NASCAR News: Elliott snaps 42-race losing streak in Texas
Chase Elliott snapped a 42-race winless streak, scoring the victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 ended under caution when Ross Chastain spun on the final lap while running second after contact from William Byron behind him. Byron was credited with a runner-up finish behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, while Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suárez completed the top five.
The race was dominated by Kyle Larson until he lost two laps when his wheel fell off after a pitstop – a major blunder by his right wheel changer.
A Turn 2 spin by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Lap 254 set up a late restart in the Lone Star State with just seven laps to go — but Kyle Larson spun in Turn 2 on the ensuing refire trying too hard to to get back to the front, setting up a restart with just two laps to go.
Elliott and Denny Hamlin restarted alongside each other on the jump, but Hamlin lost control in Turn 4 and crashed, colliding with the outside SAFER barrier.
The trouble began early when seven-time Cup champion and Hall-of-Famer Jimmie Johnson spun at Lap 50 to bring out the first of 16 caution periods in Sunday’s race.
Some 50 laps later, Christopher Bell lost control of his No. 20 Toyota and backed hard into the outside wall. Alex Bowman and John Hunter Nemechek collided further back when Bowman attempted to slow to avoid Bell’s incident.
A Lap 142 restart pinned Ross Chastain and Michael McDowell on the front row together, and the duo stayed side-by-side all the way to Turn 4. But that’s where McDowell’s race ended. McDowell’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford snapped loose through the bumps in Turn 4 and crashed hard into the retaining barrier left-rear corner first, ending McDowell’s day.
Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe found themselves in a similar position 30 laps later on a Lap 172 restart. The pair of racers were door-to-door down the backstretch, with Harrison Burton challenging to their inside heading to Turn 3 for the race lead. Wallace washed up in front of Briscoe and pitched sideways, spinning just in front of Briscoe, who also spun in avoidance.
Larson led 77 laps Sunday after winning the pole, but a loose right-rear wheel detached from his No. 5 Chevrolet under caution at Lap 115. Larson was held for a two-lap penalty on pit road but received two free passes to get back onto the lead lap by the end of Stage 2. Larson ultimately finished in 20th place.
Chevy Stats
Chase Elliott became Team Chevy’s fourth different winner of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, taking the manufacturer to its series-leading sixth victory in nine points-paying races.
The victory marked Elliott’s first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season, and the Team Chevy driver’s 19th all-time victory in 295 starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
The victory is Chevrolet’s series-leading 18th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway, with Elliott extending the manufacturer’s NCS win streak to four-straight at the 1.5-mile Texas oval.
Elliott led Chevrolet to a season-high six top-10 finishers in the NASCAR Cup Series’ ninth points-paying race of the season – earned by drivers from four different Chevrolet organizations.
Elliott’s victory capped off a weekend sweep for Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway, with Team Chevy’s Kyle Busch earning the victory in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and Sam Mayer claiming the victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Chevrolet’s trio of victories at Texas Motor Speedway marks the manufacturer’s third tripleheader weekend sweep of the 2024 NASCAR season – extending its record as the only manufacturer to accomplish the feat thus far this season.
With 24 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet has a winning percentage of 66.7% with 16 victories (NASCAR Cup Series – six wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – four wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – six wins).
Chase Elliott, the 42-race drought is over. You did everything just right. How does it feel?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Oh, man, couldn’t feel any better. First off, thanks to everybody that came out today. You guys are unbelievable.
Hooter’s has been a partner of ours for a number of years now. It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to a victory and do a Polish victory lap, just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat dad back in the day. Here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today.
So just, man, couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and kind of the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. Like I said, hasn’t always been fun, but we’ve enjoyed the fight together.
You mentioned you have been fighting together. Today it was a fight on the racetrack. That race looked like it was crazy to drive. How intense was it on the track?
CHASE ELLIOTT: It was just crazy. This place is so sketchy. I haven’t seen a replay of Denny and us. I didn’t feel like I did anything super crazy there any more than anybody’s ever done to me. Just had to run forward. I want to look at it. I didn’t feel like I did anything to crash him. I think just the circumstances. But nonetheless, apologies to him if so.
Couldn’t be more proud of our team. Thanks to our partners at NAPA, Chevrolet. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Had a big week last week. Boss, thank you for sticking with me. Really, really proud of this. Appreciate all the folks back home that have stuck with me and helped us get back on track.
