FORT WORTH, Tex. – Chase Elliott had to withstand a flurry of late cautions, but in the end, he outlasted multiple challengers for the NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway. William Byron grabbed third place to give Hendrick Motorsports its fifth straight race with at least two top-five finishers.
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The win is Elliott's first of the season – snapping a 42-race winless streak – and his 19th in the Cup Series. The victory is the 306th for Hendrick Motorsports and ranks him third on the team's wins list (also with 19). After the win, the 28-year-old driver from Dawsonville, Georgia, sponsored by Hooters this weekend, performed a "Polish Victory Lap" in honor of the late Alan Kulwicki, who was also sponsored by the quick service restaurant chain.
"Oh, man, couldn't feel any better," Elliott said of the win. "First off, thanks to everybody that came out today. You are unbelievable.
"Hooters 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 doing a 'Polish Victory Lap.' Really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat Dad back in the day, and here we are, sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today.
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"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 well together."
Elliott got the lead from Denny Hamlin off the lap 260 restart with a strong push from Ross Chastain. When the caution flew, it would be the first of four cautions to fly in the final 16 laps – all of which Elliott led. He held off multiple attempts by Hamlin to get back to the lead, including one which saw Hamlin go around trying not to let Elliott clear him. Then, it was Chastain’s turn for the subsequent two restarts, with Elliott aggressively side drafting him to keep the lead. Contact between Chastain and teammate William Byron in a battle for second, brought out a yellow, but after Elliott had taken the white flag.
Elliott's day started from the 24th spot on the grid for the driver of the No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Crew chief Alan Gustafson ran his driver long in the stage and the team took the lead on lap 41. When the caution came out on lap 51, Elliott came down pit road for his first stop. The strategy play paid off, though, as he restarted eighth and finished the stage in seventh. The 2020 Cup Series champion started the second segment in seventh and spent most of it in the top 10 before finishing 10th.
"We knew we had a good car. We had to get aggressive and get some track position," Gustafson said of the decision to run long in the opening stage. "We were literally going to pit when that caution came out. We got a break there. We knew that was going to give us a few options if we ran long."
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Staying out to gain track position for the final stage, Elliott restarted fifth and drove up to third on lap 185. He pitted from that spot on lap 212 and was scored in 15th when a caution came out on lap 230. Gustafson kept Elliott out on track as the pit cycle had not yet been completed so his driver would regain the track position. On lap 235, the six-time National Motorsports Most Popular Driver Award winner restarted from third and aggressively drove to the inside of race leader Tyler Reddick for the point position. He got it but lost the lead to Hamlin on lap 245 and focused on keeping Brad Keselowski at bay for second. When the caution came out with 13 laps left in regulation, that gave Elliott another shot. He took full advantage of it and held challengers off over multiple restarts. The win marks Elliott's third consecutive top-five finish on the season – fifth at Richmond Raceway and third at Martinsville Speedway in the previous two races.
"I couldn't be more proud of our team," Elliott said. "Thanks to our partners at NAPA, Chevrolet. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. We 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."
Byron started Sunday's race in sixth in the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. He fought a car that was "a little tight" in the early going but spent nearly all of stage one in the top 10. Byron finished the opening 80-lap segment in ninth. Throughout stage two, the 26-year-old driver liked how his car's balance improved and spent most of the stage running in the top 10. A couple of quick cautions in the second half of the stage shook up the strategy and left Byron to end the segment in the 15th.
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Crew chief Rudy Fugle kept his driver out under the stage break to gain some track position. Byron restarted eighth for the final stage and methodically worked up to fourth on lap 185. Fugle was the first to call a driver in the top five down pit road – the first to pit strategy worked brilliantly for his driver last weekend at Martinsville. Scored 16th when the caution fell on lap 230 and the pit cycle was not yet complete, Byron stayed out to gain back track position. He restarted fourth with 33 laps left in regulation but lost two spots to cars with fresher tires over the next 20 laps. Over the slew of late-race restarts, Byron kept picking up a spot here and there. For the two overtime attempts, he restarted fourth. On the last one, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native got to third and contact with Chastain after the white flag was taken brought the race to an end. Byron's third-place result is his fourth top-five finish of the season and his third in the last four races.
