For the first time in 2026, a Hendrick Motorsports car went to Victory Lane. Chase Elliott earned the team’s 31st win at Martinsville Speedway, taking the lead from Ross Chastain on the final restart.
He then held off a charging Denny Hamlin, who had dominated most of the race and swept the stages, collecting his 22nd career win.
Behind Elliott and Hamlin, Joey Logano finished third, Ty Gibbs fourth, and William Byron fifth. Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, and Josh Berry filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Shane van Gisbergen‘s oval progression continued as well, scoring points in both stages and finishing 11th after a top five qualifying effort on Saturday.
Stage 1
Hamlin led from pole position in a fairly clean opening stint to the race. At one point, he briefly lost the lead to Byron when he got trapped behind the slower car of Nemechek.
Within a few laps, Hamlin was back in control of the race. He quickly moved through the field, and lapped up to Justin Allgaier in 23rd when the first caution of the race flew.
Just three laps shy of the stage end, Cody Ware got sent around as a group of cars at the very tail end of the lead lap were pushing to get away from Hamlin.
Hamlin won Stage 1 over Byron, Berry, Gibbs, Cindric, Van Gisbergen, Logano, Blaney, Reddick, and Preece.
Stage 2
During the stage break, Kyle Busch hit a tire and sent it flying down pit road, also making contact with Zilisch. His awful day got worse as the No. 8 team was issued an uncontrolled tire penalty.
On the restart, Gibbs moved up to second behind his teammate, Hamlin. Back in the pack, Buescher had to make an unscheduled pit stop, and around the same time, Gragson went spinning a stack-up.
This put Briscoe back on the lead lap, courtesy of the free pass. A handful of cars took the opportunity to pit, but no one up front.
Hamlin led the rest of the stage without much drama, winning Stage 2 over Gibbs, Logano, Blaney, Byron, Cindric, Reddick, Van Gisbergen, Larson, and Berry.
Briscoe was once again the free pass as he got re-lapped by Hamlin.
Stage 3
Hamlin continued to lead as Blaney moved up into second on the long run to open the final stage.
With about 140 laps to go, Elliott and Van Gisbergen were the first cars running inside the top-ten to make green flag pit stops.
During this run, Buescher made another unscheduled pit stop, and Hill was forced back to pit road with a loose wheel. Luckily, it stayed attached and he managed to make it back to his stall. Allgaier also had some trouble, issued a drive-through penalty for an uncontrolled tire.
Hamlin finally pitted from the lead with around 110 laps to go, while Elliott and Van Gisbergen cycled to the front of the field.
Hamlin rapidly ran them down on fresher rubber and reclaimed the lead with 92 laps to go. Elsewhere in the field, Ty Dillon slowed with an issue, but he also made it back to the pits.
However, he dropped debris on pit road, which forced a caution to retrieve a brake rotor. Suarez in 20th was granted the free pass as the first driver one lap down.
The caution made the strategy for Elliott and Van Gisbergen a net gain, but Hamlin remained out front as most of the field pitted.
Chastain (who was the last car on the lead lap in 19th) did not pit, and took over the lead with older tires. Everyone behind him had fresh tires for the restart, which came with 78 laps to go.
Chastain got a great restart as Hamlin lost second to Elliott, but the run didn’t last long as a multi-car wreck broke out in the middle of the field. Wallace got into Hocevar, and a few other cars were involved. Wallace was unable to continue, while Buescher earned the free pass.
They went back green with 69 to go, and Elliott passed Chastain on the outside. Blaney lost some ground after getting squeezed into the wall by Hamlin.
Hamlin got close as Elliott navigated slower traffic, but he never could get to the rear bumper of the No. 9 Chevrolet.
Chastain’s gamble saw him fall to 16th in the final running order, but it will still higher than where he was running when the No. 1 originally chose to stay out.
RACE
All Stats
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