2026 Wurth 400 (Texas) Race Recap

By Adam Carabine

It wasn’t exactly the cleanest day at the track on Sunday in Texas, but you won’t hear many complaints from Chase Elliott, as he scooped up his second win of this 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Let’s have a look at how it all shook down!

Lap 1:  Last week’s winner, Carson Hocevar, is on the pole.  He’s next to his Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez. 

Lap 10:  Hocevar’s lead is already up to 1.6 seconds.

Lap 19:  Suarez has fallen back to 8^th.  Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin gets past Chase Briscoe for P2.

Lap 20:  Now Hamlin takes the lead from Carson Hocevar!

Lap 21:  Hocevar falls another spot to P3 as Briscoe passes him.

Lap 22:  Kyle Busch is running in 4^th after starting in 6^th – his first race with new crew chief Andy Street.

Lap 24:  Both Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace have charged forward after starting in the rear of the field.  They’re both up 10 spots.

Lap 34: With the halfway point of Stage One being 40 laps, Christopher Bell pits early to try and get the jump on everyone.  This kickstarts a bunch of knee-jerk reaction pits by many others too.

Lap 36: Denny Hamlin pits from the lead.

Lap 38: While cycling through pit stops, Briscoe gets ahead of Hamlin.

Lap 41:  Carson Hocevar has held the lead since the other leaders pit, and is finally now coming down pit road. 

Lap 43:  Keselowski is the last one to pit, making Chase Briscoe your new leader.

Lap 49:  A hard-charging Christopher Bell takes the lead.

Lap 56:  Hamlin and Briscoe into a hard battle for P2, with eventually Hamlin winning it.

Lap 69:  CAUTION – Todd Gilliland spins on his own, but then takes out Christopher Bell who was just about to lap him.  Bell spins and hits the wall hard – this ends his day and continues his bad luck in Texas.

Lap 71:  Hocevar takes only 2 tires and wins the race off pit road.  Five others stayed out and didn’t pit.

Lap 75:  Green flag, with 6 to go in the Stage.  Erik Jones is in the lead, with Stenhouse beside him on the restart.

Lap 80:  Erik Jones wins Stage One – his first ever stage win!

Lap 88:  Stage Two is green!  Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs are on the front row to start together.

Lap 92:  After Hocevar held the lead on the restart, Briscoe passes Ty Gibbs for P2.

Lap 93:  CAUTION – William Byron goes for a solo spin.  Seems no worse for wear.

Lap 95:  Some majorly dramatic pit stops under this caution.  Briscoe and Larson collide with each other.  Joey Logano slams into the back of Cole Custer very hard and earns himself a DNF. 

Lap 99:  Green flag flies again.  Corey Heim and Zane Smith lead the field to green as they stayed out under this caution.

Lap 102: CAUTION – Ty Gibbs gets into the wall pretty hard and will end his day at Texas as well.

Lap 106: Back to green, Corey Heim and Brad Keselowski on the front row.

Lap 152: Heim pits from the lead, and Elliott moves to P1.

Lap 160: CAUTION – Kyle Larson loses control of his car and spins. 

Lap 165: We go green with one lap to go in the stage.  Keselowski stayed out under caution and leads the field to green, but his older tires are no match for Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick who each pass him.  Elliott wins Stage Two, then Reddick, then Keselowski.

Lap 173: Green flag for the Final Stage.  Elliott and Reddick on the front row.

Lap 212: Green flag pit stops start up – in theory this could be the last round of pit stops for this race.

Lap 216: Leaders start pitting, Elliott and Reddick are in.

Lap 217: The new leader Denny Hamlin comes in to pit road.  The cycle is really starting up now.

Lap 228: Corey Heim retakes the lead on a different strategy.  He’s staying out as long as he can hoping for a caution to help regain some track position.

Lap 239: Heim finally pits under green, no luck on the strategy call.  Elliott takes the lead, Chase Briscoe is the lone holdout who hasn’t pitted yet.

Lap 257: CAUTION – Corey Heim spins and gets some rough damage to the back of his car.

Lap 263: Green flag with 5 to go!

Lap 265: John Hunter Nemechek spins, but it’s so close to the white flag/just after the white flag gets thrown.  He gets down to the apron and NASCAR lets it run green.

Lap 267: Chase Elliott hangs on and wins the race!

Next week we visit Watkins Glen!