The 2026 Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway

     NASCAR heads down south this weekend to The Lone Star state of Texas, where we can see which star can take the win today. Carson Hocevar grabbed his first win at Talladega last week and starts on pole for this race. Last year's winner was Joey Logano, and that was his last win. Anyways, let's see what this weekend brings us.

     Stage 1 went smooth for the most part. We had a few pit stops, the field got shuffled up a little bit, nothing to crazy. Then, on lap 68, Todd Gilliland spun off of turn 4, then came back up onto to the track and tagged Christopher Bell, who then spun into the outside wall and incurred heavy damage. Oh, did I forget to mention Bell was the leader? More pit stops took place with some drivers staying out, including Erik Jones, who received the lead of the race and would go on to win the first stage.

     By lap 92, Hocevar got to the front of the field again, but shortly after William Byron spun off of turn 4, bringing out yet another caution. Most of the leaders pitted, and Corey Heim gained the lead of race. It wasn't long before the yellow flag flew again, though. Ty Gibbs went into the wall in turns 3 and 4. 

     During stage 2 a couple drivers called it quits for the day, those drivers being Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano. Heim had to come to pit road, granting Chase Elliott the race lead. On lap 160, Kyle Larson spun off of turn 2 and received some rear damage. Elliott restarted third but was able to get by Keselowski and Preece to win the second stage. 

     There were a good bit of pit stops in the third stage, but Elliott was able to resume the lead after the pit cycle. On lap 257, the yellow came out once again when Heim spun off of turn 4. 

     There are four laps left to decide who will be our winner. Elliott defended the lead from Denny Hamlin for a while, stretching his lead farther and farther. 0.22 second. 0.38 second. Okay, okay enough of that second stuff, let's get to the point: he won.

     Well, at least one of the Hendrick drivers isn't in a slump. Elliott moves up to third in the standings, with Tyler Reddick still remaining in front with a comfortable lead. Next week is Watkins Glen, so things ought to get interesting.