Twenty-five years later, Hendrick Motorsports is still on top at Martinsville Speedway after driver Jimmie Johnson bumped his way past Denny Hamlin to secure the win in Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.
On the silver anniversary of the organization's first win by Geoff Bodine in 1984, Johnson went back to a victory lane at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped track that he's quite familiar with. In fact, he's won 5 of the last 6 Sprint Cup Series outings at NASCAR's shortest venue.
Post-event stats will indicate that Johnson was the winner, but the No. 48 didn't find the lead until lap 430 of the 500-lap event. Early on, Johnson was forced to pit road on two of the first three cautions for adjustments to his car's handling.
Hamlin regained the lead from Johnson on a restart on lap 456 after the No. 11 got a great jump on the restart. Hamlin's Toyota jumped to the inside of Johnson's Chevrolet entering turn one, slammed on the brakes and made the move stick to take the lead.
Johnson, though, got the better of the battle on lap 485 when he made a bold move under Hamlin going into turn three. Hamlin tried to close the door by taking the inside lane, but Johnson was already there. The contact nearly spun out both cars as each driver chased his car up the track while still vying for the lead. By the time they returned to the checkered flag, Johnson had the lead and Hamlin couldn't catch back up.
For Hamlin, the 500-lapper marked the second straight week that his No. 11 Toyota finished second. Still, he wasn't bitter about Johnson's move.
"I would have done the same thing to him and believe me I will if it comes back around," said Hamlin. "That's short track racing."
Tony Stewart scored a third-place finish and could have made more had he been closer to the Johnson/Hamlin contact that allowed him to close up on the leaders. The race was easily his best race as a car owner of the new Stewart-Haas Racing with teammate Ryan Newman finishing 6th.
Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon had the car to beat early, but his car ended up being too tight and wouldn't turn as the race wore on, keeping him winless since October 2007 despite leading most of the early parts of the race. Clint Bowyer wound up 5th.
Johnson's win was the 18th victory for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville and all four of the HMS cars finished inside the Top-10 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 8th after two weeks of crew chief controversy and Mark Martin in 7th after starting 34th.
Last week's winner Kyle Busch continued what has been a dismal recent history at the flat short track. The No. 18 suffered a flat tire during a green flag run and he wound up 24th, two laps down. If he doesn't win Monday's rain-postponed Camping World Truck Series race at the same track, it'll mark the first time in 2009 he didn't leave a race weekend with a trophy in hand.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-29-2009 @ 10:38PM
Brad said...
Now that's was some great racing. Congratulations to JJ and all the HMS drivers. That was a really good show this week and a clean bump and run by JJ on Denny Hamlin and for me that's classic racing the way it should be.
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3-30-2009 @ 2:42AM
NZCR14 said...
GREAT REACE AND GREAT FINISHES TOO for some of my drivers.The big surprise: JUST WHEN I WAS BEGINNING TO LOOSE ANY HOPE FOR tony stewart NEW TEAMS QUICK BUILDING
he gets a top 3 end and OLD MAN FINISHES 6TH.Congrats to JJ win, but no big surprise there, just as much there would have been none if KYLE BUSH had won another.Can TONY MAKE TO THE chase THIS YEAR? Too early to tell but the possibility is now there. JUNIOR; obviously jimmy hendricks is not going to get on his butt and neither is tony fury, so lets wait and see more of the same so HOLLY
MCCAIN and JEFFERY MILLER can post more firestarters files. Works for me... AS.
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3-30-2009 @ 6:34AM
demzrdopes said...
Jimmy said get that riceburner outta the way, Bowtie coming thru..
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3-30-2009 @ 6:49AM
Kim said...
I love Martinsville!!!! I really thought the race was between Gordon & Hamlin. They both ran so well. But there was my man, Jimmie running third and fourth all day. I don't care who you are, if Jimmie's running in the top five, you better watch out, because he's a coming!
I agree with Brad! What an amazing bump and go! It was clean. Both drivers held onto their cars and I earned some respect for Hamlin yesterday. When interviewed after the race, he was very classy in his response. He congratulated Jimmie and said he would have done the same.
That's my kind of race! A huge congratulations to my man, and all of Hendrick's teams! They all four placed in the top 10. That's awesome! Keep up the good work, guys! And I can't forget to mention Stewart either. I am so impressed with his showing this year with this being his first year as a driver/owner. It won't be long before he wins one, either.
Kim
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3-30-2009 @ 10:13AM
hilryshaves said...
Jimmy needs to at least pretend he loves her when he kisses his wife in victory lane. C'mon Jimmy, pretend she's Chad Knaus..
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3-30-2009 @ 2:07PM
kenneth said...
Some pretty good racing yesterday at Martinsville. My disappointment, though, was with the Rousch cars--none of them did well! Let's hope that the faster Texas track provides a better venue for the Fords.
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3-30-2009 @ 9:34PM
Maxine said...
Jimmy didn't run third and fourth all day. Did you even watch the race?
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4-01-2009 @ 8:34AM
Kim said...
Ah, yes....Maxine...I did watch the majority of the race, and yes, Jimmie did run in the top five most of the race, usually at position third or fourth. He ran the entire first half of the race in 3rd place and the last quarter of the race in the top five. Did you watch the race???? Or do you just have sour grapes because your driver, whomever that might be, didn't win or place in the top five? Gee, I wonder who that driver could be?
Kim
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