Chase Elliott wins in late duel at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott wins for the second time in the NASCAR Cup Series this season in the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

This becomes his 23rd career Cup Series victory and his second win at Texas.

Elliott started outside the top ten and methodically climbed to eighth by the end of stage one. Then his day shifted into another gear entirely.

His pit crew delivered all day and a nine-second pit stop just before the stage break vaulted him to the front for stage two, and he never fully relinquished it.

He later blitzed the RFK duo of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece on the final lap stage shootout to win the second stage. Then he set the fastest lap and lead a race-high 89 laps on the day.

He appeared to nearly walkaway with the win before trouble struck Corey Heim with 11 laps remaining.

Heim had been the most intriguing subplot of the afternoon. He ran an alternate strategy to lead the second-most laps.

Heim looked more at ease inside a Cup car than he ever has before his day unraveled to a 31st-place finish.

With four laps remaining on the restart, the strategy calls at the front defined how the race finished.

The top two of Elliott and Denny Hamlin decided to stay out on their used rubber while Tyler Reddick gambled on two tires.

It was the right call for Elliott and the top three who stayed out. He managed his rubber over those final laps, holding off both Hamlin and the charging Reddick to take his second win before the halfway point of the regular season.

Notable Finishes

Alex Bowman stayed out on old tires and fended off Tyler Reddick for third. He now has two straight top three finishes after missing time with his month long battle with vertigo.

Tyler Reddick earned another top five in fourth. This marks a series best sixth top five and his first in the category that was not a win.

Chris Buescher also earned his second consecutive top five finish. He takes his 5/3 Bank Ford to his highest finish at his home track on May fifth.

The spire duo who locked out the front row of Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar finished sixth and seventh as they continue their great form to start the season.

William Byron battled back from a solo spin early in stage two for eighth.

Finally, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top ten after taking tires on the final caution. They both had really quiet races before securing top tens each.

Riley Herbst had a great day after finishing 11th. He had a top ten run going and showed improved pace which should boost his confidence going into the rest of the intermediate races this season.

Erik Jones finished behind him in 12th after earning his first career stage win in the first stage.

Early Incidents

While the final stage stayed relatively caution free, single-car incidents defined the day. Many chase contending drivers suffered faults throughout the first two stages.

Kyle Larson failed to win in both events he entered as a solo spin in stage two ended his day. He was able to make repairs in the garage but finished 34th, 86 laps down.

Coach Gibb’s day went from bad to worse when his grandson Ty Gibbs lost track position on pit road and paid the price. Ryan Preece hit Gibbs in the middle of turn three which shot him up and into the outside wall.

The damage was too much to continue and a second Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota retired from the event in 36th.

After the William Byron solo spin the potential carnage the was mitigated from Byron’s crafty avoidance to go back on track, the lost chaos transferred to the pit road.

Chase Briscoe entered the pits in second but hit Kyle Larson as he was exiting to lose multiple spots but the worst of the collisions happened to Joey Logano.

Later in the stage, Briscoe’s right-front damage he sustained from hitting Larson in the pits but during the next green flag run started to see how bad the fender was bent in and dramatically started to loose spots on the track.

Briscoe did not recover his lost ground and finished 23rd.

Logano was also exiting his box when he could not slow down in time to avoid the entering Cole Custer and slammed into the rear of him. He survived a collision at 175mph but ran out of luck at 45mph. Logano suffered massive damage on the left front which ended his day in 37th.

Todd Gilliland ran into the bump exiting turn four which resulted in a solo spin directly in front of the leaders.

The leader Christopher Bell only needed a few more feet to the left to avoid but the out of control Gilliland car clipped him. Bell could not save his Toyota and slammed into the tri-oval wall which ended his day from first to worst.

Below is the full results of the Wurth 400 at Texas.

Race Results