The 2025 Cook Out 400 took place at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 30th and was one of the better Short Track races of this NASCAR “NextGen” era, as Denny Hamlin claimed his 55th-career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 400-lap classic gave fans the takeaway that this car can improve with time, given the right tire combinations.
When the Green Flag dropped, Christopher Bell led the field at the 0.526-mile Short Track. Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-5, until Elliott stole the lead from the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. The first caution came out on Lap 31, due to debris on Turn 4, as the field took tires during yellow-flag pit stops. Josh Berry led the field back to Green on Lap 40, as Bell and Joey Logano took two tires each. Rookie, Riley Herbst, got stuck on the outside while going three-wide.
The softer tire Goodyear brought proved to make the competition more competitive than past “NextGen” Martinsville races. Berry continued to lead the field with clean air ahead of him, while the pack played bumper cars with less than 20-to-go in Stage 1. Chris Buscher was spun from 24th place, bringing out the caution, prompting more pit stops.
On Pit Road, Josh Berry collided into Bubba Wallace, which caused his battery to die. His Wood Brothers Racing crew went to work while everyone else raced to the Green and White Checkered Flag to end Stage 1 in a two-lap shootout. Winning the Stage would be Joey Logano, followed by Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski and Erik Jones. During the caution, Austin Cindric had a battery issue on pit road, similarly to his Penske affiliate teammate, Josh Berry.
When the race went resumed to begin Stage 2 on Lap 93, Bowman and Chase Elliott led the field around the “Paperclip”. Elliott took the lead, as Hamlin and Larson marched to the front, as Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs rounded out the Top-5. When the next caution flew on Lap 123, majority of the field pitted for tires, while Hamlin, Wallace, Gibbs, Larson and Cole Custer stayed out. Hamlin went on a Sunday cruise, never looking back and was able to claim the Stage 2 win, and was followed by Elliott, Wallace, Gibbs and Chase Briscoe, respectively.
The final stage is the one that counts, as Hamlin led the field to Green on Lap 193. Drivers had 206 laps to get the job done, and Hamlin had one task, which was don’t loose the lead. His Sunday cruise was interrupted on Lap 276 when Shane van Gisbergen lost his wheel and spun out in Turn 4 and NASCAR brought out the Yellow Flag.
The Lap 287 restart saw Hamlin power ahead of Wallace and Bell, showing strength with Toyota’s dominance. Throughout the rest of the field, drivers got antsy as the sense of urgency kicked in with less than 100-to-go. The caution came out when Ty Gibbs spun coming out of Turn 2, collecting Zane Smith in the process. Both drivers were able to continue.
In the last 100 Laps, two more cautions came out for spins, one involving Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano in Turn 4. However this was no problem for Hamlin, as he collected his 55th-career victory, en-route to his first win of the 2025 season and sixth at Martinsville. In the process, he had to hold off his JGR teammate of Christopher Bell, but Hamlin locked himself into the Playoffs and brought his brand new sponsor, Progressive to Victory Lane in their second race.
The following weekend’s race would be NASCAR Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway, which took place on April 6th at 3:00PM EST/12:00PM PST and had a dominant performance that ultimately did not reward the driver who led the most laps. Check it out in our next piece here on everymanoneverycrew.com.
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