"I just had a big run," Byron said of the final lap contact. "Ross (Chastain) and I race really well and I didn't want to wreck him there, but he blocked me late, which is understood. It's racing at the end, but I was already there and unfortunately, we made enough contact to where it got him squirrelly and it happened. I hate that that happened, but it's the last lap and I had the run, so I am going to just take the run. I didn't expect it, but I don't want to do that to a fellow Chevy guy and we always race well.
"Happy for Chase (Elliott) and those guys. They did a great job, executed really well and had a good car. We struggled all day and had to fight tooth and nail to keep our track position. We just had a few restarts go our way at the end."
Kyle Larson had an eventful day in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Starting from the pole position, he led 62 of the 80 laps in stage one to earn his series-best fifth stage win of the season. Under the stage break, Larson pitted for four tires and fuel, but four cars decided to stay out and the car in fifth took two tires. The 2021 Cup Series champion returned to the lead on lap 100 before a caution came out. He got the lead back off the lap 107 restart and held it for 10 more laps until his right-rear tire fell off under caution. Per the NASCAR rule book, it is a two-lap penalty when that occurs in a race. Two crew members will also be subject to a suspension (typically announced later in the week). Larson returned to the track in 36th and two laps down. However, thanks to several cautions late in the stage, he got back on the lead lap for the final stage.
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Larson restarted the final stage in 32nd and drove up to 23rd before radioing that the car was "plowing tight." He re-entered the top 20 on lap 201 and would pit from the top 10 on lap 218. The caution's unfortunate timing in the middle of a green-flag stop pit cycle left Larson having to take the wave around to get back on the lead lap. While running 17th, the 31-year-old driver spun in turn one on lap 261 after a stack up off the restart and contact with Zane Smith. Larson avoided significant damage to the car and used the ensuing restarts and cautions to gain some spots to finish in 21st.
Alex Bowman took the green flag from the 14th position in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. He reported that the car was tight in traffic but was working different lines to see what he could find. Pitting near the midpoint of the opening stage from a top-10 position, Bowman got boxed in trying to leave pit road under green and lost track position. He finished the stage in 18th but reported to crew chief Blake Harris that the car was really good and that he just needed track position. In the second stage, Bowman was working inside the top 20 when he was involved in a three-car incident on lap 101. Checking up to avoid a spin from Christopher Bell, Bowman checked up hard to avoid the incident and ended up spinning through the grass. The resulting front-end damage was enough to end the No. 48's race. Bowman finished 37th.
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"I was in a really bad spot to have a guy crash and have to climb into the brake pedal," Bowman said. The No. 22 (Joey Logano) saw it before I did because of how we were all stacked up. I had to climb into the brake pedal a little bit harder than I wanted to and it just spun out as soon as I did.
"We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Camaro there at the beginning of the first stage. We were going through the field pretty well. We just had that deal on pit road that put us in the back and then that happened."
Elliott's win is the fifth of the season for Hendrick Motorsports – Byron has a series-best three victories and Larson has one. It is also the team's Cup Series-high 12th win at Texas. Jimmie Johnson accounts for seven of those and holds the track record. Byron, Elliott, Larson, Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte each have one win at the 1.5-mile track. In the Next Gen era (since 2022), the Rick Hendrick-owned organization leads all teams with seven wins on 1.5-mile tracks and all four active drivers have at least one win on that track type during that period.
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Larson's 77 laps led were a race-high, while Elliott's 39 circuits out front were the second-most in the event. Leaving Texas, Larson remains the points leader with a 17-marker advantage over Martin Truex Jr. Elliott is in fourth, followed by Byron in fifth and Bowman in 14th.
Next up for the Hendrick Motorsports quartet is the 10th race of the season on Sunday, April 21, at Talladega Superspeedway. The organization has a series-best 14 victories among seven drivers at the 2.66-mile track, with Elliott holding two. Tune in to catch all the action at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
