FORT WORTH, Texas (May 3, 2026) – Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott pulled away from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and teammate Alex Bowman in a four-lap shootout to take the checkered flag in Sunday’s WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway.
It was Elliott’s second victory of the season and second in his last three starts at the challenging 1.5-mile tri-oval in the Lone Star State.
“It’s crazy,” Elliott said. “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. Yeah, looking forward to celebrating with them.”
23XI Racing rookie Corey Heim, who looked strong early on and led 69 laps, brought out the final caution that created a four-lap sprint to the finish. Heim’s No. 67 Toyota lost traction in Turn 4 and hit the wall following a single-car spin.
Elliott, who started 14th, opened with a ninth-place finish in Stage One and then followed with a win in Stage Two to put him in position for the victory in the final stage.
On the final restart, Elliott received a push from Bowman and his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy got up to speed quickly and started to pull away from the pack. Hamlin appeared at times to be making up ground, but Elliott maintained his distance and won by .407 of a second.
“It was really cool to get a win as early as we did at Martinsville, and now to have two this early in the year is really special,” Elliott said. “I think it's a testament to our team. We have a great group. Those things don't last forever. I think for us we have to make the most of a great opportunity. Have a great race team, great people back at home, great support from the boss and people that keep this deal rolling. We're just going to try to keep our heads down and keep chugging. Long year. A lot of racing left, so we'll try to build on it.”
Hamlin kept charging in those closing laps, but just couldn’t quite get there at the end.
“It was really close, for sure,” Hamlin said. “Props to the (No.) 9 team and really the (No.) 45 (Tyler Reddick), that last third stage, you know, they had some really good speed. I thought it was going to be so close if it went green. I thought I was going to get there, you know, especially with as hard as the (No.) 6 (Brad Keselowski) was trying to hold off the 9 (Elliott).
“I didn't have great restarts all day. Then you get set behind a little bit. It's just those little fine, small details. I thought I got a good restart there at the end side by side, but then, you know, just the way the side draft works there into Turn 1 with him getting the push from the 48 (Bowman), it just allowed his momentum to pick up a little bit quicker than mine. I tried to hang onto the side, but I was just getting tighter the closer I was getting to him. So good, decent day. Just one short.”
Five-time season winner Tyler Reddick finished fourth after pitting for two tires before the final restart and charged from ninth to fourth at the finish.
“All in all, it was a solid day,” said Reddick, who leads the series by 109 points over Hamlin and 117 over Elliott. “It was nice to go for it there on the two tires. Just had a couple of passes that took a little longer than they needed to, and that was the difference between… I don't know if we would have got back to the lead, but I think if we played it perfectly, we could have got second. All in all, it was a good day.”
Hometown favorite Chris Buescher, from nearby Prosper, posted a fifth-place finish, a career best for the Texas native at his home track. In fact, it was his first top-10 finish here on the 1.5-mile speedway in 17 career starts. Buescher, who has won on all of the other tracks on the property, including the dirt track and infield road course, had a previous best of 14th at TMS.
“It means a lot,” Buescher said. “Home track. So many friends and family here. We felt good coming into this thing, thought we were going to be in the hunt for a win. We were just shy of being in the hunt to win it, certainly a top-five day and probably a top-three day without the caution. Great execution on everybody’s part, proud of that. Now it’s time to figure out how to up it a few more (positions).”
After pushing Elliott on to the win, Bowman was able to grab third place in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. It was the second consecutive third-place effort after missing much of the early season with some health issues. Bowman was pleased with the effort, all things considered.
“Honestly, just to be having solid days and finishing races after how the start of the season went, it feels good,” Bowman said. “Super happy for this Ally 48 team, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Happy for the 9 (Elliott) on the win. Hendrick Engine Shop did a great job. We got way better from where we unloaded, and definitely momentum headed in the right direction. All in all, a good day for us.
“Big shoutout to (Tyler) Reddick for cutting me a break on the last lap. That could have been bad. Appreciative to him. Yeah, just need to be a little bit better there, but we're definitely headed in the right direction.”
Pole winner Carson Hocevar, who won Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race and led five times for 40 laps in the Cup Series race, ultimately finished seventh in his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevy.
Daniel Suarez, William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney, respectively, completed the top 10.
The race had 11 different leaders, and Elliott led a race-high 87 laps. Several of the early contenders were eliminated in early race cautions, including Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who led 22 laps and was caught up an incident on Lap 69 with Todd Gilliland.
“It was another one of those 50-50 calls,” Bell said. “Me and Denny were side by side, and I saw him (Gilliland) spinning and Denny lifted, and I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom. I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom, but I got clipped.”
Defending race winner Joey Logano also was taken out in a pit road incident on Lap 102 with Cole Custer. Logano slammed into Custer’s car, peeling back the left front fender of Logano’s No. 22 Penske Ford.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who won Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 340, saw his chances for a double go away when he crashed on Lap 161.
There was a final spin when Stage One winner Erik Jones of Legacy Motor Club went out of control and hit the wall as the white flag waved, but the leaders raced back to the finish without a caution and Elliott secured the win.
WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY NASCAR Cup Series Final Results
Texas Motor Speedway | Fort Worth, Texas | May, 3, 2026
- Chase Elliott
- Denny Hamlin
- Alex Bowman
- Tyler Reddick
- Chris Buescher
- Daniel Suarez
- Carson Hocevar
- William Byron
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Blaney
- Riley Herbst
- Erik Jones
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Preece
- Austin Cindric
- Connor Zilisch
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- John Nemechek
- Zane Smith
- Chase Briscoe
- Ty Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ross Chastain
- Michael McDowell
- Noah Gragson
- Josh Berry
- Cody Ware
- Corey Heim
- Todd Gilliland
- Chad Finchum
- Kyle Larson
- Cole Custer
- Ty Gibbs
- Joey Logano
- Christopher Bell
