Cook Out 400: Chase Elliott wins at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin comes up short

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott, who spent the first two stages outside of the top 10, got to the front of the field thanks to an undercut strategy call by crew chief Alan Gustafson and a timely debris caution, earning his first win of the 2026 season in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led the final 68 laps (84 total) in his 22nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, which produced his second grandfather clock in Virginia.

“It was definitely a team effort,” Elliott said. “That was awesome. We’ve never had a win this early in the season. Just a really great team effort. So proud of Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the whole No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet team. They did a great job all day.

“We took a gamble. We were going to two-stop that last stage. I honestly think it was going to work out good for us either way. Just so proud of this team. Man, they put up with a lot (smiling). They have to put up with me all the time, and I just appreciate them for sticking with me. It’s lot of fun when days like this work out. Thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Mr. Hendrick, Chevrolet and all of our partners for the support.”

Elliott’s victory was also his fifth straight top-five finish at Martinsville.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Bob’s Discount Furniture Toyota was the car to beat all race long. After starting on pole, Hamlin ran inside the top five for the majority of the 400-lap event and swept the stages.

Despite leading 292 laps and bringing his total number of laps led in his Cup Series career at Martinsville to over 3,000, Hamlin ultimately settled for second place despite dominating the race.

“He (Elliott) did a good job controlling the pace there,” Hamlin said. “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 in our Bob’s Discount Furniture Camry. I thought I had a loose wheel. We will check it out. Just felt similar to Darlington, so we will check it out here. Just felt like the wheel was loose on that last run, but either way — just there are some races that get away from you in your career, and this is certainly one of them.”

Hamlin became the first driver in the new 2026 NASCAR points system to outscore the race winner, as he finished with 56 points while Elliott earned 55 points. In fact, the only possible way this can happen is if the race winner does not earn stage points, the runner-up sweeps the stages and earns the Xfinity Fastest Lap.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano had a solid day, scoring 10 stage points on his way to a third-place finish. With another top 10 at Martinsville, Logano now extends his streak to 14 straight races at the Virginia short track with a finish inside the top 10. He started the streak on Oct. 27, 2019.

Results from the 2026 Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

The Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway had a “Big One” after Bubba Wallace got into Carson Hocevar with 75 laps to go, causing an incident that involved multiple drivers.

“Yeah, I misjudged,” Wallace said. “I didn’t appreciate the line. I misjudged the center of the corner. I didn’t mean to turn him. What a frustrating day, man. So much expectation coming here. Favorite track. Hardee’s on the car. Just wasn’t the day we wanted. We really have to figure out what it is. We can win Saturday in practice, just don’t show up on Sunday. I hate it for our team. Just frustration. Take a week off and reset and go on to Bristol.”

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs had another impressive run to start his 2026 campaign. After starting fourth, he finished fourth in Stage 1, second in Stage 2 and ended up in fourth, earning his fifth straight top-six finish. Gibbs’ four top fives are tied with Tyler Reddick for the most in 2026.

“Just adding some key players into it and changing some stuff up,” Gibbs said about his turnaround season. “I feel like we’ve been really good this year. Daytona and Atlanta — we were fast too. I just wrecked myself at Atlanta, and Daytona got wrecked. Just sticking to it, adding to it. I had a lot of fun racing today in my No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry. It was really fast. We will keep working on it.”

William Byron and Ryan Blaney have been two of the best drivers in the Next Gen era at Martinsville, as they have won four of the last seven races and five of the nine at the Virginia short track. Byron finished in fifth, while Blaney finished sixth in the 2026 spring race.

For the first time in team history, Richard Childress Racing has failed to score a top-10 finish in the first seven races of a NASCAR Cup Series season. Kyle Busch was RCR’s top finisher, as he drove from 34th to 24th place.

Busch also extended his winless streak to 100 races. Before this streak, his previous longest drought was just 36 races.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system and will be released on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

Tyler Reddick currently leads the NASCAR GRID Rating one week before Week 1 of the GRID Ranking is unveiled.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 12. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

 

GRID Network