Chase Elliott bagged the 23rd victory of his NASCAR career on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway despite a late caution, leaving just four laps of green flag racing to the end of the race. At the end, Elliott edged out Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota with a push from fellow Chevrolet driver Alex Bowman. 

Elliott’s win meant the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver became the only multiple winner this season behind Tyler Reddick, who finished fourth. It was the HMS driver's second win at Texas Motor Speedway after his first in 2024. 

He also won the second stage of the race, and Erik Jones, who won the first stage, finished 12th. Incidentally, when Elliott won his first race of the season in Martinsville, Hamlin had finished runner-up.

Ryan Blaney also had an impressive race, starting from 31st, he finished 10th for Team Penske, picking up handy points after a dismal few weeks. Carson Hocevar, the winner the last time around, finished seventh in his No. 77 Spire Chevrolet. 

While the last race win had a bit of a dip, the one driver picking up serious points across both Talladega and Texas was Alex Bowman. In Talladega, he pushed Carson Hocevar to the win, and this time he did the same for Chase Elliott, another Chevrolet driver. In doing so, Bowman has shown that he is well and truly back, picking up points aplenty to secure back-to-back third-place finishes. 

The race featured 5 cautions, four of which were cars spinning out on their own, including Kyle Larson. The reigning champion also had a collision with Chase Briscoe on pit road and eventually finished the race in 34th, multiple laps down. 

RFK Racing had a good day out in Texas with all three cars finishing in the top 15. Chris Buescher led the charge and finished 5th with team owner Brad Keselowski coming in 13th, followed by Ryan Preece in 14th. 

Chase Elliott elated after second Texas Win

It was milestone city for Chase Elliott, who added Texas as the eighth track where he has multiple victories. After leading 87 laps and taking the checkered flag, he was elated.

Chase Elliott took the Checkered flag for the 23rd time in his career, and he was elated with the result. He said, "To say as much as we struggled out here to have won two races here now in the last few years is pretty wild. Super grateful for all the people that helped make this possible.

Speaking about the last restart, he said, "I wasn’t really sure whether to go top or bottom. The bottom had been winning out on a lot of restarts. I just felt like if I didn’t get clear off of two, I was gonna be in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, Alex gave me a great push, was able to execute turns one and two, get clear, and then just manage the last few laps. So it worked out really good."

Chase Elliott commended the efforts of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for getting them and Chevrolet their second win of the season in 11 races. Earning 69 points, he went up three places in the standings to third. Now he sits right behind Denny Hamlin, with only eight points between them

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yask Kotak