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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Top Teams Struggle At Martinsville
It was a brutal day for some of NASCAR’s best Sunday at Martinsville...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 29, 2010   Martinsville, VA
Smoke comes off of the brake caliper of the #29 Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet in the garage during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Martinsville Speedway is the smallest track the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on, but it remains one of the meanest and most treacherous, as several of NASCAR’s best found out in Monday’s rain-delayed Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.

LINK >UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 - MARTINSVILLE

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano made it a Toyota 1-2 in the race, with four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champ Jeff Gordon third. Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top five. The second five consisted of Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle.

But for an awful lot of drivers behind them, the afternoon at Martinsville was a huge headache.

A few of the casualties at the 0.526-mile Martinsville paper clip:

• Kevin Harvick came into Martinsville as the Sprint Cup points leader, but made it just 105 of the scheduled 500 laps before a brake caliper problem on his No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Impala sent him to the garage for lengthy repairs. He finished 35th.

• Juan Pablo Montoya had multiple right-front tire failures on his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevy and finished 108 laps off the pace in 36th place.

• Tony Stewart ran up front early and appeared to be one of the cars to beat. But the handling on his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy went completely away as he limped home 26th.

• Kurt Busch led 19 laps before a loose wheel on his Penske Racing Dodge dropped him three laps behind. He made one of those laps up en route to a 23rd-place finish.

• Kyle Busch had a strong Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but got wrecked by Paul Menard and Marcos Ambrose at the end of the race, falling to 22nd.

• Mark Martin’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was one of the best cars all day, too, at least until a tire bead melted and set him into the outside wall. He came home 21st.

• Luckless Jeff Burton led 140 laps, but while racing Hamlin for the victory, he cut a tire on Lap 491 and hit the wall. He ended the day 20th.

• And last but not least, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon collided going for the victory on the last lap, with Gordon pushing Kenseth out of the way and up into the wall. Kenseth was officially credited with an 18th-place finish.

After all the dust had settled, Johnson is your new points leader, followed by Biffle (-14) and Kenseth (-16). Harvick (-61) has slid to fourth, ahead of teammate Burton (-113) and Kurt Busch (-122).

The rest of the top 13 heading into the Easter off-weekend consists of Gordon (-125), Stewart (-128), Clint Bowyer (-151), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-159), Paul Menard (-163) and Brian Vickers (-164).

The Sprint Cup Series is off this weekend, but will head to Phoenix in two weeks for race No. 7 of 36.

LINK >UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 - MARTINSVILLE

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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