Elliott holds off Hamlin to win Martinsville

By Holly Cain, NASCAR.com //

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Good pit strategy and a highly-motivated team rallied Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott to the NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway; the sport’s reigning Most Popular Driver delivering Chevrolet its first win of the season all to the delight of a huge enthusiastic crowd at the historic half-miler.

Elliott short-pitted on lap 261 to gain track position then moved his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead for good after a restart with 68 laps remaining — ultimately out-running the day’s most dominant driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin to the checkered flag by .565-second to extend the Hendrick team’s track record win total to 31 victories.

“It was definitely a team effort, how about that, that was awesome,” said Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who made his very first NASCAR Cup Series start at Martinsville exactly 11 years ago to the day.

“We’ve never had a win this early in the season. Just a really great team effort. So proud of [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] the crew really did a great job. We took a gamble and were going to two-stop that last stage and honestly believe it was going to work out either way.

“Just so proud. Sure is a lot of fun when days like this work out.”

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Elliott, 30, of Dawsonville, Ga., said he had been confident in the car’s speed all weekend and on Sunday, just needed that clutch pit call to get up front and seize the chance.

“This whole deal is really weird the way it works,” said Elliott, who now has 22 career wins. “Fortunately got that lead on the last one [restart] and fell into a good pace. Just had enough.

“Probably needed a little bit to be just the absolute best out-right but we were really close and were able to manage and save enough to get through traffic at the end.

“But man, it’s really cool when this stuff works out. To win these races is just so tough. Really grateful for the opportunity as always. I never take it for granted.”

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Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota led a race-best 292 of the 400 laps and for much of the afternoon looked to absolutely run away with his seventh grandfather clock trophy. But after Elliott got out front, Hamlin was playing catch-up and never really was able to get close enough to attempt a pass in the closing laps as the leaders navigated lapped traffic.

“He did a good job controlling the pace there,” said Hamlin, who won both stages and was actually leading by three-seconds at the point Elliott made that all-important short pit stop to get up to the front.

“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.”

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