Chase Elliott wins in double overtime at Texas, first victory since 2022 season
A huge win for Chase Elliott! He gets it done in double overtime at Texas Motor Speedway over Ross Chastain and others. NASCAR‘s most popular driver is BACK folks. Is this the start of a big run for the 9 team?
Texas Motor Speedway delivered today. There might have been just one or two too many caution flags. However, we got an unpredictable race and no one really dominated. Teams were varied in their tire strategy as well due to the chaos on the track.
For the 19th time in the NASCAR Cup Series, Chase Elliott is a winner in the Cup Series. His first win ever at Texas.
A massive day for Chase Elliott and his team. The relief they must feel as the pressure is lifted from their shoulders.
This could be what Elliott and his team needed to go on a run. Just performed his best when it mattered the most. He outdueled Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski by the end of this race.
Getting settled in during Stage 1
For all of the complaints about the Texas Motor Speedway track, this race was entertaining. At first, it felt like it would be another dud of a race at the most hated track in the Cup Series.
In the first stage it was all Kyle Larson. The pole winner had a trimmed-out Chevy Camaro and he used every bit of the power and clean air to show that to the field. No one could keep up with Larson. Ty Gibbs was only able to get to within one second of him.
Chase Elliott really wasn’t that big of a deal in this first stage. He kept quiet for most of this race as he waited for his opportunities to present themselves.
Things would really start to heat up in the second and final stages. Caution flags were plenty. But all things considered, this first stage was predictable. Larson was fast and he showed it. Everyone else tried to keep up, but couldn’t.
Chaos at Texas Motor Speedway
The second stage really shook things up. Drivers were spinning out, losing wheels, and beating and banging. Cars went up into the wall and there were a number of incidents to open this race up for varying tire strategies.
Bubba Wallace spun out racing for the lead today. Then he had another spin later in the race with Chase Briscoe that led to a caution flag. A loose wheel coming off of Kyle Larson’s car while under caution put him down two laps in the middle of this race. He had a frustrating day overall.
There wasn’t a lot of passing for the lead, but the caution flags were shaking things up enough. Multiple drivers led here and there. Josh Berry caused two cautions back to back in this stage. Ross Chastain was great in the clean air.
That would be the case for the second half of the stage. Chastain couldn’t be caught, even with caution flags coming out left and right. Michael McDowell spun out while trying to pass Chastain for the lead. Then, in the final 16 laps of the stage, Chastain brought it home.
Alan Gustafson calls great race, Chase Elliott executes
In the end, you have to credit crew chief Alan Gustafson. He was calm, cool, and collected through the winless streak. A lot of folks thought that a change needed to be made on the box. Elliott and his crew chief remained loyal to each other and saw this through.
Hendrick Motorsports now has five wins on the year. Larson has one, Elliott one, and William Byron three. While this race had a number of ups and downs, the 9 team made moves to put themselves in a winning position.
A restart with eight laps to go was quickly ended as Larson spun out and into the wall. The pole-sitter had a rough go of things. Then the first Green White Checkered ended as Hamlin spun out racing Elliott for the lead.
That wasn’t the end of it, though. The first overtime restart was interrupted when Harrison Burton spun out. It all led to a situation where Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain were going one-on-one. Elliott won that battle and Chastain was spun out by Byron on the white flag lap.
This is a monumental win. There was a lot of noise around Elliott due to his winless streak. Did the broken leg throw him off his game permanently? Of course not. This is a championship-caliber driver and with three straight top-5s including a win today, he’s starting to get into form once again.