MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott picked up his first win of the 2026 season and Chevrolet’s first of the year Sunday, out-driving Denny Hamlin over the closing laps of the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott short-pitted on lap 261 to gain track position, then took the lead for good on a restart with 68 laps remaining, holding off Hamlin’s charging No. 11 Toyota to win by 0.565 seconds — his 22nd career Cup win and Hendrick Motorsports’ 31st at the historic half-mile.
Hamlin looked like the class of the field for most of the afternoon, sweeping both stages and leading a race-best 292 of 400 laps, but was never quite able to close the gap once Elliott’s strategy paid off in traffic. Joey Logano rebounded from a rough outing the week before to finish third, while Ty Gibbs turned in his first top-10 at Martinsville with a fourth-place run. William Byron, a three-time winner at the track, rounded out the top five. The result marked Elliott’s earliest-season win of his career and came exactly 11 years to the day after his very first Cup start at Martinsville.
All-Pro Reels was on hand for the grandfather clock celebration as the spring Martinsville weekend closed out.
The Cup Series takes its first off-week of the season before returning to action April 12 at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500.