Overview
- Elliott sealed the Cook Out 400 on Sunday at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track after crew chief Alan Gustafson short-pitted with 139 laps left and a lap-312 caution reset the field.
- On the ensuing restart, Ross Chastain briefly held the lead on older tires before Elliott drove past, controlled the final 69 laps, and beat Denny Hamlin by 0.565 seconds.
- Hamlin started on pole, swept the first two stages, and led 292 laps, but he lost track position in the yellow-flag pit sequence and could not complete a late pass in traffic.
- A multicar crash in the final stage began when Bubba Wallace spun Carson Hocevar off Turn 4, heavily damaging several cars, ending Wallace’s day in 36th, and costing him spots in the standings.
- The victory was the first of 2026 for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick kept the points lead by roughly 80 over Ryan Blaney, and the Cup Series pauses for Easter before Bristol on April 12.