FORT WORTH, Texas — Whenever the Cup Series has hit an intermediate venue in 2026, Toyota almost immediately rockets to the top.
So it was no surprise when Denny Hamlin needed a mere 20 laps to take the lead from Carson Hocevar after starting the race fourth. That early show of performance foreshadowed another solid runner-up finish Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, just 0.407 seconds behind winner Chase Elliott.
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From the drop of the green flag, it appeared like it was going to be another Toyota runaway. Not far behind Hamlin early on were his Joe Gibbs Racing allies Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. At one point in the opening stage, JGR ran first through third with Ty Gibbs nearby in sixth.
“I thought at the very beginning, yes,” Hamlin told reporters, on whether he felt he had the best car. “We went that second stage from 17th to second. Yes, selfishly, I thought we were the best car.”
But like any Texas race in the last number of years, the treacherous 1.5-mile track bit some of the competitors. First to fall was Bell, who was clipped by a sliding Todd Gilliland in the waning laps of the opening stage. Hamlin was on the heels of the No. 20 car, chasing down his teammate, but slipped through the carnage.
Hamlin thought: “It was a 50/50 call and we got lucky there.”
When the field jumbled for the start of the second stage, Hamlin sprung forward from a mid-pack restart. He collected seven points in Stage 2, placing fourth, behind Elliott, Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski.
But then Elliott controlled the pace of the race in the final stage. The No. 9 car and Reddick scooted away from Hamlin, though the No. 11 car was in close pursuit until a caution flew with 11 laps remaining.
With the Goodyear tires having slight wear, Hamlin radioed to the No. 11 team that he wanted to restart on the front row, no matter what. So Hamlin skipped the trip to pit road.
“The only way to guarantee to be on the front row for myself, personally, was to stay out,” Hamlin added. “Looking at the lap times, we were running what we ran on new tires. I don’t think I would have been able to carry enough throttle, even if I would have started [third] on two tires.”
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In a four-lap dash, Elliott cleared Hamlin and hung on for his second triumph of the season. It’s the earliest Elliott has ever scored a second victory in his 11 full-time seasons.
Hamlin has finished second in both of Elliott’s wins this year. In Hamlin’s lone win this season at Las Vegas, Elliott was the runner-up.
While Hamlin thought he had the best speedster, he credited Elliott for controlling the race.
“The 9, you have to give them props on how fast they were when they got out front,” he said. “That was all that we had to try to be able to keep up in that third stage. It comes down to when we have these restarts and you lose one spot here, one spot there, next thing you know, the guys you were really battling on speed are two cars ahead of you and now you have to try to pass cars that are more equal on speed. We weren’t that dominant to be able to do that.”
With Reddick driving to fourth in the final four laps, Hamlin trimmed only one point off his deficit in the standings, now 109 markers behind.