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Chase Elliott’s winless streak is over.
Elliott made it through multiple overtime restarts at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday to get his first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2022. Elliott got past Ross Chastain on the penultimate lap after the two drivers restarted on the front row and had the lead when Chastain went crashing off William Byron’s bumper down the backstretch on the final lap.
The 2020 Cup Series champion hadn’t won 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, including the yellow flag for Chastain’s crash on the final lap. That ties a track record that was set in 2022 despite Sunday’s race being 100 miles shorter than every other Texas race until 2023.
Two of the cautions came as drivers were battling for the lead, including with less than three scheduled laps to go. Denny Hamlin crashed while he was on the outside of Elliott as his car suddenly lost traction and hit the wall.
After the race, Elliott called Texas “sketchy,” and that’s a good way to describe the track since it was reconfigured in 2017. The track is slick and has never been able to consistently produce multiple grooves in the corners for drivers to go side-by-side. Over 100 laps before Hamlin crashed in Turn 4, Michael McDowell crashed out of second place when his car wasn’t on the bottom of the track.
Kyle Larson’s dominance disappears with his right rear wheel
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson started first and was the strongest driver throughout the opening stage. But his right rear wheel came off the car under a caution flag during the second stage and he never recovered the track position he lost.
Larson was penalized two laps for the wheel coming off his car and he got those laps back before he spun with less than 10 scheduled laps to go. However, Larson never showed the speed that he had early in the race when he was back in the pack and he ended up finishing 20th.
Jimmie Johnson spins again
Jimmie Johnson has made five Cup Series starts since he returned to NASCAR on a part-time basis in 2023. He has been involved in a caution in all five of those races.
Johnson brought out the first caution of the day on lap 49 when he spun off Turn 4. He went on to finish 26th and did finish on the lead lap.
It’s safe to say that Johnson’s post-retirement foray back into driving has been a massive disappointment. He detailed his difficulties with the way the current Cup Series car drives ahead of Sunday’s race and his results have showed it.
Race results
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