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.
This recap will be updated
