MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, beating Christopher Bell to the checkered flag by 4.617 seconds.
Hamlin cleared Bell for the race lead with 73 laps to go after a contested restart, and despite Bell’s best effort, Hamlin pulled away and rode off into the Virginia sunset with his sixth Martinsville victory.
Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five, with Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland completing the top 10.
Stage 1 saw two yellow flags, with the first caution of the day flying for debris on Lap 32. The first incident came at the expense of Chris Buescher, who spun on the frontstretch off the front bumper of Carson Hocevar on Lap 72. After a two-lap dash to the green-checkered flag, Logano took home the Stage 1 victory.
The first caution of Stage 2 flew for Burt Myers’ No. 50 Chevrolet, which stalled on the exit of Turn 2 after losing power. In his official NASCAR Cup Series debut, Myers finished 37th of 38.
Hamlin went on to win Stage 2 despite a surge from Elliott, who caught Hamlin as he ran in lapped traffic.
Riley Herbst brought out the first caution of Stage 3 on Lap 200 after contact from Austin Cindric sent him into the outside wall in Turn 1. After analyzing the damage on pit road, Herbst was able to continue in the race.
Loose wheels continued to be a topic of conversation on Sunday. Alex Bowman was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel early in the race, but Shane van Gisbergen had a much worse experience with a wheel issue.
After making a green flag pit stop, van Gisbergen had a wheel fall off his No. 88 on Lap 276. That yellow flag yielded to a short green flag run, as Ty Gibbs went around off the bumper of Tyler Reddick on Lap 299.
Following a long green flag run to begin Stage 3, cautions began to stack up as the race neared its final quarter. After Noah Gragson and Buescher got tangled up on Lap 310, only three green flag laps were run before Logano went around in Turn 4 on Lap 318. Logano’s spin was the last caution of the day.
–Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
