Virginia-native and Chase contender Denny
Hamlin held off points leader Jimmie Johnson in several late-race restarts to
win Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin grabbed the lead from Johnson with 139 laps remaining and then a
lightning-fast pit stop under green late in the race allowed him to keep the
top position. An incident involving rookie Scott Speed set up a green-white-
checkered finish. On the final restart, Hamlin pulled away from Johnson and
fended him off before the race concluded under caution when John Andretti spun
around at the start/finish line.
Earlier in the race, Hamlin sustained damage to his front fender during his
first pit stop, but managed to run among the top-10 for the remainder of the
500-lap event.
Hamlin, who had finished 37th or worse in the last two Chase races, rebounded
with his second win at Martinsville -- the shortest track on the Sprint Cup
Series. He also claimed his third victory of the season. Last month, Hamlin
concluded the "regular season" by winning at Richmond -- his hometrack.
"It's a good bounce back," said Hamlin, who led a race-high 206 laps. "We just
had the best car at the end. [Johnson] didn't do anything that he shouldn't
have and made sure he protected his points lead and gave us a little bit of
respect as well."
In March, Johnson nudged Hamlin out of the lead with 16 laps remaining to win
at Martinsville for the fifth time in the last six races here. Hamlin, who won
the 2008 spring race at Martinsville, admitted earlier this weekend he was
looking for payback against Johnson.
Johnson finished second and increased his lead to 118 points over Hendrick
Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, who finished eighth.
"I was nervous with those restarts at the end," Johnson said. "I hoped that
I might have a chance to get by Denny, but at the same time being stuck in
that outside lane there was so much too lose, I was really nervous about
just getting to the bottom and protecting the position I was in."
Juan Pablo Montoya aggressively ran to a third-place finish. Montoya bumped
into Jeff Gordon while the two were battling for a top-five position in the
early going.
"It's just every time we've been around racing against him, he runs the hell
out of me," Montoya said. "He moved me out of the way before, and he was
starting to do the same here today."
Montoya moved up one spot to fifth in points (-200). Gordon's fifth-place
finish put him 150 points behind Johnson with four races remaining in the
Chase.
"[Montoya] is an aggressive driver, and I've seen it from him before," Gordon
said. "I thought I did something to make him mad, because I didn't understand
why he was driving into me for no reason."
Jamie McMurray finished sixth, and Ryan Newman, the pole sitter, was seventh.
Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick completed the top-10.
Stewart is fourth in points (-192), as he attempts to defend his race title in
next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
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