Chase Elliott holds off Denny Hamlin late in chaotic NASCAR Cup Series race for second win at Texas

RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY: Steven Brien / RPW – FORT WORTH, TX  – Chase Elliott surged ahead on a late restart and held off Denny Hamlin to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, earning his second victory of the season.

Elliott beat Hamlin to the finish line by 0.407 seconds after a caution with 11 laps remaining reset the field. Corey Heim, who led a career-high 69 laps, spun and crashed hard into the Turn 3 wall to bring out the yellow and set up a four-lap sprint to the finish.. 

On the restart, Elliott lined up alongside Hamlin and cleared him exiting Turn 2 with a push from teammate Alex Bowman. Elliott pulled away over the final laps, leading a race-high 87 laps en route to his 23rd career Cup Series victory and second at Texas.

“Just crazy, you know. As much as we struggled out here, to have won two races here now in the last few years, is pretty wild,” Elliott said after climbing from his No. 9 Chevrolet on the frontstretch. “”I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear off of two, I was gonna be in a lot of trouble, fortunately Alex [Bowman] gave me a great push.” 

Hamlin, who led 21 laps, worked his way through the field multiple times but came up short after losing momentum on the restart.

“We just didn’t have good restarts all day,” Hamlin said. “Then, you know how the side draft works right 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.”

Bowman finished third for the second consecutive race, followed by Tyler Reddick in fourth and Chris Buescher in fifth. Daniel Suarez was sixth, his fourth straight top-10 finish at Texas.

Polesitter Carson Hocevar finished seventh, with William Byron eighth, Bubba Wallace ninth after starting at the rear, and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top 10.

John Hunter Nemechek would crash into the turn four wall after getting dumped by a frustrated Kyle Busch coming to the final lap, but no caution was thrown, allowing the field to race back to the finish. 

Earlier, a major incident on Lap 68 eliminated race leader Christopher Bell. Todd Gilliland spun in Turn 4 and slid into Bell, sending the No. 20 Toyota hard into the outside wall. Bell, who led 22 laps, finished 38th and has now gone four races without a top-10 finish.

Erik Jones stayed out under caution to win Stage 1, his first career stage victory. Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe completed the top five in the opening segment.

On Lap 93, Byron spun in Turn 4 after hitting the infamous bump, but avoided contact and continued.

A chaotic pit road sequence during that caution damaged several contenders. Kyle Larson made contact with Briscoe entering his stall. Then, Joey Logano, last year’s Texas winner slammed into Cole Custer’s rear bumper when Custer was slowing down to let Ty Gibbs in his pit stall. Both incidents caused significant damage, eliminating Logano (37th) and relegating Custer (35th) and Briscoe (23rd) from contention.

On lap 101, Gibbs would get a shot from Ryan Preece in turn three and slide up into the outside wall, sustaining heavy damage to his rear bumper, ending his day after earning seven stage points.

Heim paced the field for 53 laps before pitting late in Stage 2, handing the lead to Elliott. A crash by Larson on Lap 160 brought out another caution and set up a one-lap shootout to end the stage.

Elliott passed Brad Keselowski for the Stage 2 win with a push from Reddick in turn three. Keselowski and Preece, who stayed out on older tires, finished third and fifth, respectively, while Hamlin placed fourth. 

The race’s closing laps, however, belonged to Elliott, who capitalized on the final restart to secure the victory in a race filled with attrition.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Wurth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY

Texas Motor Speedway

Fort Worth, Texas

Sunday May 3, 2026

1. (14) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 267.
2. (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267.
3. (9) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.
4. (8) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 267.
5. (3) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
6. (2) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.
7. (1) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 267.
8. (15) William Byron, Chevrolet, 267.
9. (37) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 267.
10. (31) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 267.
11. (18) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 267.
12. (21) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.
13. (25) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
14. (20) Ryan Preece, Ford, 267.
15. (13) Austin Cindric, Ford, 267.
16. (12) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 267.
17. (30) Shane van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 267.
18. (38) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
19. (22) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
20. (6) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 267.
21. (33) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 266.
22. (34) Zane Smith, Ford, 266.
23. (5) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 266.
24. (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.
25. (26) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 266.
26. (16) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 266.
27. (19) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 266.
28. (28) Noah Gragson, Ford, 266.
29. (24) Josh Berry, Ford, 266.
30. (29) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 265.
31. (17) Corey Heim (i), Toyota, Accident, 254.
32. (32) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 254.
33. (36) Chad Finchum (i), Ford, 223.
34. (11) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 180.
35. (27) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 173.
36. (10) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, Accident, 110.
37. (23) Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 95.
38. (7) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 68.