Denny Hamlin gets a home win at Martinsville
Quote selected text Published March 30th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Denny Hamlin finally broke through at Martinsville Speedway after two close calls, and it wasn’t Hendrick Motorsports he had to beat.
Hendrick’s drivers dominated all race long, but Hamlin foiled Jeff Burton’s late strategy of staying out while the rest of the leaders pitted, passing his fellow Virginia native on the 427th of 500 laps and holding on Sunday for his fourth career victory.
Jeff Gordon, who along with Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson had combined to win eight of the last 10 races on the smallest, tightest oval in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, rallied to finish second, followed by Burton, Johnson and Tony Stewart.
“First Virginia win for me,” Hamlin said in Victory Lane. “Finally. The curse is over, I think. I hope. We’ve had such bad luck over these first few weeks.”
RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER , MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight 190/5 500 Running
2 1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 175/5 500 Running
3 24 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 170/5 500 Running
4 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 165/5 500 Running
5 9 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 155/0 500 Running
6 22 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard 160/10 500 Running
7 39 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST 146/0 500 Running
8 5 26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 142/0 500 Running
9 27 99 Carl Edwards Ford Claritin 138/0 500 Running
10 12 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet BB&T 134/0 500 Running
11 4 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 130/0 500 Running
12 11 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 127/0 500 Running
13 29 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Wrigley’s Big Red 124/0 500 Running
14 33 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 121/0 500 Running
15 25 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge McDonald’s 118/0 500 Running
16 35 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Pittsburgh Paints / Menards 115/0 500 Running
17 6 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 112/0 500 Running
18 14 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Yates Racing 109/0 499 Running
19 13 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 106/0 499 Running
20 19 16 Greg Biffle Ford Jackson Hewitt 103/0 499 Running
21 42 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 100/0 499 Running
22 43 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge Kennametal 97/0 499 Running
23 40 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 94/0 497 Running
24 21 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditReport.com 91/0 497 Running
25 32 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 93/5 497 Running
26 34 00 Michael McDowell Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 85/0 497 Running
27 23 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 82/0 497 Running
28 26 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 79/0 497 Running
29 37 10 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Charter Comm. 76/0 497 Running
30 28 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 73/0 496 Running
31 30 84 Mike Skinner Toyota Red Bull 70/0 496 Running
32 31 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Haas Automation 72/5 495 Running
33 20 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 64/0 493 Running
34 17 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie Nutty Bars 61/0 492 Running
35 16 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 58/0 483 Running
36 38 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 55/0 471 Running
37 7 49 Ken Schrader Toyota Microsoft Small Business 52/0 467 Running
38 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s 49/0 443 Running
39 15 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 51/5 441 Out of Race
40 41 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Charter Comm. 43/0 440 Running
41 36 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 40/0 420 Running
42 3 8 Aric Almirola Chevrolet U.S. Army 37/0 379 Out of Race
43 18 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 39/5 374 Out of Race
* Denotes Rookie
- Martinsville interview with Denny Hamlin
- Busch and Hamlin will race as teammates at Martinsville
- Hamlin scores home track pole at Richmond
- Hamlin not happy over non-caution at Darlington finish
- Carbon monoxide problem with COT at Bristol?
Go Denny! Shoulda had at least a shot at the win last week, but winning at home has got to erase all that junk from last week. Anyone else notice a ton of empty seats? Don’t know if it was the weather or if ticket sales were just that lousy…
I wonder what Jack Roush thought of the race …
They said on tv that the race was sold out or almost sold out, but a lot of people didn’t show up because of the weather. But then again on tv they say every track is sold out no matter how many empty seats… l0l
Just got back from the race. It was an awesome race. The weather was horrible, we sat shivering the whole race. I noticed all the empty seats myself and thought it had to be the weather. We had a great time even though it was freezing cold and it drizzled the whole race. Was surprised they got the whole race in.
Good day for Denny i guess..even tho i don’t like him….However, GREAT job by all the Hendrick drivers to get in the top 10 especially Casey Mears…Notice who led the most laps..Dale Jr, just made a wrong adjustment or else i think he would have been in victory lane, but in all good for all in the top 10.
the people who didnt show up to watch the race and bought tickets wasted thier money
Good win for denny, he needed it. To bad for Uncle Carl runing out of gas at the end.
Bad luck for Dale Jr., I guess his Couz blew it at the end with a bad call on adjustments. I for one enjoyed the race a lot. Lots of old style hard racing and NO tire issues…
Jennifer: by what every one was saying on TV it was one Dam cold place to be, I hope you thaw out by tomorrow.
Good race, despite the weather, and although it would have been nice to see Junior win, I’m pretty damn happy to see him finish 6th. He’s running well, week after week, and it’s only a matter of time before he brings it home at the front of the pack. Meanwhile, he’s racking up a lot of points e every week - he moves up another spot in the standings with this race. Dale Jr.’s fans, and I am one, should be very happy with the way the season’s going so far. Helluva lot better than seeeing him blow engines week after week list last year.
Im surprised they let them actually race in the rain. i thought for sure they were going to delay it
Another win for JGR…. way to go Denny!
Fisha695 Registered User
Mar 30th, 2008 at 3:21 pm Quote
They said on tv that the race was sold out or almost sold out, but a lot of people didn’t show up because of the weather. But then again on tv they say every track is sold out no matter how many empty seats… l0l
There goe’s Fisha695 trying to take my place as a know-it-all………lOl
Oh No, don’t say that know-it-all !!!
JR/HENDRICK FAN wrote:
Actually it wasnt a bad adjustment jr said he blew it because he wasnt patient enough and was driving it in too hard, but i agree it’s nice to see him finishing top 10 every week but now we need some wins.
wrote:
btw this was my post
Denny really needed this one. He’s been under a little pressure from that Kyle kid since he joined JGR. And those HMS cars all showed up today. That’s good. I still can’t believe Schrader qualified that well and was competitive for a good part of the race since switching to Toyotas a few days ago. And I liked the way Kenseth paid back Gilligan.
Glad the other three HMS drivers, did well this
week. I think, JG had the best car of the race,
(probably the driver) as he came from 33rd to
to finish second. Maybe, the media and the
JG and JJ haters, will find another subject to
harp about, beside their downfall.
luv24car wrote:
Oh he was just LUCKY and you know it lol,lol
next week it will be back to same-o ,Gordo
Sal#24 wrote:
Yeah. Either the rain was very light, or most of the “drops”
that kept appearing on the screen were from the cars
splashing up the dew off the track. I think a big part was
because the cars weren’t in much danger due to the lower
speeds. Not like they were driving through high speed turns
in puddles.