Defending champ Chase Elliott's winless season continues at Martinsville

Chase Elliot might not have gotten the win he wanted at Martinsville, but he definitely got the points day he needed after finishing second.

Chase Elliott fought hard throughout the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville on Sunday, but was relegated to a second-place finish after a tense duel with Denny Hamlin. That allowed eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr. to stretch out a handy lead en route to the checkered flag.

“I really felt like we weren't perfect...But we did make it better as the day went on. The run was kind of that right distance for me there at the end to maximize it," Chase Elliott said after the race. "We worked really hard today to get back to second. I felt like every strategy call and circumstance just kind of went the other direction for us...Our NAPA team has been working hard. We’ve had a very eventful year I feel like, so it’s nice to just have a solid day. We got some stage points and got a good finish. We’ll try to go get them next week.”

Chase Elliott started the race in fourth and managed to stay there until the end of Stage 1. He went on to finish fourth in the second stage as well, bagging some useful points and setting the stage for his second-place finish in the final stage.

"We try to race hard, race clean ... We played nice and Coach will be happy." — @MartinTruex_Jr on racing his @JoeGibbsRacing teammate for the win at the Paperclip. pic.twitter.com/yxeAgRsijb

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 12, 2021

Chase Elliott's P2 result at Martinsville moved him up from ninth to seventh in the points standings, and with some favorable tracks coming up next, including Richmond Raceway, Kansas Motor Speedway, and Talladega Super Speedway, the Dawsonville, Georgia native will be hoping to lock himself into the playoffs by scoring enough points or even a win.

Happy for ya @joshberry ! #deserving

— Chase Elliott (@chaseelliott) April 11, 2021