Another week, another conspiracy opportunity, and this one is much more familiar to the veterans of such things.
A week ago, in the wake of utter dominance from Tyler Reddick’s 23XI team at Darlington, residents from the dark web told us it’s all part of the legal settlement between NASCAR and 23XI (i.e. Michael Jordan, who’d been bouncing around like Richard Simmons this season).
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But Sunday at Martinsville, Reddick ho-hummed his way to a 15th-place finish and … wait, this just in from the dark web: “It’s just a deflection to turn down the heat!”
Chase Elliott delivered Hendrick Motorsports’ first Cup Series win of 2026.
Regardless, we now turn to old reliable, the famous French arbiter of fair play, at least the way he sees it — Jacques Debris, who this time spotted the exploded brake rotor from Ty Dillon’s car and mandated the caution flag that was perfectly timed for NASCAR’s Favorite Son, William Clyde “Chase” Elliott.
And Billy Clyde didn’t waste the good fortune, given how it’s apparently still too damned hard to catch and pass the leader on the shorter tracks, and they come no shorter than Martinsville.
First Gear: Chase Elliott gamble pays off
It’s called short-pitting, and like the “short-sellers” of Wall Street, there’s a gamble involved. Alan Gustafson, Chase Elliott’s longtime crew chief (and graduate of Daytona Beach’s Seabreeze High, by the way), must’ve gotten fed up with seeing the No. 9 car camped out around 10th place for lap after lap after lap.
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In other sports, an outmanned opponent has a few options to get back in the game and perhaps even win it (fake a punt, pull the goalie, kidnap their pitcher, etc.), but in racing, gambles are relegated to pit strategy, and among those strategies is the “short pit,” which means you’re gonna pit short of the pit window, a certain number of laps before what’s been ordained (unofficially) as the point in the the race when cars will need to fill those tanks one last time.
Sunday, Chase’s short-pitting strategy put him on four fresh tires and allowed him to return to the track and start posting lap times significantly better than the all-day leader, Denny Hamlin, who’d eventually pit with the others and leave Chase on track with the lead.
The gamble: Chase wouldn’t have enough gas (or grippy Goodyear rubber) to finish without pitting again, unless …
Second Gear: ‘Brake rotor … paging Ty Dillon’s brake rotor’
Here’s where Jacques Debris clears his throat and demands to be heard, through his spokesman, Fox Sports’ Mike Joy.
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“Caution,” Mike yells, followed by, “there is a disintegrated brake rotor somewhere out on track.”
Somewhere out on track?
Apparently off the No. 10 car of Ty Dillon. Some swear they’ve seen it. Saw it blow up in the pit lane when Dillion came in with big trouble inside the wheel well. Flames, even. Others say, if it blew up in the pits, there must be parts on the track. In unrelated news, we’re up to a half-dozen recent Bigfoot sightings in Ohio.
Anyway, Chase gets the needed yellow, we fast-forward to Lap 400 and he gets his first win in a while. The siren wails at the Dawsonville Pool Room, and all is good, right?
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For those who say no and those who smell a rat, don’t forget to consider this: If NASCAR needs Chase Elliott victories to enhance the brand, and if officials stand at the ready to facilitate such things, they’ve sure been doing a poor job.
The same Chase who won 18 races and a championship between 2018-22 has now won four races over the past four seasons. Four, the same as Reddick won between Feb. 15 and March 22.
Third Gear: Joey Logano shows up; Bubba Wallace takes a tumble
Call off the search. We’ve found Joey Logano!
Joey jumped four spots in the standings, back up to 12th, with his third-place finish Sunday at Martinsville. After starting the season with a third at Daytona, he finished 18th, 15th, 31st, 15th and 33rd before righting the ship at Martinsville.
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Going the other way was Bubba Wallace, who lost a whopping eight spots (to 11th) with that 36th-place finish in a 37-race field. He apparently tried to bulldoze Carson Hocevar in some type of payback, but Carson somehow survived it and finished 17th. He’s had some practice at fending off paybacks.
And just when we were ready to blow up some balloons for Shane van Gisbergen, he lost a spot and finished 11th at the checkers. It would’ve been just his second career top-10 at a “normal” oval and his first at a short track.
That’s two 11ths and a 14th in three of the past four weeks on unrestricted ovals. Progress. Meanwhile, his teammate, Connor Zilisch … Yikes. If anyone needs a week off to regroup, it’s Connor Z and that No. 88 bunch.
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Did someone mention a week off?
Fourth Gear: No Easter Sunday race, but NASCAR at Rockingham this weekend
Don’t feel too bad for the drivers. Yes, they work the weekends and almost all of them, but when you’re punching the Monday morning clock, they’re pouring a second cup o’ joe and wondering whether or not it’s a good lake day.
Last year, after running races on Easter Sunday for three straight years, the Cup Series returned to taking that day off and will do so again this year. With exceptions for scheduling adjustments to accommodate prior postponements, Easter was almost always a no-no for the Cup Series.
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In 78 seasons of NASCAR stock-car racing, Easter has been in play just 14 times, beginning in 1953 at the three-quarter-mile (and dirt) Charlotte Speedway, where the 150-lapper was won by Dick Passwater. You heard me.
But it won’t be a fully quiet weekend. In fact, it’ll be a treat, because we’re getting back-to-back races, Friday (Trucks) and Saturday (O’Reilly), at Rockingham Speedway, the longtime NASCAR playground dubbed by many as the perfect oval for stock-car racin’.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Chase Elliott, NASCAR win Martinsville race; Michael Jordan doesn’t!
