Not a major factor during the first hundred laps of Sunday’s race, Hamlin was one of the only cars to hit pit road under the fifth caution of the day on Lap 158. Taking two tires and getting off sequence with the rest of the field, Hamlin was able to get track position and take the lead for the first time on Lap 183 once the leaders came in for service. Able to get back on sequence following a long green-flag run, Hamlin went on to lead three times for 206 laps and looked to make up for his second-place finish to Johnson in the Spring.
A string of cautions at the end threatened to steal the win from Hamlin as the field bunched up for double-file restarts. Yet despite Johnson, Montoya, and Gordon surrounding him, the No. 11 Fed Ex car jumped out to an advantage and was able to hold them off on each one.
“I know all those guys are going to be aggressive and try and get a win,” Hamlin explained after climbing from his Toyota. “We just had the best car there at the end. The 48 didn’t do anything that he shouldn’t have, and made sure he protected his points lead. He gave us a little respect as well.”
It was a bittersweet moment for a man whose own title bid has already slipped away. Despite having strong cars the last two weeks, a self-inflicted wreck in Fontana and an engine issue in Charlotte resulted in two straight DNFs for the first time in his four-year career. Those poor
finishes dropped Hamlin to eleventh in the standings and out of contention for the championship.
“It’s a good bounce back,” he said. “I’ve just got to thank all the fans sticking with me on Twitter, and everyone giving me some hope that the last two weeks were in the past.”
Coming home in second place, Johnson extended his lead in the Chase to 118 over teammate Mark Martin, who finished eighth. Leading five times for a total of 164 laps, he had one of the strongest cars but just did not have enough for Hamlin at the finish despite plenty of chances.
"I just lacked a little bit of forward bite,” Johnson explained. “We had it turning, which is hard to make it do here. It was just a little too much. Denny (Hamlin) had the best car there on that last run, and maybe the two runs before that he had the best. I knew at the end of the race that No. 11 car was going to be there and was going to be strong. Congratulations to him. It was a great day for us. I wish we could have won, but second, there's nothing wrong with that.”
Having a car that was beat up in true short track fashion, Juan Pablo Montoya held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon to score a third-place finish. Racing hard from the start, Montoya was able to work his way from his 21st-place starting spot to the top-10 by Lap 26. But that early
aggressiveness seemed to hurt his chances to win late in the race. Wearing out his brakes and battling an ill-handling car, a potential win slipped away as Hamlin and Johnson wound up deciding it amongst themselves.
“We lost our balance there a little bit there right before the long run. We got it a little bit back, but not all back,” he said in notching his fifth top 5 finish in six Chase races to date.
Meanwhile, some hard racing with Jeff Gordon around the 100-lap mark ruffled the feathers of the four-time champion, who was none too happy with the driver of the No. 42. After Montoya bumped his way past Gordon for the fourth spot, Gordon keyed his radio saying, “He has the best car I’ve seen, but he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
Running in the top-5 for much of the first 150 laps, Gordon was mired in traffic when varying pit strategies allowed a number of cars to stay out on Lap 178. Restarting 23rd, Gordon struggled to pass cars and spent the rest of the race fighting his way back to the front. Charging hard during the last two runs of the day, he made his way up to fourth late in the going, but lost a spot to Kyle Busch as the field came to the checkered flag.
“We got way behind at times, and it didn't look like we were going to make our way back to the front,” he said. “But we needed more long runs, and we finally got it -- that long run is what got us back into it. We drove all the way back up to third or fourth. Real happy. Wish we could have won it, but we'll take it.”
Coming home fourth was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch. Although he has struggled at Martinsville (he has finishes of 38th, 29th, and 24th in his last three starts there), Busch took advantage of a late-race pit stop and two fresh tires to score his first top-5 at Martinsville since 2007.
“Tires were the name of the game,” Busch explained. “We just seemed to be on the right strategy when we could come get tires and drive back through some guys. We had a good enough car to do that with. Glad we came down there with like 15 or 18 to go, whatever it was, and put right sides (tires) on it because that probably gained us about eight spots today. Real proud of the effort.”
Jamie McMurray was sixth (his season-best performance), with Ryan Newman, Martin, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top 10. Joey Logano was the highest-finishing rookie in 12th.
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