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//  Saturday, July 31, 2010

Johnson Wins At Martinsville...Again

Monday, March 30, 2009
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Whoever says that Sprint Cup Racing is not exciting anymore certainly was not talking about Martinsville.

The smallest track on the circuit produced yet another thriller that included several battles for the lead and many paint exchanges.

The battle in the last 100 laps between Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson kept the fans on their feet until the checkered flag dropped. The crowd eventually roared on lap 484 when Johnson took the lead for the last time.

"That's short-track racing," said Hamlin, who was bumped out of the lead not once but twice on Sunday, once by Jeff Gordon, and at the end by Jimmie Johnson. That's all the fans could hope for right there. He got the best of it today. I would have done the same thing if I'd been in that position, and believe me I will if it comes back around."

This racing is nothing new for Hamlin who grew up racing on the short tracks in Virginia, and winning often, before moving in to the ranks of NASCAR.

That will explain when the Sprint Cup Series goes short track racing; Hamlin is always a tough driver to beat.

"I don't know. I'm just better on short tracks, I think," he said. "It's just typically, you know, last year we scored the most points on short tracks. ... It's what I've got the most time on, all my career, you know, since I was a kid. I've been racing on tracks shorter than a half- a-mile. Once you figure out how to win, you know

“Rubin’s Racin” always used to be the term that described the action on the short tracks, and that was fairly descriptive of Sunday’s race between Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin. This helped Johnson win his fifth race in Martinsville in the last six races; Denny Hamlin won the only other race.

"I don't know how Denny got inside of me on that one restart," Johnson said of a return to green-flag racing with 45 laps to go that looked like it would be the winning race move. "I had a little bit better car on the longer run. I set him up and set up him and he tried to put the squeeze on me. He ran me down there on the curb and we slid up. He did a heck of a job of saving it. I thought I was going to lose it, too.”

"That was just a fun day."

Ever since Hendrick Motorsports won their first race at Martinsville in 1984, the organization has dominated winning 18 races at the track since that time.

"Well, first, it's nothing about me," Hendrick said. "You know, I have very little to do with it. It's the organization."

Since 1984 Hendrick Motorsports has transformed in to the most powerful team in NASCAR, al large step since 84’ when Geoff Bodine won the race with Harry Hyde as his crew chief.

"Harry Hyde started it," Hendrick said. "He loved this place. I told some folks, I've been coming here since I can't even remember with my dad and Ray Hendrick, modified cars, getting Petty's autograph in turn four through the fence. You know, it's a special place. But I think over the years we've had guys that just try to figure it out. Jeff (Gordon) came up to me in Victory Lane and he said, 'I really wanted to win this for you today, but Jimmie's the man.'"

After Johnson, Denny Hamlin finished second after leading a race high 296 laps. Tony Stewart finished third with Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer rounding out the top five.

The rest of the top 10, went Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., AJ Allmendinger, and Jamie McMurray.

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