MARTINSVILLE, V.A.- All weekend long, the main focus of Sunday’s (April 7) NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway seemed to be on Hendrick Motorsports’ (HMS) 40th anniversary celebration.
Memories of Hendrick’s team-saving first win with Geoff Bodine at Martinsville in 1984 were mentioned continuously, reflecting on a moment that sparked one of the greatest organizations in NASCAR history.
The team’s four cars were adorned with special ruby red paint schemes. Hendrick memorabilia could be found scattered all over the facility, with all 28 wins for the team depicted in the turn four pedestrian tunnel. Over one thousand HMS employees and family members were stationed in turn two.
Those attendees were treated to a historic result and a feel-good burnout on Sunday afternoon.
After 415 laps, the story remained with Hendrick – and for good reason. The organization not only capped off its weekend in victory lane, but did so with a 1-2-3 finish for the team, the first time any organization has done so at Martinsville. William Byron survived an overtime restart for the win, with teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott rounding out the top three.
The weekend dominance didn’t just cover the late stages of Sunday’s race. Larson set the fast time in qualifying with a blistering lap on Saturday, just edging out Bubba Wallace for the pole.
He went on to lead every lap of stage one, picking up the stage win before giving up the lead on pit road. The four Hendrick teammates remained in the top four throughout stage two, before Elliott powered around the outside of Denny Hamlin to take his turn at the front in the final stage.
Elliott led until Hamlin retook the lead on lap 258, which set up a Toyota vs. Hendrick showdown leading into the final set of pit stops under green. The Georgian ran second, with Larson fourth and Byron fifth. Wallace split the trio in third.
Crew chief Rudy Fugle elected to short pit the No. 24 under green in an attempt to jump the cars ahead – a strategy that paid off handsomely. A trio of fast pit stops and strong out laps lifted the to the top three spots following the green flag stops, with Byron out front while Elliott and Larson trailed behind.
The three ran that way throughout the final run of the race and it looked as though they had the 1-2-3 finish locked up. There was a moment of uncertainty when the caution flag flew with three laps to go for John…
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