NASCAR star Chase Elliott opens up on status of rivalry with Denny Hamlin

Chase Elliott has opened up on the status of his feud with NASCAR Cup Series rival Denny Hamlin.

The pair of title challengers were racing for the win on Sunday at Texas – a race that Elliott ultimately won – and both made it to the line clean and in one piece, which...hasn't always been the case in the past.

The most infamous incident between the two came in the 2023 running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, which resulted in Elliott getting suspended for the next race for right-rear hooking the No. 11 car.

That was just one flashpoint in a rivalry which has been heated for nearly a decade, including a brutal back-and-forth in the 2017 playoffs.

NASCAR TODAY: Denny Hamlin opens up on stunning rant as Chase Elliott takes dramatic win

Elliott was discussing the weekend's race on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday when he began to discuss how he and Hamlin race now, and hinted that the two have put aside their previous animosity.

He said: “It is funny how that, I feel like he and I have raced for, obviously he’s won a hell of a lot more than I have, but a lot of the races that I’ve been having opportunities to win or whatever, it seems like he and I are racing for wins a lot. So, I feel like there’s a lot of mutual respect there, and it makes those moments fun.”

“Because I feel like he shows me respect, I show him respect, and we can go out there and race really hard and know that you have that, and a competitor is really, really cool.

"So, yeah, glad that I know it doesn’t always work out in our favor, but certainly glad it did today. Second win in three years at Texas Motor Speedway."

Hamlin and Elliott are now separated by just eight points in the Cup Series standings, sat in second and third respectively as they look to translate good early season running into a headstart in the season-ending Chase.

NASCAR Cup Series standings after Texas

Pos	Driver	Manufacturer	Points (Stage)	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s
1	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	526 (87)	5	7	8
2	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	417 (91)	1	5	7
3	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	409 (61)	2	5	7
4	Ryan Blaney	Ford	371 (87)	1	3	7
5	Chris Buescher	Ford	345 (62)	0	2	6
6	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	333 (53)	1	3	5
7	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	330 (66)	1	5	7
8	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	318 (91)	0	3	6
9	Brad Keselowski	Ford	311 (50)	0	2	4
10	William Byron	Chevrolet	308 (57)	0	2	6
11	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	304 (71)	0	1	6
12	Ryan Preece	Ford	298 (43)	0	0	2
13	Christopher Bell	Toyota	291 (73)	0	3	4
14	Daniel Suárez	Chevrolet	271 (31)	0	1	3
15	Austin Cindric	Ford	248 (49)	0	1	3
16	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	242 (38)	0	3	4
17	Joey Logano	Ford	235 (54)	0	2	3
18	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	216 (22)	0	1	2
19	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	215 (24)	0	1	2
20	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	199 (19)	0	0	1
21	Zane Smith	Ford	198 (11)	0	1	3
22	Erik Jones	Toyota	196 (10)	0	0	2
23	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	189 (19)	0	1	2
24	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	187 (19)	0	1	2
25	Todd Gilliland	Ford	186 (19)	0	0	1
26	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	182 (16)	0	0	1
27	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	182 (8)	0	0	0
28	Riley Herbst	Toyota	173 (12)	0	0	1
29	John H. Nemechek	Toyota	157 (14)	0	0	0
30	Josh Berry	Ford	155 (30)	0	0	2
31	Noah Gragson	Ford	153 (4)	0	0	1
32	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	136 (0)	0	0	0
33	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	124 (2)	0	0	0
34	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	115 (11)	0	2	2
35	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	92 (4)	0	0	0
36	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	91 (3)	0	0	0
37	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	9 (3)	0	0	0
38	BJ McLeod	Chevrolet	3 (0)	0	0	0