Could Chase Elliott be heading toward a career-best season? The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led a race-high 87 laps in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, and despite a late-race restart, nothing could thwart Elliott’s attempt to close out his second win of the year.
Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400 at Texas
Elliott, who looked to be cruising to the win, had to endure a late-race restart after Corey Heim crashed with 11 laps remaining in the event. This gave Denny Hamlin another shot to get by Elliott for the win.
After the race, Elliott admitted feeling a bit anxious about choosing which lane to restart the race from with four laps to go.
“Yeah, you know, I wasn’t really sure whether to go top or bottom. You know, the bottom had been winning out on a lot of the restarts. I felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear off of two, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott admitted.
On the final restart of the race, which came with four laps to go, Hamlin got a phenomenal jump on Elliott.
However, Elliott was not going to be denied. Elliott fired his No. 9 Prime Video Chevrolet deep into Turn 1, and he was able to fully clear Hamlin on the exit of Turn 2. Try as he might, Hamlin was unable to get back to Elliott, as Elliott took the win by a margin of 0.407 seconds.
Elliott’s second win of the season came in the 11th race of the season, which is the fastest into a season that Elliott has ever chalked up multiple victories in his NASCAR Cup Series career.
“Man, it was really cool to get a win as early as we did at Martinsville, and now to have two this early in the year is really special,” Elliott said in his post-race victory interview on FS1. “I think, again, it’s a testament to our team. We have a great group. Those things don’t last forever. I think for us, we have to make the most of a great opportunity. Have a great race team, great people back at home, great support from the boss, and people that keep this deal rolling. We’re just going to try to keep our heads down and keep chugging. Long year. A lot of racing left, so we’ll try to build on it.”
This win is the 23rd of Elliott’s NASCAR Cup Series career, and it came in his 369th start.
Hamlin was disappointed to not snag his second win of the season, but gave props to Elliott for enduring the final restart, where he applied a lot of pressure to him in Turn 1.
“Yeah, I thought I got a good restart there at the end side-by-side, but then, you know, just the way the side draft works there into turn one with him getting the push from the 48, it just allowed his momentum to pick up a little bit quicker than mine,” Hamlin said. “I tried to hang on to the side, but I was just getting tighter as the closer I was getting to him. So good, decent day. Just one short.”
Alex Bowman, who suffered a four-race absence earlier this year due to symptoms tied to a vertigo diagnosis, was able to score a third-place run in Sunday’s race.
Tyler Reddick, the series point leader who was looking for his sixth win of the season, came up shy of achieving the feat, but will walk out of the Lone Star State with another solid fourth-place finish.
Chris Buescher, a native of Texas, wasn’t able to nab his first career win at his home track, but the driver was able to carry the banner for RFK Racing and Ford Racing with a fifth-place finish. Buescher will head into next weekend’s event at Watkins Glen International, a track he won at two years ago, with momentum.
Daniel Suarez, who dropped deep in the pack from the second starting spot early in Sunday’s race, was able to methodically charge back up through the field and took home a sixth-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Suarez’s teammate and the polesitter of the race, Carson Hocevar, finished right behind him in seventh.
William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10 finishers.
For Wallace, the climb to a ninth-place finish was incredibly impressive, as he started the race from the 37th starting spot after a crash in Saturday’s practice session forced the No. 23 23XI Racing team to pull out their backup car for Sunday’s race. Wallace drove a smart race and worked his way to a solid finish.
Texas Motor Speedway, which has been one of the most treacherous tracks in the Next Gen car era, lived up to its reputation once again in the Wurth 400.
Christopher Bell Crashes From Lead After Being Clipped By Gilliland
Christopher Bell, who is looking to get some momentum rolling after a rough start to the season, led 22 of the opening 68 laps of the race. However, moments after passing Denny Hamlin for the lead on Lap 68, Todd Gilliland spun in front of him, and as Bell tried to squeeze past, Gilliland clipped the right-rear of Bell’s car, which sent him into the outside wall.
Bell was done for the day and finished in last place.
Defending Texas Winner Logano Done For Day After Pit Road Crash
Joey Logano, the defending winner of the Wurth 400 at Texas, also saw his day come to a premature end, as he was involved in a hard crash on pit road at Lap 94. As Logano was exiting his pit stall and attempting to get into the outside lane of pit road, Cole Custer. reacting to Ty Gibbs exiting his pit stall in front of him, came to a stop in the middle of pit road.
Logano had nowhere to go and piled into the back of Custer’s car, and the damage was enough to end Logano’s day. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion would be credited with a 37th-place finish.
Ty Gibbs, who won a few weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, only lasted 110 laps, as he was sent crashing out after a shove from Ryan Preece on Lap 111. Gibbs would finish a disappointing 36th.
And Kyle Larson, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, would finish 34th with a hampered race car after he lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet and pounded the outside wall.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, May 10. That race will be televised on FS1, and television coverage of the race will kick off at 3:00 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race at Watkins Glen.
