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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: No Hard Feelings For Hamlin
Denny Hamlin says he wasn’t mad at Jimmie Johnson roughing him up to win at Martinsville
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 29, 2009   Martinsville, VA
Denny Hamlin bears no ill will towards Jimmie Johnson for moving him out of the way for the race win at Martinsville. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Denny Hamlin would have been within his rights to be mad at Jimmie Johnson following the conclusion of the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

After all, Johnson aggressively dove under Hamlin in Turn 3 with 15 laps to go, muscled him out of the way and drove on to victory in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS, leaving Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry in second place after 500 hard-fought laps.

Given that Johnson punted Hamlin out of the way with the race-winning pass, given that both drivers nearly wrecked and given that Hamlin was denied victory after leading 296 laps, no one would have been surprised had he been angry after the race.

But the Chesterfield, Va., native was surprisingly magnanimous after the finish for one reason: He knew that had the roles been reversed, he’d have done exactly what Johnson did.

Asked if it was hard to accept not winning after getting roughed up a little, Hamlin, allowed as how it really wasn’t that bitter a pill to swallow. “You know, it's not that hard because I know I would do the same thing,” he said. “You can't sit here and tell — nobody can sit here and tell me they wouldn't do the same thing that he did.”

And while Hamlin earned points for honesty, he knew he was kind of a sitting duck at Martinsville, where he was the defending race winner.

“You know, honestly, with 15 (lap) to go, I'd rather be in second than first because I'm going to move the guy out the way,” Hamlin said. “… The way he (Johnson) did it, unfortunately for me, it got us way up high to where I couldn't get back to him. It would have been great if it just got us up a little bit. He was smart. Got us up high enough to where we got trash on our tires. I was done after that. I was just trying to keep up.”

Then again, Hamlin was perhaps simply being philosophical. In the past three years, he’s been hit with every plague a race-car driver can short of locusts, frogs and boils. He’s lost races he’s dominated at Richmond, Bristol and Darlington because of late-race flat tires, fuel starvation, bad pit stops and who knows what else.

“Believe me, I've been in the top three many times,” he said. “I've led many times on last laps and all that. You know, it's tough to say that you've gotten used to losing, but I've gotten used to the disappointment at the end. It's not like a new thing. My hunger is still the same, for sure. I want to win races, you know, but I can't help being in the position I was in. I ran as hard as I could. He was on my bumper. He was on position to move me out of the way, and he did. I would have done the same thing.”

And the other thing that made the race easier was, well, it was one heck of a fight. “As a fan, as a race-car fan, I like going to short tracks,” said Hamlin. “I like seeing guys move each other out of the way for the last few laps for a win. It's just part of it. I think that's what makes our sport as good as it is.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES GOODY'S FAST PAIN RELIEF 500 RESULTS

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Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to




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