Chase Elliott starred Sunday, March 29, at Martinsville Speedway with a pit road gamble to win Chevrolet’s first race of the season on a day dominated by Denny Hamlin.

Alan Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief, called his driver into the pit on lap 261 from ninth place. Elliott cycled to the lead after Hamlin stopped for tires 29 laps later, but Hamlin quickly reassumed the lead.

However, the momentum ultimately shifted in Elliott's favor thanks to a caution for Ty Dillon’s brake rotor with 88 laps remaining, playing right into Elliott’s strategy.

“We had ourselves in a position where it was going to work out really good for us either way,” Elliott said of forcing the field to pit early. “Alan saw that and saw an opportunity.”

Elliott exited behind Hamlin as every driver except Ross Chastain pitted. Hamlin missed a shift on the restart, allowing Elliott to complete the pass for second as another caution flag waved.

“It was all about run management throughout the last run,” Elliott said. “As good of a launch as Ross got, I debated on taking the bottom just to not have the same thing happen and get stuck on the outside.”

Elliott chose the outside lane and got a strong launch with 70 to go, rocketing around Chastain to take control and never looking back on his way to a victory.

With the win, Elliott is the first driver to claim the grandfather clock trophy after the closure of Ridgeway Clocks.

“Kind of neat, to get the first one of the new manufacturer,” Elliott said. “Great honor to have one, much less have two now, it’s pretty special.”

Elliott celebrated in victory lane with the clock, crediting Gustafson with the winning strategy.

“You can’t sit on your hands and run 10th,” Gustafson said. “You got to do something, right?”

Since Elliott won the Cup title in 2021, he’s struggled to win more than two races in a season. Gustafson said this win delivered a strong message of confidence and enthusiasm, which will prove to be a lesson for the team.

“When you can win from 10th or whatever position, if you just continue to hammer away and to do everything you can to give yourself a shot,” Gustafson said. “That will help us out as we go through the season.”

Hamlin finished second and improved to 3,064 laps led at Martinsville, only 715 behind Jeff Gordon for the most all-time. Once Hamlin lost the lead, his car never handled to his liking. 

“(Elliott) did a good job to control the pace,” Hamlin said. “Just really came from that bad restart I had beside the one. Not much really I could have done there. Felt like we gave it our all.”

On top of that, contact with Ryan Blaney exiting turn four on lap 334 didn’t help Hamlin’s bid for the win.

“These are just some of the races that get away from you in your career,” Hamlin said. “This one is certainly one of them.”

Blaney dropped from fourth after his run-in with Hamlin and eventually finished outside of the top five.

“At least we were able to still run sixth,” Blaney said. “Overall, a really good day. I thought we got a little better all day. By the last run or so, I thought I was a top-three car for sure.”

The pit crew for Blaney, who’ve dealt with loose wheels and slow stops all season, managed the weekend with no major mistakes. Blaney praised their performance under the recent scrutiny.

“Really good day on pit road,” Blaney said. “Those guys did a great job of staying in it, doing a really good job. Yeah, good run today. Wish it could have been a little bit better.”