Chase Elliott's winning streak ended.
Elliott survived multiple overtime restarts Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2022. Elliott passed Ross Chastain on the penultimate lap after the two drivers restarted on the front row, taking the lead when Chastain crashed. William Byron's bumper collided with him on the backstretch on the final lap.
The 2020 Cup Series champion had not won a race since taking the checkered flag at Talladega in October 2022. This was 42 consecutive races.
Sunday's race resulted in 16 cautions, including a yellow flag for Chastain's crash on the final lap. This matches the track record set in 2022, even though Sunday's race is 100 miles shorter than all other races in Texas through 2023.
Two of the warnings were issued while drivers were battling for the lead, including with less than three laps remaining. Denny Hamlin crashed while driving on the outside of Elliott when his car suddenly lost traction and hit the wall.
After the race, Elliott described Texas as “sketchy,” but that's the perfect word to describe the course since it was reconfigured in 2017. The track was smooth and didn't always have multiple grooves in the corners for drivers to pull aside. beside. More than 100 laps before Hamlin crashed in Turn 4, Michael McDowell crashed from second place when his car was not at the bottom of the track.
Kyle Larson's advantage disappears with his right rear wheel
Elliott's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson started first and was the strongest driver throughout the opening stages. However, during the caution flag on the second stage, his right rear wheel came off the car and he was unable to regain the lost track position.
Larson was given a two-lap penalty for having a wheel come off his car, but he made it back before spinning out with less than 10 laps remaining. However, even after Larson returned to the group, he was unable to show the same speed as he had at the beginning of the race, and ended up finishing in 20th place.
Jimmie Johnson spins again
Jimmie Johnson has appeared in the Cup Series five times since returning to NASCAR part-time in 2023, receiving cautions in all five races.
Johnson drew the first caution of the day on Lap 49 when he spun in Turn 4. He stayed on to finish 26th and finished on the lead lap.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Johnson's return to driving after his retirement was a huge disappointment. He detailed the difficulties with how current Cup Series cars are driven ahead of Sunday's race, and the results showed it.
race results
1. Chase Elliott
2. Brad Keselowski
3. William Byron
4. Tyler Reddick
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Chase Brisco
7. Austin Dillon
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Kyle Busch
10. Carson Hosever
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Preece
13. Ty Gibbs
14. Martin Truex Jr.
15. Ty Dillon
16. Noah Gragson
17. Daniel Henrik
18. Chris Buescher
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. Kyle Larson
21. Kaz Grala
22. Eric 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
