Chase Elliott close to ending drought as NASCAR heads to Texas
Winless through his past 42 races, Chase Elliott can almost taste Victory Lane after his strong showing last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway and probably does not want to leave Virginia.
Following a Cook Out 400 that was practically a coronation celebrating Hendrick Motorsports’ 40 years of winning, Elliott and his three teammates will head to Fort Worth for the series’ lone stop at Texas Motor Speedway when they run the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 on Sunday afternoon. The sport’s six-time winner of the Most Popular Driver Award, Elliott watched two of his stablemates — race winner William Byron and runner-up Kyle Larson — finish in front of him, but by bringing home his No. 9 Chevrolet in third, Elliott grabbed momentum heading to the Lone Star State
That 1-2-3 team finish was the first-ever occurrence in 75 years of battling at the half-mile speedway, and Elliott said running as the leader for 64 laps brought back that familiar up-front feeling. “Glad one of us (at Hendrick) got it done,” said Elliott, who had led just 23 circuits through the previous seven races. “Nice to have a couple of solid weeks, and to be there in contention for a win is — haven’t been in contention to win one in a while.”
The 28-year-old’s last triumph was Oct. 2. At Talladega in 2022. Elliott recorded his second consecutive top-five finish in 2024, which was his season total. “It was fun to get to this last restart and it was actually important,” said the 2020 series champion, who finished fifth at Richmond at Easter. “I feel like this season is going in a very positive direction for the most part. If we keep going like this, our turn will come someday.”
Elliott, who won at the small track in his title season, is one of nine Hendrick drivers to record a victory out of 29 at Martinsville. Owner Rick Hendrick added: “It was like divine intervention, how could something like this happen on a day like this?”
Last September 24, Byron won in Fort Worth over Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace. The latter secured pole position and set the fastest lap of 112 laps in an 11-caution race. The win was Chevrolet’s third straight win on the 1.5-mile course and helped owner Richard Childress Racing win races on the high-elevation course. His cars driven by Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick won there in 2020 and 2022, respectively, and current RCR driver Kyle Busch wins the 2020 fall race with Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota did. After hosting the Points Race twice from 2005 to 2020, the speedway lost once, but hosted the All-Star Race in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, TMS, owned by the Fort Worth Sports Authority and operated by Speedway Motorsports Incorporated, will move its exhibition races to SMI-owned North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway and return on May 19th. It was decided to be held. Saturday morning’s qualifying session looked like a battle for Toyota, but Hendricks Larsson, the last driver to qualify, set a hot lap of 28.366 seconds (190.369 mph) in the No. 5 Chevrolet to tie the race. – Dodged Gibbs and Camry XSE. Christopher Bell. It was Larson’s third consecutive pole position (Richmond, Martinsville) and the 250th pole position for Hendrick Motorsports. –Med. at field level
