The record book shows that Chase Elliott snapped a 42 race winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway but the number is functionally 49.
That’s the number you reach when counting the seven races he missed last season, six for an injury and a seventh for a suspension over intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 last year, when counting all the way back to Talladega in October 2022.
Beyond the goose egg, and the winless drought, the No. 9 team also just hasn’t been a front runner for much of the past year and a half and Elliott placed a lot of that responsibility on himself during that time. It made his first words over the radio all the more appropriate upon taking the checkered flag.
“Man, I cannot tell you, each and every one of you how much I appreciate you sticking with me,” said Elliott upon securing his 19th victory at the highest level.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, had to really work for it too as the win took three overtimes to reach a conclusion. Elliott first took the lead from Denny Hamlin on the first overtime, but then retained it when the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 spun to his outside, then having to survive a series of restarts against the likes of Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain.
Keselowski was just as hungry, figuratively, as Elliott as the 2012 champion was seeking to overcome a 106-race winless drought.
The race was decided, with Elliott driving away, when second running Chastain crashed into the backstretch retaining wall due to contact from William Byron. Keselowski was ultimately scored as the runner-up ahead of Byron.
Elliott won for the first time with longtime sponsor Hooters, and celebrated by performing a polish victory lap in commemoration of Alan Kulwicki, who famously drove a No. 7 with the sponsor to the 1992 Cup Series championship as a true driver-owner.
“Hooter’s has been a partner of ours for a number of years now,” Elliott said. “It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to a victory and do a Polish victory lap, just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat dad back in the day. Here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today.
“So just, man, couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and kind of the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. Like I said, hasn’t always been fun, but we’ve enjoyed the fight together.”
Elliott also expressed remorse towards Hamlin, not being totally sure if he owed any responsibility to the decisive crash between them.
“This place is so sketchy,” Elliott said. “I haven’t seen a replay of Denny and us. I didn’t feel like I did anything super crazy there any more than anybody’s ever done to me. Just had to run forward. I want to look at it. I didn’t feel like I did anything to crash him. I think just the circumstances. But nonetheless, apologies to him if so.”
The race appeared to be coming down to a long green flag run, with Keselowski on laps that were 20 laps fresher than Hamlin and Elliott. Had the race stayed green, Keselowski may very well have won the race on strategy.
“We didn’t have a ton of speed,” Keselowski said. “Honestly, I’m more frustrated than anything because I feel like we have a great team and we don’t have the speed to go with it. We’re doing all we can do to overcome that.
“The driver in me is frustrated because I feel like these are races I’m good enough to win, and we don’t have the speed to do it. Only reason I am mad as hell is it’s my fault for not making the cars faster.
“Still proud of the team that we have, the pit stops, strategy, execution to put ourselves in position to get a finish we probably didn’t deserve but earned with some kind of never-give-up spirit.”
Elliott said Texas is sketchy, notoriously, and several contenders found themselves in a similar situation as Hamlin on the outside of Elliott.
On Lap 142, Chastain was on the front row with McDowell, with the latter spinning into the wall in Turn 4. Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe were in an identical spot 30 laps later with Wallace washing up into Briscoe, spinning but getting caught by Briscoe, who spun instead.
The first half of the race was dominated by Kyle Larson, who suffered a loose wheel during a caution on Lap 115, losing two laps as a result of the corresponding penalty. He raced back to the lead lap but was again involved in a spin due to how deep in the field he found himself.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400
Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, Texas
Sunday, April 14, 2024
1. (24) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 276.
2. (22) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 276.
3. (6) William Byron, Chevrolet, 276.
4. (4) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 276.
5. (17) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 276.
6. (5) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 276.
7. (10) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 276.
8. (15) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 276.
9. (35) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 276.
10. (16) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 276.
11. (20) Joey Logano, Ford, 276.
12. (26) Ryan Preece, Ford, 276.
13. (2) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 276.
14. (9) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 276.
15. (19) Chris Buescher, Ford, 276.
16. (36) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 276.
17. (3) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 276.
18. (21) Noah Gragson, Ford, 276.
19. (27) Erik Jones, Toyota, 276.
20. (38) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 276.
21. (1) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 276.
22. (23) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 276.
23. (31) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 276.
24. (32) Justin Haley, Ford, 276.
25. (8) Austin Cindric, Ford, 276.
26. (18) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 276.
27. (33) Kaz Grala #, Ford, 276.
28. (29) Harrison Burton, Ford, 276.
29. (37) Jimmie Johnson, Toyota, 276.
30. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 276.
31. (28) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 276.
32. (12) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 275.
33. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 268.
34. (30) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, Accident, 226.
35. (13) Michael McDowell, Ford, Accident, 143
36. (25) Josh Berry #, Ford, Accident, 136.
37. (14) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 100.
38. (34) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, Steering, 98.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 116.492 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 33 Mins, 14 Secs. Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags: 16 for 72 laps.
Lead Changes: 23 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Larson 1-35;T. Gibbs 36-40;C. Elliott 41-52;K. Larson 53-54;C. Bell 55;K. Larson 56-84;R. Blaney 85-87;*. Hill(i) 88;R. Blaney 89-99;K. Larson 100;R. Blaney 101-103;T. Gilliland 104-106;K. Larson 107-116;D. Hamlin 117-138;R. Chastain 139-167;B. Wallace 168-172;H. Burton 173-179;T. Reddick 180-213;R. Chastain 214-217;J. Logano 218-231;T. Reddick 232-234;C. Elliott 235-244;D. Hamlin 245-259;C. Elliott 260-276.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson 5 times for 77 laps; Chase Elliott 3 times for 39 laps; Denny Hamlin 2 times for 37 laps; Tyler Reddick 2 times for 37 laps; Ross Chastain 2 times for 33 laps; Ryan Blaney 3 times for 17 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 14 laps; Harrison Burton 1 time for 7 laps; Bubba Wallace 1 time for 5 laps; Ty Gibbs 1 time for 5 laps; Todd Gilliland 1 time for 3 laps; * Austin Hill(i) 1 time for 1 lap; Christopher Bell 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,20,11,45,14,12,9,34,24,23
Stage #2 Top Ten: 1,23,12,43,14,6,21,47,54,9
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.