Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway brought to life an image that hasn’t been seen in the NASCAR Cup Series for some time — a Hooters car turning around after the checkered flag and driving backward to celebrate a win.

Not only did Chase Elliott finally break the winless streak that’s lasted more than a year, he also celebrated the occasion with Hooters colors on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Camaro by doing a Polish victory lap, harkening back to 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki and his famous owner-driven No. 7 Ford Thunderbird.

Needless to say, Elliott came into Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 with a lot riding on his shoulders.

Incident after incident near the end of the race necessitated an extra 14 miles of overtime, so he had to carry that pressure even longer.

“Hooter’s has been a partner of ours for a number of years now,” Elliott said on the frontstretch after his backward drive. “It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to a victory and do a Polish victory lap, just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me.”

Kulwicki was a longtime Cup Series rival of Elliott’s father Bill, so being able to carry the same colors to victory once again brought with it some extra gravitas, not least of which was the emphasis on bringing a trip to victory lane back to Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports crew.

“[Kulwicki] beat dad back in the day,” he said. “Here we’re sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today.

“Man, couldn’t be more grateful for this journey… The path…hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. Like I said, hasn’t always been fun, but we’ve enjoyed the fight together.”