Chase Elliott picks up his second win of the season at Texas

Chase Elliott is not typically recognized for securing early-season victories. However, he is making 2026 a year of seizing opportunities.

Elliott has achieved his second victory of 2026. This season, he has secured two wins in the first 11 races, six races sooner than in any of his previous 11 seasons.

"I'm proud of our team for that because anytime you can accomplish new milestones in this sport after more than a decade, it's impressive. It's challenging to achieve," Elliott stated during his post-race press conference.

"Winning is difficult. So I'm really proud of our team for that and for the strong performance we had. It was one of our best races in quite some time.

While Tyler Reddick has been the standout of the season with five victories, Chase Elliott's two wins have positioned him third in the standings.

With the team still adapting to the new Chevrolet body, they may have significant growth potential.

"We feel that the Toyotas entered the season with strong momentum, having done excellent work over the offseason," remarked four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon in his post-race conference as Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman.

"I want to acknowledge their efforts. We faced significant changes with the new car. We're exploring and identifying what will be effective. It works well on some tracks, while on others it doesn't."

Joey Logano's on-track contact thwarted potential race-winning opportunities for Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs.

Bell was leading when he was clipped by a spinning Todd Gilliland. Briscoe was in the top five when he had contact with Kyle Larson on pit road. In another unusual pit-road incident, Joey Logano collided with Cole Custer, who had stopped in front of Logano to allow Ty Gibbs to exit his pit.

Gibbs soon found himself in the garage after hitting the wall, apparently due to contact with Ryan Preece. Gibbs expressed uncertainty about the incident in discussions with me and other reporters.

The common thread among these drivers? All, except for Gibbs, are still pursuing their first win of the season. For Bell, he was confident he had a race-winning car.

"I thought I could make the move on the bottom, and I believed I did, but I got clipped," he explained to me and other reporters following the incident.

Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek clashed at the race's conclusion, with contact occurring near the wall as they battled for position, leading to Busch slamming Nemechek's car, sending it into the wall.

Both drivers took to social media, with Nemechek asserting that Busch's initial move was not clear, while Busch claimed that Nemechek had enough space to avoid contact.