Chase Elliott’s winless streak is over.
Elliott made it by means of a number of additional time restarts at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday to get his first NASCAR Cup Collection win since 2022. Elliott acquired previous Ross Chastain on the penultimate lap after the 2 drivers restarted on the entrance row and had the lead when Chastain went crashing off William Byron’s bumper down the backstretch on the ultimate lap.
The 2020 Cup Collection champion hadn’t gained a race since he took the checkered flag at Talladega in October of 2022. It was a streak of 42 races.
Sunday’s race featured 16 cautions, together with the yellow flag for Chastain’s crash on the ultimate lap. That ties a monitor document that was set in 2022 regardless of Sunday’s race being 100 miles shorter than each different Texas race till 2023.
Two of the cautions got here as drivers had been battling for the lead, together with with lower than three scheduled laps to go. Denny Hamlin crashed whereas he was on the skin of Elliott as his automobile immediately misplaced traction and hit the wall.
After the race, Elliott known as Texas “sketchy,” and that’s a great way to explain the monitor because it was reconfigured in 2017. The monitor is slick and has by no means been capable of persistently produce a number of grooves within the corners for drivers to go side-by-side. Over 100 laps earlier than Hamlin crashed in Flip 4, Michael McDowell crashed out of second place when his automobile wasn’t on the underside of the monitor.
Kyle Larson’s dominance disappears along with his proper rear wheel
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson began first and was the strongest driver all through the opening stage. However his proper rear wheel got here off the automobile underneath a warning flag in the course of the second stage and he by no means recovered the monitor place he misplaced.
Larson was penalized two laps for the wheel coming off his automobile and he acquired these laps again earlier than he spun with lower than 10 scheduled laps to go. Nonetheless, Larson by no means confirmed the pace that he had early within the race when he was again within the pack and he ended up ending twentieth.
Jimmie Johnson spins once more
Jimmie Johnson has made 5 Cup Collection begins since he returned to NASCAR on a part-time foundation in 2023. He has been concerned in a warning in all 5 of these races.
Johnson introduced out the primary warning of the day on lap 49 when he spun off Flip 4. He went on to complete twenty sixth and did end on the lead lap.
It’s secure to say that Johnson’s post-retirement foray again into driving has been an enormous disappointment. He detailed his difficulties with the way in which the present Cup Collection automobile drives forward of Sunday’s race and his outcomes have confirmed it.
Race outcomes
1. Chase Elliott
2. Brad Keselowski
3. William Byron
4. Tyler Reddick
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Chase Briscoe
7. Austin Dillon
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Kyle Busch
10. Carson Hocevar
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Preece
13. Ty Gibbs
14. Martin Truex Jr.
15. Ty Dillon
16. Noah Gragson
17. Daniel Henric
18. Chris Buescher
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. Kyle Larson
21. Kaz Grala
22. Erik Jones
23. Christopher Bell
24. Zane Smith
25. Corey LaJoie
26. Jimmie Johnson
27. Austin Cindric
28. Justin Haley
29. Harrison Burton
30. Denny Hamlin
31. Todd Gilliland
32. Ross Chastain
33. Ryan Blakey
34. John Hunter Nemechek
35. Michael McDowell
36. Josh Berry
37. Alex Bowman
38. Austin Hill
