Hamlin dominates at Martinsville

By Hank Kurz Jr. - The Associated Press

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Denny Hamlin turned a dominant car into a winner at Martinsville Speedway, passing Jimmie Johnson with 138 laps to go Sunday and holding off the Chase leader on a series of late restarts.

Helped by a long green-flag run that established him as the dominant car, Hamlin pulled away after a restart with 52 laps to go, ending Johnson's remarkable run of five trips to Victory Lane in the last six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

Hamlin easily pulled away again on another restart with 12 laps to go, and again when a late crash by Scott Speed forced a two-lap sprint to the finish of the 501-lap event.

“The last run or two at the end, the 11 had their stuff right,” Johnson said of Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing team. “I was just a little too loose to do anything with them.”

Hamlin's second career victory on the 0.526-mile oval kept the Virginia racer as the only driver besides Johnson to win on the paper clip-shaped track in the last seven races. Hamlin won the spring race last year, and was leading when Johnson nudged him aside with 15 laps to go earlier this year. But Hamlin needed no such tactics to avenge that defeat.

He led three times for a race-high 206 laps, while Johnson led 164 circuits.

Johnson, seeking his record fourth consecutive series title, held on for second and padded his lead in the series standings with four races to go. Mark Martin remained second in the standings, but his deficit went from 90 points to 118 when he finished eighth.

The finish shaped up as another possible drama involving Hamlin and Johnson, who nudged Hamlin aside with 15 laps to go at Martinsville in the spring and sailed off to an easy victory.

But with NASCAR having implemented double-file restarts since then, it was no trouble.

“The only difference was it was double-file restarts versus single file and you actually feel a little bit better with him right beside you than behind you,” Hamlin said.

The final restart was for debris on the track, which he thought curious.

“It was there in turn one,” he said of the debris. “However, it was there at lap 100. It was. I'm not kidding you. It was there. I don't know if there was another piece somewhere.”

Johnson said he wished he had the car to reprise his bump-and-run pass of the spring.

“If I had a chance to pass him and to get to his bumper and work him over, I would have,” he said. “But I wasn't going to come in with the second-place car and take a cheap shot and pass him that way. If I felt like I had a car to win the race, I would have been up there leaning on him some.”

Instead, he protected his position and his points lead.

Seeking his record fourth consecutive series title, Johnson extended his lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin from 90 to 118 with four races remaining. Jeff Gordon, also of Hendrick, remained third, but saw his deficit grow from 135 to 150.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished third, followed by Kyle Busch, who passed Gordon on the final lap. Martin finished eighth.

“I would have liked to have been hooked up better, but we couldn't get it and we fought tooth and nail for everything we could get,” Martin said.

Hamlin's second career victory on the 0.526-mile oval kept the Virginia racer as the only driver besides Johnson to win on the paper clip-shaped track in the last seven races.

He led three times for a race-high 206 laps, while Johnson led 164 circuits.

Hamlin, who seemingly dominates just as often as Johnson at Martinsville, but without the finishes to show for it, showed he had Johnson's number when he passed him on lap 363.

He then pulled steadily away, deftly moving around lapped traffic and opening a lead of more than 4 seconds during a long green-flag run. With just over 70 laps to go, radio chatter indicted that the teams were fast approaching pit stops under green, a Martinsville rarity.

The stops started among drivers not in contention, and then Montoya and Johnson headed in, with Hamlin stopping two laps later. He emerged with his nearly 4-second lead intact.