Chase Elliott Ends 42-Race NASCAR Cup Series Winless Streak With Overtime Victory at Texas Motor Speedway
The drought is done.
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday to end a 42-race winless stretch that dated back to the 2022 fall race at Talladega.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver had to survive three late restarts to do it.
Elliott Was trailing denny Hamlin with 14 laps to go when a Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spin brought out the yellow flag.
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Hamlin chose the inside lane for the restart and Elliott lined up alongside him with eight laps left.
The two battled it out nose-to-nose until Kyle Larson spun back in the pack with Elliott scored .002 seconds ahead of Hamlin, which put him up front for the ensuing restart.
Elliott chose the inside and took the green flag with two laps to go. He moved ahead of Hamlin and moved up the track in front of him before Hamlin lost it on the last turn and ended up in the wall.
That brought out the yellow, with Elliott taking the inside next to Ross Chastain for an overtime finish, which had to be redone after Harrison Burton crashed on the initial lap.
Elliott appeared to tap Chastain’s door on the first lap of the second overtime and Chastain dropped back leaving Elliott to run away.
On the final lap, Chastain moved up the track exiting turn tow and slowed, which led to William Byron running into the back of him and putting him into the wall, which brought out the yellow and secured Elliott’s win.
Elliott said he wasn’t sure if he had done anything to cause Hamlin’s spin, but during his post-race interview on FS1 apologized if he had.
He did not address the contact with Chastain, who had no immediate comment about it after the race.
Brad Keselowski, who hasn’t won since the spring Talladega race in 2021, was scored in second place ahead of Byron, Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez.
The Cup Series heads to Talladega on April 21 for the Geico 500, which is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on Fox.
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