Chase Elliott had a fast car Sunday in the Lone Star State, but he credited his second win this season and second at Texas to his whole organization.
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion had the best car at high-speed Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday and won a four-lap sprint over Denny Hamlin to capture the Wurth 400 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Elliott, who took the lead with 29 laps left after a cycle of pit stops, had a lead of more than a second over Hamlin before Corey Heim wrecked with 11 circuits left.
All of the leaders except Tyler Reddick (two tires) stayed out, and Elliott cleared Hamlin off Turn 2 on the final restart and won by 0.407 seconds for his 23rd career victory.
Elliott, who led a race-high 87 laps, also won at Martinsville on March 29. He joined Reddick as the only multi-win drivers in 2026.
Following Hamlin were Alex Bowman, Reddick and Chris Buescher.
“I’ve not been a huge fan of this place, and I’ve made that very obvious,” said Elliott, who also won at TMS in 2024. “This is a testament the whole (No.) 9 team, but not just the 9 team. Also everybody at Hendrick Motorsports because we’ve not been where we wanted to be throughout portions of this season. Everybody’s just been digging in really hard.”
Elliott chose the bottom on his restart but received good help from teammate Bowman.
“The bottom had been winning out on a lot of the restarts. I felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear off (Turn) 2, I was going to be in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, Alex gave me a great push.”
Added Hamlin, “Props to the 9 team. … I felt it was going to be close if it went green. But I didn’t have great restarts today.”
Chevrolet recorded its series-best 19th win at TMS and has claimed six of the past eight races there.
Polesitter Carson Hocevar and teammate Daniel Suarez led a Spire Motorsports front row, and Hocevar topped the first 19 laps before Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota gained the top spot until he pitted on Lap 37.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell owned the point late in the 80-lap Stage 1, but his No. 20 soon ran into trouble when Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 spun off Turn 4 on Lap 68, hit Bell and knocked him out of the race.
Erik Jones notched his first career stage win in his No. 43 Toyota. Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe followed behind.
Caution 3 for William Byron’s spin led to a chain reaction on pit road that resulted in defending Texas winner Joey Logano smashing into the back of Cole Custer’s No. 41, which was stopped and waiting for Gibbs to leave his box. Gibbs then brought out the fourth caution a few laps later when Ryan Preece sent him into the wall.
Driving the No. 67 Toyota for 23XI Racing, Heim led 69 laps in all but lost one as he headed to pit road. However, he regained the lead lap when Kyle Larson, fighting an ill-handling Chevy, looped his No. 5 all by himself and smacked the Turn 2 wall to end his day with just a few circuits left in Stage 2.
In a one-lap dash to end the segment, Elliott passed Brad Keselowski to claim the top points. Reddick, Keselowski, Hamlin and Preece finished as the top five.
–Field Level Media
