A frantic run to the finish at Texas Motor Speedway left early contenders behind the wall and other drivers ready to pounce as Joey Logano scored the overtime victory Sunday afternoon.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Some competitors took advantage of the on-track adversity to exit with strong finishes, while multiple incidents collected some of the day’s front-runners and have them looking forward to next week’s race at Kansas Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
THREE UP ⬆️
1. Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Started: 14th
Finished: 5th
What happened: Jones celebrated his 300th career Cup start with an impressive rally in the No. 43 Toyota, charging back from a Lap 83 speeding penalty to score his first top-10 finish of 2025. The fifth-place result marks Jones’ first top five since Talladega Superspeedway last fall. He and teammate John Hunter Nemechek scored double top 10s for Legacy, with Nemechek eighth, adding to a positive day for the Toyota twosome.
What’s next: Sunday also marked Jones’ first top five on an intermediate track since Kansas Speedway in 2023. Up next on the Cup schedule? Kansas Speedway, giving Jones an opportunity to build momentum.
2. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Started: 19th
Finished: 7th
What happened: A steady day in Texas earned Dillon his best finish of the 2025 campaign. Dillon, a 2020 winner at the Fort Worth race track, now has a three-race streak of top-10 finishes to his credit after 10th-place runs at both Bristol Motor Speedway and Talladega before Texas. The famed No. 3 Chevrolet capitalized on late-race attrition and restarts, moving forward late while defending other hard-chargers on the way to finishing seventh.
What’s next: Dillon has been a consistent top-15 driver at Kansas in recent outings, evidenced by six straight finishes between 10th and 14th from 2020 through 2023. Most recently, Dillon finished 12th at the 1.5-mile track last fall.
3. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Started: 23rd
Finished: 12th
What happened: Despite late contact, Dillon walked away from Texas with his best Cup finish since August of 2023. The No. 10 Chevrolet collected minor nose damage in a four-car pileup at Lap 247, but Dillon maneuvered through the carnage to score his third top-15 finish of 2025. The positive result comes despite averaging a 28th-best average running position of 23.7, according to NASCAR Loop Data.
What’s next: Kansas has not been incredibly kind to Dillon, the younger of the two brothers, but he has two top-15 finishes in 14 starts there. His most recent result at Kansas was 21st during last fall’s playoff race.
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 1st
Finished: 24th
What happened: Hocevar scored his first career Cup Series pole on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. Despite leading 22 laps, Hocevar found himself mired in traffic in the final stage after an untimely caution shortly after making a green-flag pit stop. While in traffic, Hocevar washed up exiting Turn 2 at Lap 237, pinching Ryan Preece into the outside wall and crashing both of them down the backstretch. Texas marks another “down” in an up-and-down season for the sophomore racer: In 11 races, he has five top-20 finishes and six of 24th or worse.
What’s next: In three Kansas starts, Hocevar has struggled to net positive results, posting finishes of 20th, 24th and 32nd in his trio of efforts. Additionally, though he has run better than he has finished at 1.5-mile tracks in 2025, the stat sheet says Hocevar has finished 24th or worse in four intermediate races this season (Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami, Darlington, Texas).
2. Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
Started: 7th
Finished: 32nd
What happened: Berry had a great day in progress until things went south at Lap 125. The Las Vegas winner was leading the race when he moved too high in Turns 3 and 4 and his car bottomed out, quickly spinning through the exit of Turn 4 and backing into the SAFER barrier. Berry is still looking for his first top-five finish since his March victory and leaves Texas with his fourth finish of 26th or worse in the last five races.
What’s next: Like Hocevar, Berry has a limited sample size of three starts at Kansas but placed 15th in last spring’s thriller. His other two starts produced finishes of 25th (May 2023) and 38th (September 2024).
3. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 11th
Finished: 35th
What happened: Bowman was collected in a multicar pileup at Lap 172, ending his day early at Texas. The No. 48 car was running inside the top 15 when Bubba Wallace contacted the outside wall in a hornet’s nest of a restart to begin the final stage. Although Bowman avoided the start of the incident, AJ Allmendinger spun after contact and landed right in front of Bowman’s path. After spinning, Bowman was then struck by Chad Finchum, creating too much damage for Bowman to continue. What started as a promising season for Bowman has run into trouble in recent weeks as Texas also marks Bowman’s fourth finish of 27th or worse in the past five races.
What’s next: Bowman has been a contender at Kansas in years past and enters with five consecutive top 10s there. With 10 top 10s in 18 starts — including a runner-up effort back in 2019 — Bowman could easily get back on track statistically next week.
