Chase Elliott Holds Off Hamlin, Collects Second Win of Season

What a start to the season it’s been for Chase Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team. The sport’s Most Popular Driver had already claimed a win in the seventh race of the season at Martinsville Speedway, which marked the earliest in a season that Elliott had ever won a race. Sunday, in the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott took home his second win of the season.

Elliott, who led a race-high 87 laps in the 267-lap contest, had to endure a four-lap shootout after Corey Heim crashed with 11 laps remaining to force a late-race restart. This pitted Elliott against Denny Hamlin for the race win. After the race, Elliott was honest about his nerves heading into the final restart of the race.

“Yeah, you know, I wasn’t really sure whether to go top or bottom. You know, the bottom had been winning out on a lot of the restarts. I felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear off of two, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott said.

As the green flag waved, it looked like Elliott was potentially in trouble, as Hamlin fired out of the restart zone well and nosed his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ahead of Elliott down the frontstretch. However, Elliott refused to be beaten. After getting a shove from Alex Bowman, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Elliott drove his car deep into Turn 1.

This allowed Elliott to work past Hamlin, and he fully cleared his competitor on the exit of Turn 2. From there, Elliott just had to keep one eye on his mirror, and one on the road ahead of him.

Now, Elliott has notched two wins earlier than he’s ever achieved that feat in any season of his NASCAR Cup Series career. It’s something that the driver carries a lot of pride in.

“It was really cool to get a win as early as we did at Martinsville, and now to have two this early in the year is really special,” Elliott explained. “I think, again, it’s a testament to our team. We have a great group. Those things don’t last forever. I think for us we have to make the most of a great opportunity. Have a great race team, great people back at home, great support from the boss, and people that keep this deal rolling. We’re just going to try to keep our heads down and keep chugging. Long year. A lot of racing left, so we’ll try to build on it.”

Hamlin, who felt like he possibly had something for Elliott had the final 11 laps of Sunday’s race played out without a caution, wishes he could have taken the win from Elliott, but he did everything he could to pressure Elliott on the final restart.

“Yeah, I thought I got a good restart there at the end side-by-side, but then, you know, just the way the side draft works there into turn one with him getting the push from the 48, it just allowed his momentum to pick up a little bit quicker than mine,” Hamlin said. “I tried to hang on to the side, but I was just getting tighter as the closer I was getting to him. So good, decent day. Just one [position] short.”

Bowman, who delivered the race-winning shove to Elliott, would hold on to record a third-place finish, which marks his second consecutive top-five finish. Bowman is trying to rally his way back into Chase contention after missing four races earlier in the season due to symptoms tied to a bout with vertigo.

Tyler Reddick, who has taken the NASCAR Cup Series by storm with five wins already this season, came up just shy of his sixth win, as he finished fourth in the Wurth 400. Reddick was battling for the win against Elliott and Hamlin before the final caution, but chose to come to pit road for two fresh tires in an effort to try to gain an advantage.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough for Reddick to take a win, but it was enough for him to continue what has been a great start to the season.

Chris Buescher, who finished fifth, was the highest-finishing Ford Racing contender in the field, and put in a solid effort on his home turf. Buescher’s hometown is Prosper, TX.

Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Ryan Blaney capped off the top-10 finishers in Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.

It was a rough outing for several top contenders, including Christopher Bell.

Bell led 22 laps early in the event, but on Lap 68, Bell exited the race after Todd Gilliland spun in front of him, and as Bell was attempting to get by, Gilliland made contact with the right rear of Bell’s car. This sent Bell into the outside wall and caused significant damage to his No. 20 Toyota. Bell would finish dead-last (38th).

Joey Logano, the defending winner of the Wurth 400 at Texas, exited the race on Lap 94 when he was swept up in a crash on pit road. Cole Custer, who was attempting to get into his pit stall, came to a stop in the middle of pit road when he noticed Ty Gibbs exiting his stall in front of him. Logano couldn’t react in time, and slammed into Custer, which ended his day. Logano finished 37th.

Ty Gibbs would crash out of the event on Lap 110 at the hands of Ryan Preece, who nudged him into the outside wall, and Kyle Larson would suffer severe damage to his car after he spun his car out late in the event.

Gibbs would finish 36th, while Larson was 34th.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Chase Elliott Holds Off Hamlin, Collects Second Win of Season.

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