Denny Hamlin used to be ‘The Man’ at Martinsville Speedway, but it had been a decade since he last visited victory lane for a Cup Series race at the famed Virginia short track. Turns out he had plenty of his particular magic left in the tank, as he dominated large chunks of this year’s spring race to capture the win Sunday (March 30) at the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville.
Hamlin led 274 of the 400 laps at Martinsville in his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and his first victory at Martinsville since 2015. The win also tied him with Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time Cup wins list.
Hamlin maintained a steady lead over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and polesitter Christopher Bell for the last portions of the race. Hamlin weaved through lapped traffic, managed his tires and was hardly challenged for the lead.
Bell, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson completed the top five. Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.
Bell started on the pole but got shuffled out of the lead early on. He led 24 laps on the day and had a solid car.
Wallace earned his second top five of the season and his second top five in a row after finishing third at Homestead-Miami Speedway last week.
Elliott led 42 laps and was competitive early on in the race, lingering around in the top five, but could not catch up to Hamlin to reclaim the lead.
Logano won stage one, while race winner Hamlin took the stage two win right as he was starting to dominate the proceedings.
Logano recovered from a late spin off the bumper of Briscoe to come back and finish eighth. Incredibly, it was his first top 10 of the season in his quest to defend his 2024 Cup Series championship.
Ty Gibbs was another story of the race as the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team attempted to right the ship in the 2025 season. Gibbs ran in the top 10 for a chunk of the race and was looking to have a good day before being spun in the last stage. Gibbs went on to finish 13th.
NASCAR Cup Series 2025 Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Results
The NASCAR Cup Series returns at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, April 6, for the Goodyear 400 with race coverage on FS1 starting at 3:00 P.M. ET.
Logan Kendall joined the Frontstretch team in 2025 as the Tuesday News Writer and fills in other roles as needed. He resides in the Finger Lakes region of New York and spends his free time writing as a hobby creatively and is a self published author.
Logan can be found on X @LoganKendall48