Fan favorite claims NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup Series WÜRTH 400 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway for his second win of the season.
Elliott, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver for eight years in a row, led for 87 laps during the race after starting at in the No. 14 position.
Denny Hamlin was second, followed by Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Prosper native Chris Buescher.
Elliott admitted while talking with Fox Sports after the race that he wasn't a fan of Texas Motor Speedway but was happy getting his second win of the season and his second at TMS after winning the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 in 2024.
“I have not been a huge fan of this place, and I made that very, very obvious,” Elliott said. “But to continue to work hard, and I really think, you know, this is a testament to the whole [No. 9] team, but not just the 9 team, but also everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Because, you know, we’ve not been where we wanted to be throughout portions of this season, and everybody’s just been digging in really hard.
“Just crazy to say, as much as we struggled out here, to have won two races here now in the last few years is pretty wild. So just super grateful for all the people that helped make this possible.”
With eight laps to go, Elliot led the way, followed by Hamlin and Reddick. Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, explained how he kept the lead out of a late caution.
“I wasn’t really sure whether to go top or bottom, and the bottom had been winning out on a lot of the restarts,” he said. “I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear off the two, I was going to be a lot of trouble. So fortunately, Alex gave me a great push. Was able to execute turns one and two, get clear and then just kind of manage the last few laps, so it worked out really good.”
Corey Heim, driving for NBA legend Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team, led for 69 laps, the second-most out of any driver, but spun out with 10 laps left.
The next NASCAR Cup Series race will be Go Bowling at The Glen on May 10 at Watkins Glen International in New York.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 5:43 PM.
