Martinsville, huh. – Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s cook out 400 on Martinsville Speedway and beat Christopher Bell to the checkered flag by 4,617 seconds.
Hamlin cleared Bell for the competition lead with 73 laps to follow a disputed restart, and despite Bell’s best effort, Hamlin pulled away and went into Virginia Sunset with his sixth Martinsville victory.
Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson rounded off top five, with Ross Chastain, Ryan Preec, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland that completed the top 10.
Step 1 saw two yellow flags, with the first caution of the day flying for rubbish on lap 32. The first incident came at the expense of Chris Buescher, who spun on front stretch from the front bumper of Carson Hacevar on lap 72. After a two -turn dash to the greenery.
The first caution of Stage 2 flew for Burt Myers’ No. 50 Chevrolet, which stopped at the end of turn 2 after losing power. In its official debut Nascar Cup Series, Myers finished 37th of 38.
Hamlin continued to win stage 2 despite a wave from Elliott, which caught Hamlin when he ran in patched traffic.
Riley Herbst produced the first caution of stage 3 on lap 200 after contact from Austin Cindric sent him into the outer wall in turn 1. After analyzing the damage on Pit Road, herbst could continue in the race.
Loose wheels continued to be a conversation theme on Sunday. Alex Bowman was forced to make an unplanned pit stop for a loose wheel early in the race, but Shane van Gisbergen had a much worse experience with a wheel problem.
After making a green flag stop, Van Gisbergen had a wheel that falls off its No. 88 on lap 276. The yellow flag gave to a short green flag driving, when Ty Gibbs walked around from the bumper of Tyler Reddick on the lap 299.
After a long green flag driving to start stage 3, warnings began to stack as the race approached their last quarter. After Noah Gragson and Buescher tangled up on the lap 310, only three green flags were driven before Logano walked around in turn 4 on lap 318. Loganos spin was the last caution of the day.
-Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
