Despite some early dominance from Toyota in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott proved to be too much in the second half of the 400-miler en route to his second win of the 2026 season.
In a race that challenged the sport's best and wiped out several contenders, continuing its recent trend, Elliott stayed calm and drove his way to the front from a 14th place starting spot. Once he got the lead at the end of stage two, the only time he surrendered it was during the green-flag pit sequence in the final stage.
One last caution for Corey Heim, who spun in turn four with 11 laps remaining after leading a second-best 69 laps to Elliott's 87, set the stage for one final restart with five laps to go. Elliott did not have the best launch, but a push from teammate Alex Bowman gave him enough of an advantage into turn one to get the momentum to clear Denny Hamlin off of turn two and drive away to his second win at Texas since 2024.
Elliott joins five-race winner Tyler Reddick as the only other driver with multiple wins this year and currently sits third in points, 117 points behind the driver of the No. 45 Toyota for the series lead. The Dawsonville, Georgia native and 2020 Cup Series champion has also managed to accomplish something for the first time in his career following Sunday's win in the Lone Star State.
Chase Elliott is putting the rest of the field on notice
According to NASCAR Insights, Elliott has earned Hendrick Motorsports their first two wins in a season for the first time since 2018. Furthermore, it is the first time that he has won twice in the first 11 races of a season.
This is the first time since 2018 Chase Elliott has earned Hendrick Motorsports their first two wins in a season.
— NASCAR Insights (@NASCARInsights) May 3, 2026
This is also the first time Elliott has won twice in the first 11 races of as season. https://t.co/mdnScBDOxu
Elliott's first win of the year at Martinsville Speedway was no surprise, considering how well he and the HMS organization always tend to run there, regardless of their overall performance at other tracks. That win was Elliott's second there, and he has 15 top 10 finishes in 22 starts at the track, so it would have been more a shock if he did not run well at "The Paperclip".
With that said, he has been leading the HMS brigade as Chevrolet continues to adapt to its new body. Kyle Larson is coming off his second straight finish of 34th or worse, William Byron sits 10th in points after an uncharacteristically slow start, and Alex Bowman is still trying to make up for lost ground after missing four races due to vertigo.
Elliott, meanwhile, also has a pair of fourth place finishes at Daytona and Talladega and has been really strong on the 1.5-mile tracks this season. In addition to his win at Texas, he finished runner-up to Hamlin at Las Vegas and had a car capable of winning at Kansas Speedway before settling for eighth.
It is no secret that Elliott has not performed at the level many would have expected from him since his 2020 title run. He endured a winless 2023 season marred by a snowboarding accident and a one-race suspension, and he only won one race the following season. Through 11 races this season, he has already equaled his win total from 2025, while his top five finish total of five is nearly half of his 11 from both 2024 and 2025.
Elliott's 196 laps led are nowhere near Hamlin's 624, or even Larson's 499. While that is still an area for him to improve upon, his 10.9 average starting position is far ahead of his 16.1 from 2025, and he is showing what the No. 9 team is capable of when it puts itself closer to the front on Saturdays.
When others fell victim to one of the sport's most treacherous tracks, Elliott was steady and took care of business. He is a driver whom many expected to benefit the most from the Chase postseason format that was brought in to replace the elimination-style format.
As the season hits its one-third mark on Sunday at Watkins Glen International, Elliott is clearly proving those notions correct. He is not making any costly mistakes when others are crashing out and continues to show race-winning speed nearly everywhere the series visits.
The rest of the field should be concerned.
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