By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Denny Hamlin had Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway at the palm of his hand.
The six-time Martinsville winner won both stages and was in control of the race for 292 laps. Then a costly caution and subsequent restarts left him in a vulnerable spot where he had to reclaim the lead. Only to come up one spot short of earning back-to-back spring victories when it was all set and done.
In the end, Chase Elliott ended up taking his second grandfather clock while Hamlin could only watch and give credit to him for besting him when it mattered most.
“(Chase) did a good job controlling the pace there,” said Hamlin.
Despite the compliment, the fans in attendance jeered his remarks, showing there’s no love loss from the folks who view Hamlin as polarizing compared to the popular Elliott.
Hamlin added that a costly restart put a damper on securing a victory.
“Just really came from that bad restart – just not much more that I could have done there,” said Hamlin. “I felt like we gave it our all in our Bob’s Discount Furniture Camry.”
What proved to be an ill-timed caution for Hamlin stemmed from debris on pit road on Lap 312, became Elliott’s gain. Thanks in large part of Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson short-pitting him along with a top-of-the-line pit stop from the No. 9 team saw him up front.
Hamlin ended up restarting behind Ross Chastain, who stayed out under the caution period. A bad restart followed and denied Hamlin of making charge, but trouble behind him on Lap 323 allowed another opportunity to regain the lead.
Once clean-up from the multi-car crash in Turn 4 was completed, the race resumed for the final time as Elliott would get by Chastain to take the lead. Hamlin on the other hand, he was aggressively fending off everyone behind him that led to contact with Ryan Blaney, putting him into the Turn 4 wall.
"Ryan Blaney got the bad end of that deal." 👀 pic.twitter.com/IshWcb01nv
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 29, 2026
The wall contact resulted in a tight car for Blaney but managed to cross the line in sixth.
“It felt a little bit tighter after that. I don’t know if it knocked a toe out or what, but at least we were able to run sixth at least,” said Blaney. “I felt we got a little better all day. By the last run or so, I was a top-three car for sure. What happened on the restart kind of put us back.”
Pressure became the norm for Hamlin, who had trouble getting by Chastain, so he tapped the back bumper of the No. 1 Chevrolet multiple times until Chastain surrendered second.
From there, all eyes were on Hamlin trying to cut the half-second gap from Elliott.
The laps were winding down and time was running out for Hamlin’s bid at his second win of the season. He was within 0.3 seconds behind Elliott on Lap 384 when a bad wobble entering Turn 4 cost him valuable time as he tried getting by the lapped car of Chris Buescher.
Hamlin wouldn’t be denied as his resilience kept him from falling from grace, but lapped traffic didn’t benefit him in large part of those not wanting to interfere with the victory battle.
Thus, Hamlin had to settle for the runner-up spot after leading three times for 292 laps, the most among the 37 drivers in Sunday’s race.
Following the checkered flag, Hamlin felt he had a loose wheel on the No. 11 Toyota that brought him flashbacks to last Sunday’s race at Darlington that’ll require some observations at Joe Gibbs Racing.
“Just felt like the wheel was loose on that last run,” Hamlin commented. “Either way, these are just some of the races that get away from you in your career. This one is certainly one of them.”
With seven races in the books, the Cup Series will take its Easter break and will head to Bristol Motor Speedway two Sundays from now (April 19 at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1). Hamlin leaves Martinsville third in points, 94 points behind Tyler Reddick.
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