Hamlin Holds Off Gordon For Martinsville Win

By RacingNation Crew
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Updated: March 30, 2008

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Hendrick Motorsports flexed its muscles Sunday, but Denny Hamlin’s team made the right call in the pits, propelling the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.

Taking fuel only to polesitter Jeff Gordon’s four tires and fuel on the final pit stop for both drivers on Lap 388, Hamlin beat Gordon out of the pits for a restart on Lap 394, after Ken Schrader’s Toyota spread oil on the track to bring out the 18th and final caution of the race.

Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards and Casey Mears stayed on the track during the Lap 388 pit stop, but one-by-one Hamlin picked them off. He passed Burton for the lead off Turn 2 on Lap 427 and held it the rest of the way, as the 500-lap race went green to the finish.

As the frontrunners worked through traffic in the closing laps, Gordon passed Burton for second and finished 0.398 seconds behind Hamlin. Burton held onto third, followed Jimmie Johnson (who rallied from a spin on Lap 296) and Tony Stewart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth and Mears seventh to give Hendrick four of the top seven positions. Jamie McMurray, Edwards and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.

“You got a clock, baby, you got a clock,” shouted crew chief Mike Ford as Hamlin crossed the line, referring to the grandfather clock trophy that goes to the winner.

The victory was Hamlin’s fourth in the series in 85 starts and the first in his home state. The win also broke a 24-race dry spell prolonged by a streak of rotten luck, the latest installment of which occurred two weeks ago at Bristol when Hamlin’s fuel pickup faltered with him in the lead on a green-white-checkered-flag restart. Hamlin finished sixth.

“It’s the first Virginia win for me, and well, finally the curse is over — I hope,” said Hamlin, who notched the second win in the series for Toyota. “We’ve had some bad luck these past few weeks. We’ve been so close so many times, and it feels great to finally break through.”

Like Johnson, Gordon lost track position in a mishap. Gordon’s occurred off Turn 4 on Lap 57 when the nose of his No. 24 Chevrolet was nicked during a four-car melee. Gordon restarted 32nd on Lap 65 and began a charge through the field; he regained the lead on Lap 269.

But the last two sets of tires didn’t work well with Gordon’s car. Handling issues and cold, wet track conditions made overtaking Hamlin impossible in the closing laps.

“It came down to pit strategy, and Denny and those guys definitely did the right thing,” said Gordon, who believed at the time that Hamlin had taken two tires instead of none. “I just couldn’t get going on those
last two sets.

“I was trying to figure out why the car had no grip out there the last few laps. Then I got out of the car and realized that we were racing in the rain.”

Adhesion didn’t seem to be an issue for Hamlin, who won the race on old tires after opting for track position on the final stop. Hamlin also survived a mistake on Lap 215 when his car crossed the pit road commitment line on the backstretch, forcing him to pit from the lead to avoid incurring a penalty.

Hamlin restarted 19th on Lap 219 and, like Gordon, charged to the front.

Unlike Gordon, Hamlin stayed there.

Notes: With series points leader Kyle Busch finishing 38th, Burton took over the top spot in the standings by 39 points over Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick. … Gordon (ninth) and Johnson (10th)
climbed back into the top 12 in points as did Hamlin, who moved up seven spots to eighth. Martin Truex Jr. (13th), Matt Kenseth (15th) and Kurt Busch (16th) fell from the top 12. … Michael McDowell finished 26th in
his Cup debut, beating teammates Michael Waltrip (35th) and David Reutimann (39th).