NASCAR Cook Out 400 takeaways: Late pit call lifts Chase Elliott to Martinsville win

Denny Hamlin's dominant drive comes up short

The six-time Martinsville winner and pole sitter for Sunday's race was the driver to beat, but a missed shift on the restart with 78 laps to go lost him the top spot to Ross Chastain. Elliott also got past Hamlin and inherited the lead shortly after a big pileup produced the race's final caution.

Hamlin swept the opening two stages and moved into fifth all-time in laps led at "The Paperclip," but came up one spot short of adding a seventh Grandfather Clock to his collection.

Final stage pileup shakes things up

Even with the new rules package making its regular-season debut at a short track, green-flag racing was aplenty on Sunday. The excitement ratcheted up shortly after the restart with 78 laps remaining when Bubba Wallace got into Carson Hocevar and ignited a multi-car crash exiting Turn 4.

Hocevar recovered to finish 17th, but Wallace retired from the race in 36th, posting his second consecutive result outside the top 30. It was a fairly straightforward race for Martinsville's standards, but it was still not without some drama and a little carnage along the way.

Shane van Gisbergen has solid points day at Martinsville

Many wondered coming into the season how van Gisbergen would fair with more of an emphasis on points in the new "Chase" format instead of the old win-and-in system. He only finished 11th on Sunday, but that was after he qualified fifth and scored points in each of the first two stages.

That 34-point outing moves van Gisbergen to 14th in the standings after seven races. Team Penske put all three of its cars in the top 10 and HMS finally found victory lane, but van Gisbergen deserves some recognition after quietly putting together a solid weekend at one of the sport's most difficult tracks.