Hamlin rides late-lap edge to win

He fends off Johnson, whose second-place finish still has him as points leader in Chase.

Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Just think, if Denny Hamlin was as prophetic about who would win the Chase for the Sprint Cup as he has been about his race wins, NASCAR could call an early end to the season.

Twice this season - before his wins at Pocono at Richmond - Hamlin predicted in media interviews earlier in the weekend he would win those respective races and did.

After a second consecutive terrible finish took him out of the championship hunt last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Hamlin predicted he would still win another race this season.

Mission accomplished.

Hamlin used a fast car and some crafty pit strategy to grab the lead late in Sunday's Tums 500 at Martinsville Speedway and he had to fight off series leader Jimmie Johnson on four subsequent restarts to earn his third win of the season.

"We don't have any weak spots any more in our race team - that's how I figured I could say that I knew we were going to win another race regardless," said Hamlin, who won for the second time at Martinsville.

"When you put yourself in position like we have over the last few weeks, you're going to win races."

What he cannot do, trailing Johnson by 352 points with four races remaining, is win the championship. That goal has been replaced by another.

"It's kind of a fun power position to be racing around guys that are racing for a championship and you have nothing to lose and all you're doing is going for a race win," Hamlin said. "That part of it is kind of fun because you can push a little harder and maybe take a few more risks.

"Even though our big goal is not attainable, we're at least achieving small victories and that's performing better than we ever have in the past and getting more wins this year than we have in years past."

Hamlin's three wins are the most in his nearly four-year Cup career and he's lead more laps (1,296) with four races left than he has in any of his previous seasons.

And Hamlin is the only driver other than Johnson to win at Martinsville since the fall 2006 race. Johnson has won five of the past seven.

Still, Hamlin's win Sunday did little to slow the march of Johnson to his fourth consecutive championship.

Johnson gained 28 points on second-place Mark Martin (who finished eighth) and leads by 118 heading into next Sunday's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega, Ala.

Hamlin also led the most laps in the spring race at Martinsville, but was nudged out of the way by Johnson late in the race and denied the win. Johnson got close again late Sunday, but this time Hamlin stood his ground.

"A little bit of worries about that, but I knew I just had to get a good start," Hamlin said.

Restarting "single file (in the spring) let him be closer to me coming off the first corner, where the double-file (used since June), believe it or not, let me stretch it out a little bit."

Johnson said he had one chance to put a bumper to Hamlin, but he actually hit the curb on that try.

"That was my once chance," he said. "After that I could match his laps, but he would just start inching away from me and had the best car there at the end.

"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 the car to win the race, I would have been up there leaning on him some."

Hamlin did improve his position in the series standings, moving up two spots to ninth. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are the only drivers besides Martin who remain within 200 points of Johnson.

Of the four tracks remaining on the schedule - Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead - Johnson has won on all but Homestead.

"The mechanicals, the stuff we can't control is the stuff I'm worried about," Johnson said. "The stuff we can control, I feel we're going to be great.

"I know it gives everybody something to talk about, but I'm tired of talking about all the 'what-ifs', and I'd rather just not."

Kyle Busch finished fourth - his first top-five finish since he was fifth at New Hampshire in September - and Gordon was fifth.

Disclaimer