It has felt like a matter of when, not if, for about a year now, and Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar finally sealed the deal on Sunday, becoming the 13th driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to secure his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
Hocevar is the second first-time winner of the month, as Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs held on to win the race at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks prior. Gibbs, like Hocevar, had come oh-so-close to winning at the Cup level on multiple occasions before.
While there are those who will say "it's just Talladega", winning a Cup race is hard, and it's why a very small percentage of the roughly 3,000 drivers to make at least one Cup Series start have ever managed to do it.
Hocevar is the 208th all-time Cup Series race winner.
Only 144 of the other 207, less than 70%, have gone on to win a second race. Fewer than half of all race winners have won more than four times. Among the 36 active full-time drivers, Hocevar is one of 27 different winners. Of those 27 drivers, 23 have multiple victories.
A full all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list can be found here.
RFK Racing's Ryan Preece, who won the preseason Clash exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium in early February, is not included on this list, as he has yet to win a points race.
Other full-time drivers still seeking their first points victories include Kaulig Racing's Ty Dillon, Rick Ware Racing's Cody Ware, Trackhouse Racing rookie Connor Zilisch, Front Row Motorsports teammates Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland, and Zane Smith, 23XI Racing's Riley Herbst, and Legacy Motor Club's John Hunter Nemechek.
Although he only became a full-time driver in 2024, Hocevar entered his rookie season with nine career starts under his belt, as he made one start for Spire Motorsports in 2023, when Corey LaJoie was filling in for the suspended Chase Elliott at Hendrick Motorsports at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and eight for Legacy Motor Club, after Noah Gragson was suspended and ultimately released for liking a meme on social media.
The 23-year-old Portage, Michigan native's Jack Link's 500 victory came in his 91st career start and 82nd behind the wheel of the No. 77 Chevrolet (83rd overall with Spire Motorsports).
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