Welcome to the CookOut 400 at Martinsville Speedway! It’s the shortest track NASCAR travels to, and the track with the shortest tempers. The race saw a total of 10 cautions, the most at this track for a 400 lap race. We also saw a total of nine lead changes.
Let’s break it down:
Christopher Bell (20) led us to the green followed by these cars in the Top-10, Chase Elliott (9), Alex Bowman (48), Kyle Larson (5), Denny Hamlin (11), Chris Buescher (17), Joey Logano (22), Bubba Wallace (23), Tyler Reddick (45), and William Byron (24).
The race saw a mostly simple first few laps of stage one. The first caution lap of the day came on lap 32 for debris on the track off of turn four, and most of the cars made pit-stops for fuel and fresh tires. The green came out again on lap 39.
Again, after the first restart we saw a simple run until lap 71, where the 77 of Carson Hocevar made contact with Chris Buescher and spun the 17. Most cars on the lead lap once again pitted for fresh tires and fuel.
On lap 80, the end of Stage One, the top-five was as follows: Logano (22), who got the stage points, Bowman (48), AJ Allmendinger (16), Brad Keselowksi (6), and Erik Jones (43). We went green again on lap 93, and didn’t have another caution until lap 122, for Burt Myers (50) who slowed down on the frontstretch and stopped near the exit of pit road off of turn 2.
The green came out again on lap 132 with the 11 of Hamlin leading. On lap 180, the end of Stage Two, the top-5 was as follows: Hamlin (11), Elliott (9), Wallace (23), Ty Gibbs (54), and Chase Briscoe (19).
After an intense but mostly peaceful green flag run, the next caution came out on lap 202, for the contact made by Austin Cindric (2) to the 35 of Riley Herbst, where the 2 spun Herbst into the wall.
The restart after this caution had a top 5 of Hamlin (11), Elliott (9), Wallace (23), Bell (20) and Ryan Blaney (12).
The next caution came on lap 275 for Shane van Gisbergen (88), who had just completed a pit stop and lost a right rear tire as he came back out onto the track. When we restarted on lap 287, the top 5 were Hamlin (11), Wallace (23), Bell (20), Elliott (9), and Larson (5).
The next caution was on lap 298, when Gibbs (54), spun after a slight rear contact with Tyler Reddick (45). We restarted again on lap 306, with the top-5 of Hamlin (11), Wallace (23), Bell (20), Ross Chastain (1), and Elliott (9).
There was another caution on lap 309 for the 17 and the 4 of Noah Gragson after they made contact and both spun. The next caution came on lap 317, after the 22 spun and hit the wall after a contact with the 19. Then again on lap 375, Austin Cindric (2) went behind the wall because the team ran out of batteries.
And finally, after all of that, Denny Hamlin won the CookOut 400! This victory marked Hamlin’s first at the track since 2015.
The final Top-10 for the CookOut 400 was:
- Denny Hamlin – (11)
- Christopher Bell – (20)
- Bubba Wallace – (23)
- Chase Elliott – (9)
- Kyle Larson – (5)
- Ross Chastain – (1)
- Ryan Preece – (60)
- Joey Logano – (22)
- Chase Briscoe – (19)
- Todd Gilliland – (34)
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