Martinsville roundup
Chase Elliott took the win at Martinsville while Denny Hamlin still topped key race stats despite not winning, TV viewership for the weekend was 2.394 million, and Ryan Blaney has closed the points gap in the standings. (x.com) (motorsport.com) (yardbarker.com)
Elliott short‑pitted on lap 261 and rode the resulting track position to take the lead after a restart with 68 laps remaining. (nascar.com) The victory was Elliott’s 22nd career Cup win, marked Hendrick Motorsports’ first win of the 2026 season and extended Hendrick’s all‑time Martinsville total to 31 wins. (motorsport.com) Hamlin led a race‑best 292 of 400 laps, swept both stages and was up by about three seconds before Elliott’s pit call, but settled for second — 0.565 seconds back at the checkered flag. (nascar.com) Sunday’s Cook Out 400 averaged 2.394 million viewers on FS1, a slight decline from the 2.422 million who watched the event the previous year. (jayski.com) Blaney was scored sixth on the boxscore after Martinsville and climbed to second in the championship chase as the points gap to leader Tyler Reddick narrowed from 95 points to 82 points. (motorsport.com 1) (motorsport.com 2) On lap 334 contact from Hamlin sent Blaney into the wall and effectively ended his late bid for the win, an incident Blaney described as “he just put me in the fence.” (frontstretch.com) (si.com)
