Chase Elliott wins at Martinsville
Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images
MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Good pit strategy and a highly-motivated team rallied Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott to the NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway; the sport’s reigning Most Popular Driver delivering Chevrolet its first win of the season, all to the delight of a huge, enthusiastic crowd at the historic half-miler.
Elliott short-pitted on lap 261 to gain track position, then moved his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead for good after a restart with 68 laps remaining — ultimately out-running the day’s most dominant driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin to the checkered flag by 0.565 seconds to extend the Hendrick team’s track record win total to 31 victories.
“It was definitely a team effort, how about that, that was awesome,” said Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who made his very first Cup Series start at Martinsville exactly 11 years ago to the day.
“We’ve never had a win this early in the season. Just a really great team effort. So proud of [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson], the crew really did a great job. We took a gamble and were going to two-stop that last stage, and honestly believe it was going to work out either way. Just so proud. Sure is a lot of fun when days like this work out.”
Elliott, 30, of Dawsonville, Georgia, said he had been confident in the car’s speed all weekend and on Sunday, just needed that clutch pit call to get up front and seize the chance.
“This whole deal is really weird the way it works,” said Elliott, who now has 22 career wins. “Fortunately got that lead on the last one [restart] and fell into a good pace. Just had enough.
“Probably needed a little bit to be just the absolute best outright, but we were really close and were able to manage and save enough to get through traffic at the end.
“But man, it’s really cool when this stuff works out. To win these races is just so tough. Really grateful for the opportunity as always. I never take it for granted.”
Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota led a race-best 292 of the 400 laps and, for much of the afternoon, looked to absolutely run away with his seventh grandfather clock trophy. But after Elliott got out front, Hamlin was playing catch-up and never really was able to get close enough to attempt a pass in the closing laps as the leaders navigated lapped traffic.
“He did a good job controlling the pace there,” said Hamlin, who won both stages and was actually leading by three-seconds at the point Elliott made that all-important short pit stop to get up to the front.
“Just really came from that bad restart — just not much more that I could have done there. I felt like we gave it our all.”
This year’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway spring winner, Hamlin said he was also concerned in the final laps that perhaps the car had a loose wheel on the final run, but said either way, “there are some races that get away from you in your career, and this was certainly one of them.”
Team Penske’s Joey Logano rebounded from a rough 33rd-place outing last week at Darlington Raceway to finish third Sunday — equaling his best showing of the season in the No. 22 Ford.
“Weekends like last weekend, you start to question everything, you have to right, as a competitor you have to do that, but nice to have a good rebound, solid car,” the three-time series champion Logano said. “Our car, honestly, if we were able to get to the lead, I don’t know that the 9-car [Elliott] was any better than us, he just got the clean air at the right time. Proud of this team.”
Fourth-place finisher Ty Gibbs earned his fifth consecutive top-six of the season in the No. 54 JGR Toyota and the fourth top-five in the last five races. It marks his first top-10 at Martinsville.
Hendrick Motorsports William Byron — a three-time Martinsville winner — was fifth after leading six laps in the No. 24 Chevrolet. Penske’s Ryan Blaney, JGR’s Christopher Bell, Penske’s Austin Cindric, Hendrick’s Kyle Larson and Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry rounded out the top-10.
Tyler Reddick, the season’s four-time race winner, finished 15th but still holds a massive 82-point advantage over Blaney and is 94 points ahead of Hamlin atop the Cup Series standings. Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, who finished 36th after triggering a 12-car accident on lap 325, dropped from third place to 11th in the standings.
