MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Even for the biggest names in NASCAR, like 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, the strategy calls don’t always pay off.
So when the plan comes together, as it did in Elliott’s victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, it’s especially sweet for the eight-time reigning most popular driver and his legions of adoring fans.
“It’s really cool when this stuff works out, and to win these races is so tough,” Elliott said while celebrating on the front stetch to huge cheers after his first win this season and the 22nd of his career on NASCAR’s top circuit. “So just really, really grateful for the opportunity. I never take it for granted. Trust me, this is a dream come true for me.”
The 30-year-old from Dawsonville, Georgia, capitalized on a shrewd gamble by crew chief Alan Gustafson to pit the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet earlier than the other contenders.
When a yellow caution flag flew on the 312th lap, Elliott was in second behind Denny Hamlin and pitted with the rest of the lead-lap drivers aside from Ross Chastain, who moved into first position by staying on track. Elliott took the lead back from Chastain after a restart and stayed in front for the final 69 laps to win by less than a second (0.565) over Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota.
“It was definitely a team effort, That was awesome,” Elliott said after his second win on the 0.526-mile oval where winners are presented with a grandfather clock trophy. “So proud of Alan and the whole team. They did a great job, and we took a gamble. But just so proud of them. They put up with a lot, and they’ve got to put up with me all the time. So I just appreciate them for sticking with me.”
Joey Logano finished third in a Team Penske Ford, followed by JGR’s Ty Gibbs and Hendrick’s William Byron. Penske’s Ryan Blaney, JGR’s Christopher Bell, Penske’s Austin Cindric, Hendrick’s Kyle Larson and Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry completed the top 10.
Elliott led 84 laps in delivering the first win this year for Hendrick; the winningest team in NASCAR history has a record 31 victories at Martinsville. Gustafson, whose calls are frequently second-guessed by one of NASCAR’s biggest fan bases whenever Elliott struggles, said he got a supportive call Sunday morning from team owner Rick Hendrick.
“He’s like, ‘Everything’s great, love you guys playing the long game, and this is a marathon, not a sprint,'” Gustafson said in recounting the conversation. “But nevertheless, when the boss calls you, it gets your attention.”
This decision, though, was virtually a no-brainer for Gustafson after Elliott started 10th and ran mostly outside the top five for the first half of the 400-lap race.
“We were just kind of trapped in like the 10th spot,” Gustafson said. “It’s really hard to pass, and we just need to do something different. I just felt like it was worth a shot. And when we pitted early, I think it just drug a lot of guys down.
“Obviously, the caution’s great. It gave us track position, and the rest is history.”
Hamlin, who has a series-best six wins at Martinsville, started from the pole position and dominated, leading 292 of the first 317 laps. He got shuffled from the lead during the pit stop sequence on the 312th lap, though, and lost momentum on the ensuing restart.
Two weeks after taking the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 60th win of his Cup Series career, Hamlin couldn’t finish off this one.
“(Elliott) did a good job of controlling the pace there,” Hamlin said. “It just really came from that bad restart I had. Just not much really I could have done, and it felt like we gave it our all. We’ll check it out here, but I just thought the wheel was loose here on that last run. Either way, these are just some of the races that get away from you and your career.”
Elliott, who finished first in one of the qualifying races last month for the season-opening Daytona 500, won a points race for the first time his victory in a playoff race last September at Kansas Speedway.
The latest win came 11 years to the day of the Cup Series debut for Elliott, whose father Bill is in the NASCAR Hall of Fame — he won the 1988 Cup Series championship — and was voted most popular driver 16 times before eventually withdrawing his name for consideration. Chase finished 38th at Martinsville in his debut on March 29, 2015, when the winner was Hamlin.
Elliott said he was reminded of the anniversary at an autograph session Sunday morning.
“A couple fans that were here that day came up to me and told me about it,” Elliott said. “So I got to thinking about it. Really cool to kind of see all that come full circle.”
After an off weekend for Easter, the Cup Series will continue its short-track swing at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway on April 12. Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion, has won two of the past three races at the 0.533-mile oval, leading 411 of 500 laps in a victory last spring.
Through the first seven points races, Elliott, Hamlin and Blaney are the only drivers with a victory besides Tyler Reddick, who was 15th at Martinsville for his worst finish this year. Still, it came a week after he was first at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway for his fourth win of 2026 in the 23XI Racing No. 45 Toyota.
His blazing start comes during a contract year, and though Reddick would be the hottest free agent in NASCAR on the open market, the 30-year-old driver has said he’s committed to staying at the team he joined three years ago.
Hamlin co-owns 23XI with NBA great Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, the retired basketball star’s business manager, and afer winning the pole position Saturday, the JGR driver guaranteed his team would sign Reddick to an extension soon.
“Tyler’s one of those guys that was very important for us to get our hands on him very early,” Hamlin said. “I think he’s lived up to the expectations for us. We’re seeing it this year. He’s putting it all together, and our race cars are really fast, too.”
Off the track Sunday, the NASCAR Hall of Fame unveiled a list of 15 candidates for the three-member class of 2027 that will include two from the “Modern Era” category and one from the “Pioneer” division. Among the new nominees are 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, six-time ARCA champion Ray Elder, winning car owner Ray Fox, championship crew chief Herb Nab, and championship crew chief and engine builder Ernie Elliott — Bill’s brother and Chase’s uncle.
Some of the notable holdover nominees are Cup Series race winners Greg Biffle, who was killed in a plane crash last December, and Jeff Burton.
IndyCar: Champ races away in Alabama
Three-time reigning IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou picked up his second victory of the season Sunday in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Birmingham’s Barber Motorsports Park, where he led 79 of 90 laps in his Honda-power Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10 and finished more than 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren.
Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was third, just behind Lundgaard, with Team Penske’s David Malukas fourth and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood fifth. Lundgaard led 10 laps and Rahal one as the only drivers besides Palou who were up front at any point in a caution-free race on the 2.3-mile road course with 17 turns.
Palou, who opened the season with a dominant victory in Florida on a temporary street circuit at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, is seeking his fifth IndyCar title in six years. The 28-year-old Spaniard was 24th in the second race of the season on an oval track at Phoenix Raceway after going out early due to a collision, then finished second to Kirkwood on a temporary street circuit in Arlington, Texas.
Palou won at Barber Motorsports Park for the second year in a row, and Sunday’s victory was the 21st of his career in the American open-wheel series. It also puts Palou just two points behind Kirkwood’s series-leading 156 in the championship standings. Lundgaard (121) sits third, followed by Malukas (116) and Penske’s Josef Newgarden (113), who won in Arlington and was 10th Sunday.
After four events in five weeks to start the season, IndyCar will race just once next month, April 19 on the streets of Long Beach, California. The spotlight then shifts to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course May 9 and the Indy 500 on the famed oval on May 24, followed by the Detroit Grand Prix a week later.