Race Results
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | MANUF | BEHIND | LAPS |
| 1 | 9 | Chase Elliott |  |
— | 276 |
| 2 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |  |
0.558 | 276 |
| 3 | 24 | William Byron | |
0.678 | 276 |
| 4 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |  |
0.948 | 276 |
| 5 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | |
1.425 | 276 |
| 6 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | |
2.079 | 276 |
| 7 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | |
2.309 | 276 |
| 8 | 3 | Austin Dillon | |
2.310 | 276 |
| 9 | 8 | Kyle Busch | |
3.106 | 276 |
| 10 | 77 | Carson Hocevar # | |
3.324 | 276 |
| 11 | 22 | Joey Logano | |
3.551 | 276 |
| 12 | 41 | Ryan Preece | |
3.889 | 276 |
| 13 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | |
4.080 | 276 |
| 14 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | |
4.443 | 276 |
| 15 | 17 | Chris Buescher | |
4.570 | 276 |
| 16 | 16 | Ty Dillon(i) | |
4.571 | 276 |
| 17 | 20 | Christopher Bell | |
4.572 | 276 |
| 18 | 10 | Noah Gragson | |
5.140 | 276 |
| 19 | 43 | Erik Jones | |
5.141 | 276 |
| 20 | 31 | Daniel Hemric | |
5.236 | 276 |
| 21 | 5 | Kyle Larson | |
5.557 | 276 |
| 22 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | |
5.558 | 276 |
| 23 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | |
6.352 | 276 |
| 24 | 51 | Justin Haley | |
6.353 | 276 |
| 25 | 2 | Austin Cindric | |
6.703 | 276 |
| 26 | 71 | Zane Smith # | |
6.703 | 276 |
| 27 | 15 | Kaz Grala # | |
6.979 | 276 |
| 28 | 21 | Harrison Burton | |
9.429 | 276 |
| 29 | 84 | * Jimmie Johnson | |
10.093 | 276 |
| 30 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | |
10.094 | 276 |
| 31 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | |
10.537 | 276 |
| 32 | 1 | Ross Chastain | |
0.192 | 275 |
| 33 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | |
-8 | 268 |
| 34 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | |
-50 | 226 |
| 35 | 34 | Michael McDowell | |
-133 | 143 |
| 36 | 4 | Josh Berry # | |
-140 | 136 |
| 37 | 48 | Alex Bowman | |
-176 | 100 |
| 38 | 33 | * Austin Hill(i) | |
-178 | 98 |
(I) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME
LEADERS
| CAR | TIMES | LAPS |
| 9 | 3 | 39 |
| 45 | 2 | 37 |
| 23 | 1 | 5 |
| 22 | 1 | 14 |
| 54 | 1 | 5 |
| 20 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | 5 | 78 |
| 21 | 1 | 7 |
| 11 | 2 | 37 |
| 38 | 1 | 3 |
| 1 | 2 | 33 |
| 12 | 3 | 17 |
| 33 | 1 | 1 |
LEAD CHANGES
| CAR | START | END | TOTAL |
| 5 | 0 | 35 | 36 |
| 54 | 36 | 40 | 5 |
| 9 | 41 | 52 | 12 |
| 5 | 53 | 54 | 2 |
| 20 | 55 | 55 | 1 |
| 5 | 56 | 84 | 29 |
| 12 | 85 | 87 | 3 |
| 33 | 88 | 88 | 1 |
| 12 | 89 | 99 | 11 |
| 5 | 100 | 100 | 1 |
| 12 | 101 | 103 | 3 |
| 38 | 104 | 106 | 3 |
| 5 | 107 | 116 | 10 |
| 11 | 117 | 138 | 22 |
| 1 | 139 | 167 | 29 |
| 23 | 168 | 172 | 5 |
| 21 | 173 | 179 | 7 |
| 45 | 180 | 213 | 34 |
| 1 | 214 | 217 | 4 |
| 22 | 218 | 231 | 14 |
| 45 | 232 | 234 | 3 |
| 9 | 235 | 244 | 10 |
| 11 | 245 | 259 | 15 |
| 9 Elliott | 260 | 276 | 17 |
CAUTIONS
| # | LAP | BENEFICIARY | REASON |
| 1 | 49 | 17 | #84 Spin Turn 4 |
| 2 | 80 | 8 | Stage 1 Conclusion |
| 3 | 100 | 51 | #20, 42, 48 Incident Turn 4 |
| 4 | 113 | 16 | #8, 77 Incident Turn 1 |
| 5 | 120 | 84 | #4 Incident Turn 2 |
| 6 | 136 | 20 | #4 Incident Turn 2 |
| 7 | 142 | 5 | #34 Incident Turn 4 |
| 8 | 165 | 5 | Stage 2 Conclusion |
| 9 | 172 | 15 | #14, 23 Incident Turn 4 |
| 10 | 180 | 15 | #12, 41 Incident Turn 2 |
| 11 | 228 | 71 | #42 Incident Turn 4 |
| 12 | 253 | 19 | #47 Incident Turn 2 |
| 13 | 259 | 47 | #5, 71 Incident Turn 1 |
| 14 | 265 | 12 | #11 Incident Turn 4 |
| 15 | 270 | 12 | #15, 21 Incident Turn 1 |
| 16 | 275 | #1, 24 Incident Backstretch |