NASCAR

Late wreck at Texas helps Chase Elliott end 42-race winless streak

Published

2w ago

Apr 15, 2024 / 1108 Views

Elliott grabbed the lead for the time on a restart with eight of the scheduled 267 laps remaining, but it was still a long road to Victory Lane.

Elliott had to fend off Denny Hamlin on a restart with two laps to go, then fought off Ross Chastain on a pair of restarts in overtime before finally securing the win when the caution came out when William Byron got into Chastain racing for second place.

The victory ended a frustratingly long winless streak by Elliott that dates to the 2022 season, a span that included missed races for a leg injury and a one-race NASCAR suspension.

With the caution out and driving to take the checkered flag, an emotional Elliott said over his team radio, “I cannot tell you, each and every one of you, how much I appreciate you for sticking with me.”

Elliott, with his 19th career wins, becomes the third different driver from Hendrick MotorSports to win in the first nine races of the 2024 season.

"Oh, man, I couldn't feel any better," Elliott said after the race. "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 - it's 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.

"I 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."

Elliott said he had not seen a replay of his race for the lead with Hamlin but didn't believe he was responsible.

"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," Elliott said. "But nonetheless, apologies to him if so.

"Couldn't be more proud of our team. Boss (team owner Rick Hendrick), 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."

Brad Keselowski was second, Byron third, Tyler Reddick fourth and Daniel Suarez completed the top five.

Stage 1

Kyle Larson held off Christopher Bell by 0.931 seconds to claim the Stage 1 win. Hamlin was third, Reddick fourth and Chase Briscoe ended up fifth.

Stage 2

Chastain stayed out on the last caution and was able to hold off Bubba Wallace by 0.613 seconds to take the Stage 2 win. Ryan Blaney was third, Erik Jones fourth and Briscoe grabbed fifth on the final lap.

Bell spun off Turn 4 on lap 101 in an incident that also saw John Hunter Nemechek and Alex Bowman wreck in the aftermath. Bowman was knocked out of the race.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead lap cars spit but Wallace remained on the track and inherited the lead. Larson, who was two laps down at one point, received the free pass and returned to the lead lap.

As the field raced through Turns 3 and 4, Harrison Burton went inside of Wallace to take the field three-wide and grab the lead. Wallace then got loose, went up the track and hit Briscoe to bring out the caution.

Burton led Hamlin and Reddick on the restart with 90 laps to go.

Four laps later, Ryan Preece got into Blaney and sent his No. 12 Penske Ford up the track and into the Turn 2 wall, bringing an early end to his race.

Reddick led Burton and Hamlin on the restart with 82 laps to go.

Several lead-lap drivers, including Byron and Elliott, kicked off a final round of green flag pit stops with 55 laps to go to take on new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Before the cycle of stops was completed, Nemechek shot up the track and hit the wall hard in Turn 4 on lap 229 to bring out the 11th caution of the race. Those who had not yet pit did so, turning the lead back over to Reddick.

Elliott went to the inside of Reddick to take the field three-wide and grabbed the lead on the restart with 33 laps to go.

On Lap 230, Hamlin ran down Elliott and reclaimed the top spot as Reddick hit the wall and lost several positions on the track.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecked off Turn 2 to bring out the 12th caution of the race and set up a restart with eight laps remaining and Hamlin leading Elliott and Keselowski.

Just after Elliott moved ahead of Hamlin on the restart, Larson hit the wall off Turn 2 to cause another caution and set up yet another restart with two laps to go.

While racing Elliott for the lead, Hamlin spun and backed into the wall in Turn 4 to send the race into overtime. A wreck involving Burton and Kaz Grala on the restart sent the race into a second overtime with Elliott still in command.