Is he going to pull up? Chastain's going to pull up. Oh, man, that was a tight. Very tight. Bell covers Chastain. Back to the bottom. Buescher with him. Stenhouse gives Bell a bump. They're up in the north banking. Coming out of turn four. Final lap, stage two. Chastain with a gap. Is it too big a gap? I think it might be, Mike. There they come. Chastain trying to cover both lanes at once into the Tri-Oval. And beats Bell to the line. Second stage win of the season for Ross Chastain. So Denny Hamlin pitted with one to go, so he did not wave around back to the lead lap. It'll be Hamlin and Ty Dillon one lap down to battle for the free pass. Stage three with Chris Buescher getting a good push from Josevar against Alex Bowman. This track has produced a lot of first-time winners. A Josevar win would be big here. Big cycle of guys up to the front of this pack. Chris Buescher really the only one that was in Stenhouse. The only ones that were up in the front. We hadn't said Alex Bowman's name all day, and you see him down in that bottom lane leading it. You can see the inside line kind of deteriorated down the back of there. Cody Ware, I'm watching him. See the gap between him and Stenhouse. He wasn't able to pull up to the back of Stenhouse and help that line go to the outside. That's that hungry driver looking for his first win, Carson Josevar. Here we go. The hurricane takes to the outside, and he's got help from Eric Jones. And behind him, Chase Elliott. Car just bounced off the wall, and that's Tyler Ruddick way up in turn two. We're going to stay green unless NASCAR spots debris, but I believe he did have contact up there. Yeah, and these are the types of things. That right front looks low. I'm sorry, Kevin. And what I was getting ready to say is these types of things are what happen when you have tore up body panels and braces come loose. Caution's out. A lot of the kind of the same thing that you have right front. You can see him start to go up much like we saw with Gibbs, but a lot better scenario. There it's down. Yeah, and you see, and that's why the caution came out. One Ford and one Toyota against five Chevrolets at the front of the field. Coming at 22 to go. It's time to get established in this race. I don't care where you're at. Keep it in the track position in the front, and if you're in the back, find a way. Kyle Busch had an uncontrolled tire penalty on his pit stop. Starts out back. Bottom lane got a great connection down there. You see the 47 and the 43 have a little bit of trouble right there. And that little bit of trouble is those moments that we were talking about earlier. You know, somebody slips up, has to check them up. I always explain this like a chain. You get slack in a chain, and it's not successful. You got to keep the slack out of the chain in that line. Your hope is that... Oh! Eric Jones goes for a wild ride after contact and keeps it off the wall. Gets to pit road, and we are still green. And you see just a little bit off center right there, and just gets into the back of him and shoots him to the left. 43 stuck. Well, that reshuffled the deck. Caution is out. It'll be three to go. When they come to the line, they're in the restart zone, and green flag waves again. See that bottom lane a little bit unorganized down there right now, but first two cars are hooked up and pushing, and the pushes are going to be as hard as they have been all day. Three-car train up top. Dillon did not get to the back bumper of the 48 as Bowman requested. Still a little gap there. Yeah, but they haven't got detached yet. The problem is they've got three cars connected on the top lane. More than that. That energy's with the top lane. Now Josevar edges ahead from the bottom. Make that thing wide, Chris Buescher. Alex Bowman latched on to Josevar. Yeah, and as you look at Stenhouse right there, getting that side draft, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, they see that. Whoa! Big pushes on the bottom row right there. You see the Josevar car get to those bumps on the back straightaway, and Bowman releases him right there, getting ready to get to the point where these guys are going to start taking chances and pulling out. Josevar's got to be mindful. Don't get out too far. Those gaps are dangerous for a leader. And now the outside lane has the energy. White flag is waving. It'll be one lap to go, sponsored by Credit One Bank. You just never know how the energy is going to build right here. See the 17 car not quite clear of Carson Josevar as they enter the middle of turns one and two. Stenhouse right on the door of the 48. Here comes some energy on the outside. Elliott, Stenhouse, watch this. Really big push right here. Guys on the bottom aren't really connected, but that 3 car is going to get to the back bumper of the 48. The 9 is going to create another situation for this outside. He's coming on them. Long ways to the start-finish line still. Josevar edging up on the bottom. They're 3 wide. Priest contact, 4 cars into the wall. Leaders coming to the line. Number 13, first-time winner, Carson Josevar. Carson Josevar, the Hurricane from Portage, Michigan, becomes the second driver to win. Thank you. He's aggressive. He's energetic. Folks have compared him to a very young Dale Earnhardt. He's got something up his sleeve right here, Clint. I think he's wanting to drive it. He's wanting to hang out of the window and do a burnout. No, he's wanting to drive it sitting on the door, I think. Maybe. That's what he was trying to do. He had it running. Well, Alan Kowicki created the Polish victory lap for his first win. Carson Josevar wanted to do something memorable for his first victory. He better stop. We're going to hit the wall. Not too sure about this, but, hey, it's his show. He's got it figured out now. Now we got it. I knew it. Oh, boy. This is going to be cool. I'll bet you Monday there'll be a new rule. Well, better to be a rule-maker than a rule-breaker. That's what DW always said. Absolutely. How about this? Remember a Richmond one year when Earnhardt's windshield got all covered and he sat on the window sill, drove the car, and wiped the windshield. Larry, you remember that? That's a moment. That's cool. Sat there just about like this during the race under caution. Climbed back in the seat, put the belts back on, got back to racing because he didn't want to make a pit stop and go to the back. Well, this beats all. I hope by the time he gets to the start-finish line and our cameraman, he figures out how to stop this. That could be the problem. We couldn't figure out how to get it going. Just shut it off, do it with the ignition. Pretty cool being able to sit like that. But that's why you like this kid. He's a thinker. Always thinking outside the box and doing something different, paving his own way. What a way to celebrate. That's unbelievable. I don't know that we can get it to stop, guys. There we go. Uh-oh. And a burnout.