Top 20 finish in Texas for van Gisbergen

Van Gisbergen stayed out of trouble in the 267-lap contest for his second straight top 20 finish in the #97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro.

SVG was on course to finish 16th until he had to take evasive action when Corey Heim crashed his 23XI Racing Toyota Camry with 11 laps to go.

Van Gisbergen elected to pit under the yellow and restarted 19th before climbing to 17th at the chequered flag.

Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain finished 16th and 26th respectively.

“Still a decent result after the last few weeks,” van Gisbergen remarked over his radio post-race.

The race was won by Hendrick Motorsports star driver Chase Elliott, who held off Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in a four-lap dash to the chequered flag.

Tyler Reddick was the best of the drivers who pitted under the final caution. He was third but wound up fourth having slipped to ninth. Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman was third.

“I have not been a huge fan of this place, and I’ve made that very obvious, but you know, to continue to work hard, and I really think this is a testament to the whole team, but not just the #9 team, but everybody at Hendrick Motorsports,” said Elliott.

“We have not been where we’ve wanted to be throughout portions of the season. Man, everybody has just been digging in very hard, from the engine shop to Hendrick Motorsports to all the setup shops, to everybody at Team Chevy.

“Yeah, man, just crazy. You know, to say as much as we struggled out here to have won two races here now in the last few years is pretty wild.

“Just super grateful for all the people that helped make this possible. Yeah, looking forward to celebrating with them.”

Off the back of winning at Talladega Superspeedway, Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar led the opening lap with teammate Daniel Suarez in tow.

His lead was short-lived, though. Hamlin shot into the lead on Lap 21 and began to edge away from Hocevar who was soon passed by Hamlin’s teammate Chase Briscoe.

Terrible luck for Christopher Bell in Texas as Todd Gilliland goes around right in front of him. https://t.co/YOhS9lqYWK pic.twitter.com/p4Luizl5w7

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 3, 2026

Christopher Bell was the first of the front-runners to put under green flag conditions on Lap 33 and by Lap 48 moved into the lead with a pass on his JGR teammate Briscoe.

In a devastating twist, Bell was taken out of the lead when Todd Gilliland spun out of the final corner and clipped the race leader’s right rear corner.

That spat Bell into a spin and into the wall, badly damaging his car.

A few drivers elected not to pit under the yellow, including Erik Jones – whose decision paid dividends in the form of winning Stage 1 on Lap 81.

Racing resumed on Lap 89 but the yellow flew for the second incident of the race when William Byron spun his Hendrick Motorsports Camaro out of the final turn.

The third caution came on Lap 102 when Ty Gibbs got rear-ended by RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece.

Chaos on pit road in Texas! Joey Logano is behind the wall. 👀 https://t.co/HXyTay1VaN pic.twitter.com/suNiqTyXf8

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 3, 2026

There was chaos in the subsequent pit stop cycle as Joey Logano was caught out by the suddenly slowing Haas Factory Team Camaro of Cole Custer, who he rear-ended. Logano was forced to retire his Team Penske Ford Mustang from damage to the left front corner.

At the same time, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson collided as the former tried to leave his pit box and the latter tried to enter his.

The race settled into a rhythm thereafter with Heim assuming the lead until he pitted on Lap 153.

Just shy of Stage 2 finishing, Larson spun on his own at Turn 2 and whacked the wall with the left-hand side of his Camaro.

That set up a one-lap dash to the stage end, which was clinched by Chase Elliott who led Reddick.

The final stage was a relatively incident-free affair until Heim’s spin. Elliott finished the stage where he started in first. Hamlin improved from fourth to second while Bowman made big gains from 10th to third.

The NASCAR Cup Series continues on May 11 at Watkins Glen.

Results: NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400, Texas Motor Speedway

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