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VIDEO: Last Lap Martinsville - Hamlin Wins
Green white checkers give Denny Hamlin the win at Martinsville Speedway...
RacinToday.com Staff  | http://www.RacinToday.com  |  Posted March 29, 2010   Martinsville, VA
VIDEO: Last Lap Martinsville - Hamlin Wins Matt Kenseth heads for the wall at Martinsville Speedway. (Image: SPEED)
VIDEO: Last Lap Martinsville - Hamlin Wins

Denny Hamlin will head into surgery this week fresh off his first victory of the season.

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

Hamlin – who it was announced late last week will have an injured knee cut open and repaired later this week – won the rain-delayed Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Monday.

The Virginia native got the victory when he passed the cars of Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon for the lead on the first lap of a green-white-checkered restart.

Joey Logano finished second and Gordon third.

Hamlin, who led a race-best 171 laps, appeared to have given the victory away when he stopped for new tires during a caution with nine laps to go. When he emerged from the pits, he had gone from first to ninth place and there were just four laps to go.

“I can’t believe it,” Hamlin said. “I thought it was the end. That’s for all the people who doubt us. We’re still going to get this done before the year is over with.”

Gordon took the lead after Hamlin pitted and appeared headed to victory. But just as the field closed in on the start finish line with two laps to go, another caution came out setting up the final GWC restart.

Hamlin started fourth but blew through a hole created by bumping and banging between Gordon and Kenseth to take the lead. Logano followed him through to give Joe Gibbs Racing a 1-2 finish.

“I had to bully my way through there near the end, but everybody was running like that,” Hamlin said. “I somehow made it work.”

Gordon said he thought he had the race won.

But he said he knew he was in trouble when the yellow came out with him about 100 feet short of the start/finish line on the second-to-last lap.

On the restart, Kenseth, who was behind right behind him, made contact. The two made more contact with each other and Hamlin blew past.

“I drove into Turn 1 and he drove into me so hard,” Gordon said of Kenseth. “I made sure he was not going to win the race after that.

Ryan Newman finished fourth and Martin Truex Jr. was fifth.

Jimmie Johnson, the winner of three of the first five races this season, finished ninth.

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

VIDEO: Last Lap Martinsville - Hamlin Wins

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