The Cup Series takes the first of the season’s two off-weeks next weekend before resuming competition April 12 in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson is the defending Bristol Spring race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 7
Race Results for the Cook Out 400 - Sunday, March 29, 2026
Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, VA - 0.526 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 400 Laps - 210.4 Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/29/2026 @ 06:35 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Stage 1 Pos Status Tms Laps Stage 2 Pos
1 10 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 400 55 Running 2 84
2 1 11 Denny Hamlin Bob's Discount Furniture Toyota 400 1 1 56 Running 3 292
3 9 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 400 7 3 46 Running
4 4 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 400 4 2 49 Running
5 2 24 William Byron Cincinnati Chevrolet 400 2 5 47 Running 1 6
6 12 12 Ryan Blaney Advance Auto Parts Ford 400 8 4 41 Running 1 2
7 11 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota 400 30 Running
8 6 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford 400 5 6 40 Running
9 13 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 400 9 30 Running
10 3 21 Josh Berry DEX Ford 400 3 10 36 Running 1 2
11 5 97 Shane Van Gisbergen SuperFile Chevrolet 400 6 8 34 Running
12 17 60 Ryan Preece Body Guard Ford 400 10 26 Running
13 23 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 400 24 Running
14 27 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 400 23 Running
15 8 45 Tyler Reddick SiriusXM Toyota 400 9 7 28 Running
16 18 1 Ross Chastain Safety Culture Chevrolet 400 21 Running 1 14
17 7 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride The 'Dente Chevrolet 400 20 Running
18 20 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 400 19 Running
19 16 17 Chris Buescher Kroger/Thomas' High Protein Ford 399 18 Running
20 22 7 Daniel Suarez Group 1001 Chevrolet 399 17 Running
21 19 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 399 16 Running
22 21 48 Justin Allgaier(i) Ally Chevrolet 398 0 Running
23 29 34 Todd Gilliland Dairi-O/Cheney Bros Inc. Ford 398 14 Running
24 34 8 Kyle Busch FICO Chevrolet 398 13 Running
25 30 3 Austin Dillon Dow Coatings Chevrolet 398 12 Running
26 25 88 Connor Zilisch # Choice Privileges Chevrolet 397 11 Running
27 28 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 397 10 Running
28 31 4 Noah Gragson FUEL by Franzia Ford 397 9 Running
29 32 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 397 8 Running
30 33 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Jack Links Non-Vegan Chevrolet 397 7 Running
31 24 41 Cole Custer Haas Tooling.com Chevrolet 396 6 Running
32 35 51 Cody Ware Super.com Chevrolet 394 5 Running
33 37 33 * Austin Hill(i) United Rentals Chevrolet 394 0 Running
34 14 38 Zane Smith Long John Silver's Ford 371 3 Running
35 26 35 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 323 2 Accident
36 15 23 Bubba Wallace Hardee's Toyota 322 1 Accident
37 36 10 Ty Dillon Black's Tire Chevrolet 298 1 Brakes
Fastest Lap Bonus: #11 , lap 3 / 19.788
Race Comments: Chase Elliott won the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, his 22nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory. No cars dropped to the rear to start the race. Failed to Qualify: None.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 47 Mins, 18 Secs. Average Speed: Margin of Victory:
Caution Flags: 5 for 54 laps; Laps: 79-95 (#51, 42 incident turn 4 / Stage 1 Conclusion [48]); 106-112 (#4, 16 incident turn 4 [19]); 182-193 (Stage 2 Conclusion [19]); 312-322 (Debris [7]); 325-331 (#23, 77, 38, 3, 7, 17, 33, 35, 42, 43, 71, 88 incident turn 4 [17]).
Lead Changes: 8 among 6 drivers; D. Hamlin 1-38; W. Byron 39-44; D. Hamlin 45-289; R. Blaney 290-291; J. Berry 292-293; C. Elliott 294-308; D. Hamlin 309-317; R. Chastain 318-331; C. Elliott 332-400.
75.457 MPH .565 Seconds
Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 54, 22, 12, 24, 2, 45, 97, 5, 21
Stage 1 Top 10: 11, 24, 21, 54, 2, 97, 22, 12, 45, 60
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS
Through March 29, 2026
UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL
1. Tyler Reddick 45 7 0 353 0 0 4 0
2. Ryan Blaney 12 7 0 271 -82 82 1 1
3. Denny Hamlin 11 7 1 259 -94 12 1 2
4. Chase Elliott 9 7 1 249 -104 10 1 0
5. William Byron 24 7 1 238 -115 11 0 1
6. Ty Gibbs 54 7 5 222 -131 16 0 1
7. Christopher Bell 20 7 1 212 -141 10 0 2
8. Brad Keselowski 6 7 1 206 -147 6 0 2
9. Kyle Larson 5 7 1 206 -147 0 0 0
10. Chris Buescher 17 7 -3 206 -147 0 0 0
11. Bubba Wallace 23 7 -8 206 -147 0 0 2
12. Joey Logano 22 7 4 185 -168 21 0 0
13. Ryan Preece 60 7 -1 180 -173 5 0 0
14. Shane Van Gisbergen 97 7 1 174 -179 6 0 0
15. Carson Hocevar 77 7 -2 171 -182 3 0 0
16. Daniel Suarez 7 7 -2 167 -186 4 0 0
17. Michael McDowell 71 7 0 158 -195 9 0 0
18. Austin Cindric 2 7 3 149 -204 9 0 1
19. Ross Chastain 1 7 1 136 -217 13 0 1
20. AJ Allmendinger 16 7 -2 134 -219 2 0 0
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