NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Hamlin Rules Martinsville, Closes On Johnson
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 24, 2010   Martinsville, VA
“Who said it was over? Told you it wasn't over," Denny Hamlin said of the championship battle after winning at Martinsville in October. (Photo: LAT Photographic))
Despite wrestling an ill-handling car in the early part of the race, Denny Hamlin roared to victory Sunday in the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and closed the gap on leader Jimmie Johnson in the race for the Sprint Cup championship.

With Johnson finishing fifth and failing to lead a lap, Hamlin gained 35 points on the four-time champion and trails him by only six entering next week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The margin between first and second is the smallest with four races to go in the history of the Chase format.

Hamlin basically called his shot Sunday on his “home” track. He talked all weekend about winning the race or at least keeping Johnson behind him so that the 11 team could make gains entering the wild-card atmosphere of Talladega.

“It was unbelievable,” Hamlin said after completing the Martinsville sweep. “I don’t think I’ve ever closed that well. We kept working. We didn’t have a race-winning race car all day until the end.

“Mike [Ford, crew chief] and those guys kept adjusting and adjusting. They got me from sixth to third on the last restart. That was the key. I was sitting there trying to be patient and saving it for the end.”

Hamlin won the pole Friday but opened the race with considerable handling problems. He dropped to 15th position before he could get into the pits and begin the process of making adjustments.

“I had already counted how many points I was going to be behind after this race,” Hamlin said.

Mark Martin made a spectacular rally from two laps down to finish second. He was followed by Chase contender Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Johnson.

The third-place run was Harvick’s first career top-five finish at Martinsville and enabled him to move within 62 points of Johnson in third place. The race for the championship is basically down to Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick with races remaining at Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, FL.

The second half of the race featured several ill meetings between key drivers.

Teammates Harvick and Jeff Burton, who ran at or near the front virtually all day before finishing ninth, had a turf disagreement with 150 laps to go as they raced for second place behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. They bumped fenders several times, and Harvick bumped the rear of Burton’s car during a subsequent caution period, and the series of actions sparked some tough talk on their team radios.

Harvick declined to elaborate on the encounter after the race, saying, “We were just racing.” Burton was very critical of Harvick on the team radio.

Thirty laps later, two former champions – Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch – wound up in a nasty sequence of events. Gordon bumped Busch from the inside groove as they rolled through the third and fourth turns, and Busch retaliated almost immediately, slamming into the rear of Gordon’s car and pushing him into a spin and into the inside wall on the frontstretch, causing the day’s 14th caution.

Also late in the race, Johnson and Kyle Busch slammed fenders a few times. After the race, Johnson complained of Busch hitting him several times in the turns.

The last short-track race of the season was littered with caution flags. Ten were registered before the marathon reached its halfway point, and there was a total of 15 at the end of the day.
Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, does a victory lap after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

The first half of the race featured some spirited competition between the point leaders – Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick, although much of it occurred in the second five, not for the lead. Johnson said his estimate for much of the race was that the three point leaders would finish in sequence. Instead, they were first, third and fifth.

Burton dominated the first half of the race, leading 134 of the first 250 laps, most by significant margins. He led chunks of laps in 29-, 44- and 42-lap segments.

Earnhardt Jr. led 90 laps, sending a wave of enthusiasm through the grandstands, but the handling went away on his car late in the race, and he finished seventh.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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