Chase Elliott pulled away on the second overtime restart to win Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway and end a 42-race winless drought.
“Man, I cannot tell you, each and every one of you how much I appreciate you sticking with me,” Elliott said on his team’s radio after his 19th career victory but first since October 2022 at Talladega.
MORE: Texas Cup race results
MORE: What drivers said after the race
Brad Keselowski, seeking to end a 106-race winless streak, finished second. William Byron placed third and was followed by Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez.
Elliott’s victory makes him the third Hendrick driver to win this season, joining Byron and Kyle Larson. The win also continued the dominance of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Those two organizations have won eight of the first nine races this season.
Sunday’s race went to overtime when Denny Hamlin crashed while racing Elliott for the lead. They ran side-by-side through Turn 3 and Elliott moved ahead before Hamlin lost control and slid into the Turn 4 wall.
The race went to a second overtime after an incident involving Harrison Burton.
Ross Chastain was second on the backstretch on the final lap when contact with Byron turned him, ending the race under caution. That was the 16th caution of the race, tying the track record. Chastain, who won the second stage, finished 32nd.
Larson won the first stage and had his right rear wheel roll away while on track in the second stage. That was a two-lap penalty. With so many cautions and so few cars a lap down, Larson was back on the lead lap by the end of the second stage. Larson, though, could not move through traffic and later spun. He finished 20th.
Stage 1 winner: Kyle Larson
Stage 2 winner: Ross Chastain
Who had a good race: Chase Elliott had not had a top-five finish in the Next Gen car on a 1.5-mile speedway until Sunday. ... Brad Keselowski’s runner-up result is his third top five of the year. ... Tyler Reddick’s fourth-place result is his sixth top 10 in the last seven races. ... Austin Dillon’s eighth-place finish is his first top 10 of the year. His best finish this season before Sunday was 16th. ... Carson Hocevar finished a career-best 10th.
Who had a bad race: Alex Bowman was involved in an early incident and finished a season-worst 37th. ... Michael McDowell crashed while running second and dueling for the lead. He placed 35th.
Notable: Chase Elliott’s win in a Hooters car marks the sponsor’s first Cup win since Alan Kulwicki’s victory at Pocono in June 1992.
Next: The series races April 21 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET on Fox)
