Who wins the NASCAR race this weekend? The season is here, the Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the Jack Link's 500 on Sunday afternoon. As we do every week, our NASCAR predictions attempt to project what will happen, from who will win on pole to stage winners and who will end up in victory lane.
Let's take a look at our Jack Link's 500 predictions at Talladega.
Kyle Busch wins pole at Dega
The only bright spot for the No. 8 team this season came when it won the pole at the Daytona 500. During this Kyle Busch winless streak, superspeedways have been one of the few tracks where he has had some success. Richard Childress Racing, although making mistakes with car setup everywhere else, knows how to build its cars for Talladega, as evidenced by Busch's 3.3 average starting position since 2024. At the track where he finished fourth in the spring 2024 race and second in the spring 2025 race, Busch got the pole at Dega on Saturday.
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Austin Cindric wins Stage 1
Team Penske needs to bounce back after a poor performance at Texas. To Austin Cindric's credit, he did better than his two teammates (12th). Now the driver of the No. 2 car arrives at Talladega, where he scored stage wins in both races during the 2024 season and turned a third-place finish in Stage 2 last spring into a win in Jack Link's 500 last year. While we don't anticipate Cindric getting back to victory lane this weekend, he'll get a Stage 1 win and jump above The Chase cutline after Sunday.
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Joey Logano wins Stage 2
We're predicting a sweeping stage win for Team Penske at Degas. Logano would finish in the top four in Stage 1 and then, with some help from crew chief Paul Wolfe and the No. 22's pit crew, navigate the much shorter Stage 2 to score 10 much-needed points. It will all be a part of an excellent points day for the No. 22 car, which finishes in the top five in scoring and moves into the top 10 of NASCAR Cup Series points leaders next week.
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Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs fall out of top 10
Ty Gibbs has finished in the top-10 in seven consecutive races, and Tyler Reddick has boasted an impressive 10.5 average finishing position at Talladega over the last four races, in addition to his five wins this year. We're guessing both drivers won't meet that high on Sunday. As for Gibbs, his performance at Texas honestly left much to be desired, and we have real concerns about how well he'll fare in traffic at Degas. Meanwhile, in a season where a lot has gone right for the No. 45 team, Reddick's luck ran out on Sunday with car problems that ultimately caused him to fall out of the top 20.
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Carson Hocevar wins Jack Links 500
In his 90th race, Carson Hocevar would score his first win in the Cup Series. Over the past year he has proven he has the speed to take him to victory lane, and now the experience of running in all those races is paying off. Hocevar is set to battle Logano, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe on Sunday's final stage at Talladega. His teammates may not like what he does to win, but Hocevar comes away with a win and ends what proves to be one of the most exciting moments of the 2026 season.
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