Chase Elliott was able to reel in his first win of the 2026 season as a late-race caution fell just right for his pit strategy to work out perfectly.
Martinsville, V.A. -- Denny Hamlin flat-out dominated Sunday's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway from the pole position as he led a race-high 292 laps, on his way to a sweep of Stages 1 and 2. However, in the end, fortune didn't shine upon Hamlin.
Instead, it was Chase Elliott, who used an alternate pit strategy to claim track position late in the race, and when an opportune caution flag fell for debris on Lap 311, Elliott was able to get his tires back on sequence with Hamlin and the other top contenders throughout the day. Ross Chastain, who used an unorthodox pit strategy of his own as he stayed on track on his old tires, while the remainder of the field pitted under this caution, was able to serve as a wrench in Hamlin's plans. On the ensuing restart, Hamlin missed a shift, which allowed Chastain to claim the race lead, while Hamlin would be locked into a battle for the runner-up spot with Elliott. Elliott would prevail, and after another caution for a multi-car melee in Turn 4 on Lap 324, Elliott found himself in the catbird seat. On the ensuing restart, Elliott would make quick work of Chastain for the race lead, as he would get by him on Lap 332. Elliott wouldn't look back as he marched to his first win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. While Hamlin would continue to chase Elliott down over the final few laps of the race in heavy lapped traffic, Elliott was able to hold on to defeat Hamlin by 0.565 seconds to pick up the 22nd win of his career. In all, Elliott led 84 laps on the day, which was the second-most behind Hamlin, the dominant driver of the day. Hamlin conceded that he was unable to overcome the dirty air trailing behind Elliott's No. 9 Chevrolet, which snuffed out his dominant run. Still, a runner-up finish was a solid result for the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Joey Logano, a week after his frustrating 33rd-place result at Darlington Raceway, was able to notch a third-place result at Martinsville. Understandably, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse was in a much happier mood after climbing from his car in Sunday's race at Martinsville. Ty Gibbs came home with a fourth-place finish, which extended his top-10 finishing streak to five races, four of which have been top-fives, and Gibbs was followed to the finish line by William Byron, a three-time Martinsville winner, who finished fifth. Ryan Blaney had slowly worked his way from the 12th starting spot to put himself in a position to win Sunday's race as the final Stage was drawing to a close. However, as Hamlin was attempting to navigate around Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott on the final restart, Hamlin put Blaney into the outside wall on the frontstretch.Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, and Josh Berry rounded out the top-10 finishers in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway.Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.
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