Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
Denny Hamlin started the Cook Out 400 on the pole and led three times for 292 of 400 laps, but a green-flag pit call changed everything in the final stage.
Conventional wisdom on a track where cautions often happen later in the race as frustrations mount would be to wait as long as possible to make a late pit stop, hoping for the caution to wave. And for Hamlin, it almost worked.
Almost.
But when the final stage at Martinsville Speedway took on a green-flag look, Chase Elliott, who had been running mid-pack for most of the day, flipped the script, short-pitting and taking advantage of fresh tires. That lured others to also pit for tires, and Elliott found himself running second to Hamlin when the caution flew for debris from Ty Dillon’s brakes.
The pit call by No. 9 crew chief Alan Gustafson paid off as Elliott took advantage of a bobble by Hamlin on the restart. The caution flew once more, but Elliott was able to gain the advantage on the restart again. From there, he was able to drive away enough to keep Hamlin at bay through some lapped traffic to the checkers and win by .565 seconds, 11 years to the day after making his Cup Series debut at Martinsville.
It’s Elliott’s first win of 2026, and it’s also the first win of the year for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. It’s the 22nd win of Elliott’s Cup career and second at Martinsville.
On the other hand…
It was a long weekend for the Richard Childress Racing stable. Austin Dillon led the way in qualifying, lining up 30th, and it didn’t get much better for Dillon or his teammates.
Dillon showed some speed in practice, particularly on longer runs, where his average lap time was competitive, but that was as far as it went. Dillon finished 25th, two laps down.
After starting 34th, Kyle Busch finished 24th, also two laps down, a 10-spot gain for the best finish on the team but still in the back half of the field. Driving a third car, Austin Hill started 37th and drove to 33rd, six laps down. While the Chevrolets in general have gotten off to a slow start this year, RCR’s showing this week was dismal.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
For the first time in a decade, the focus on races has been on not only winning, but on consistently putting up top performances week in and week out. In the heat of a battle for the win, the talk is about just that, and not how the win would lock anyone into the playoffs because in The Chase Era 2.0, they don’t lock anyone in. Even an increased payout of winning isn’t a guarantee; Hamlin outscored Elliott this week by a point thanks to winning both opening stages.
So, is it harder or easier to make the championship hunt under this format?
On one hand, drivers in the top 16 don’t have to worry about being displaced by a driver lower in the ranks. They control their own destiny much more, particularly the ones closer to the cut off.
On the other, a great day for someone outside the top 16 is just a great day. Hoisting the trophy is an end to itself in those cases. Arguably, that’s exactly how it should be, but for drivers without the equipment to contend weekly, or those who are specialists on certain tracks, there can no longer be a focus on a handful of races as a springboard to a title hunt.
Where… did he come from?
Before Sunday, the last time Joey Logano earned a top-10 finish was when he finished third in the Daytona 500. Since then, his best finish was 15th, punctuated by a 33rd-place finish a week ago at Darlington Raceway, a race in which Logano wasn’t involved in an incident and didn’t have mechanical problems.
Logano is usually strong at Martinsville though, and Sunday was no exception. Logano was in the conversation, starting ninth and running inside the top 10 all day long. He scored points in both opening stages and finished third.
Logano’s strength lies in his ability to be consistent. That got him into the playoffs and then through those to the title round on multiple occasions, including three titles. He’ll have to be even more consistent in The Chase format, but first he has to get there, and he’ll need a lot more races like Sunday to make that happen.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
After his worst finish of 2026 (15th), Tyler Reddick’s point lead shrank to 82 over Ryan Blaney following Blaney’s sixth-place run. Hamlin’s dominating day saw him outscore Elliott by a point despite Elliott’s win, and he moves into third, with Elliott and William Byron each moving up one spot to fourth and fifth, respectively.
Ty Gibbs made big gains this week, picking up five spots to sit sixth. Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson also each added a spot to sit seventh through ninth while Chris Buescher slipped to 10th after early issues on Sunday.
Their on-track tangle hurt both Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar as Wallace dropped from third to 11th after his day ended early, and Hocevar fell two to 15th. Logano climbed from 16th to 12th. Ryan Preece fell one spot to 13th, while Shane van Gisbergen continued to show consistency, moving up one to 14th. Daniel Suarez fell two positions but holds the 16th spot at The Chase cutoff with 19 races before that means a whole lot of anything.
The biggest pickup of the weekend was made by Josh Berry, whose 10th-place finish saw him move up the standings from 32nd to 25th.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
As the Cup Series heads into the first of two off-weeks this year, it’s certainly time for teams to take stock of their performance and where they stand. With a new (old) championship system in place, winning is still important, but with wins no longer a guarantee of making it to the postseason, overall performance is in the spotlight.
A couple of teams who have had mixed results to open 2026 didn’t really clear up the questions at Martinsville. Team Penske as a whole looked the best it has all year, with all three of its cars running inside the top 10 for most of the race. One race doesn’t exactly right the ship, and finding consistency will be key, but all three cars, plus the No. 21 of Berry, which uses Penske equipment, looked stout and competitive. Whether that will carry past the short-track stint is up in the air.
On the other hand, Hendrick Motorsports, despite Elliott’s win and three of its cars in the top 10, hasn’t looked like a weekly threat, even with two drivers in the top five in points. Even Sunday’s race was won by Gustafson’s pit call and not because the No. 9 was a dominant car.
Chase Elliott Scores Victory Number 1 for Hendrick Motorsports in 2026
Byron and Larson had solid finishes but didn’t contend for the win at a track where HMS has been so successful in the past. And while the No. 48 gets a bit of a pass because the team is working with a substitute driver (and it’s not as though Justin Allgaier is an inexperienced kid), the organization as a whole suffers without consistent information from that team. The win was a weight off of the collective HMS shoulders, but it doesn’t really make the team’s performance as a whole look like it should.
How… did this race stack up?
Martinsville was one of the tracks where the higher horsepower package was supposed to help the most. The Next Gen hasn’t been great on short or flat tracks, and well, Martinsville is both.
The problem is, it’s hard to judge if Hamlin’s early dominance meant the horsepower didn’t make a difference or if Hamlin — a driver who came into the series and thrived on cars with more power than the current version — was just that good. And no, his runner-up finish doesn’t really change that question, because the track changed drastically from start to finish, and Hamlin slipped a little on a late restart when Elliott took advantage.
And while a caution before Hamlin had to make a green-flag stop meant he didn’t have to make it under green, if he had stopped under green and had a great stop, he might have retained his advantage.
There was some solid racing in the pack, and drivers in good cars were able to gain positions. There was some gouging and fighting for spots. Also, when Elliott got the lead, he wasn’t able to run and hide from Hamlin, though they were both able to gap the field.
Part of that gap was due to Ross Chastain on old tires holding others up, so again, it may or may not reflect on the car.
The verdict? It still wasn’t the Martinsville of old, but there were glimmers of improvement. Overall, this particular race isn’t enough to judge.
“Hamlin’s dominating day saw him outscore Elliott by a point despite Elliott’s win”
Hrmm…. I thought the increase in winners points was supposed to stop this from happening. Oops.
My questions about the 23xI cars the past two years haven’t been answered. I’m going to include Denny’s car because whatever is going on is coming from 23xI. And now it’s obvious from watching young gibbs that jgr demanded they be let in on it. Bubba didn’t just get better than sooo many, and now young kid learns to drive. There’s a story there, pursue it please.